who?” he asked in confusion.
She curled her fingers around one of his wrists and pulled his hand down to her abdomen. “For him.”
“For him . . .” His eyes widened. “You mean . . . ?”
She smiled up at her husband. “Yes, and I’ve been dreaming that it’s a boy.”
The music from inside could still be heard where they were, and Adam seized her in his arms and twirled her around right there on the snowy balcony.
“Boy or girl, it does not matter—it’s ours.” He laughed, and the lines of sorrow upon his face began to fade a little.
“Do you like your Christmas present?” she asked him.
He chuckled. “I adore it, and you. We ought to celebrate, immediately.”
Letty giggled as he swept her back to the ballroom, a protective arm about her shoulders. The guests were so enthralled with the festivities that none noticed Chilgrave’s lord and lady as they snuck upstairs.
Letty giggled again as her husband closed the door to their bedchamber and flipped the lock.
“What was that for?” she asked. “I have no intention of running away—unless you want to chase me.”
“Angus has a way of appearing where he shouldn’t at the worst times,” he explained. “Now, you said something about a chase?”
Letty gave him a good run about the room before he had her on her back on the bed. He leaned over and kissed her, taking his time to work his magic over her.
She gripped the edges of his shirt when he tried to pull away.“My lord, how you tease me.”
“Oh? You don’t wish me to . . .” He leaned in and whispered wicked suggestions in her ear.
“Oh, I quite insist you do that,” she said with a sigh of longing.
He laughed and shifted down her body, removing and loosening her clothes as he did so.“I thought you might.”
Letty parted her thighs and threw her head back as his mouth went to her mound. Adam tortured her until she was panting and begging for him to fill her. When he finally did as she asked, they clung to each other, their love and their excitement for the future pushing them toward the bright star of their release.
They made love sweetly, though it was no less thrilling than all the other times. Afterward, Letty settled against him, her head tucked into the cradle of his arms.
Adam brushed a hand up and down her back.“I don’t deserve you,” he said.
She rested her chin on his chest to look at him.“You’re wrong,”
“Am I?”
She nodded. “Quite wrong. You deserve me and all the good things yet to come.”
His eyes twinkled. “Is that so?”
“It is.”
“Very well. I won’t argue with you, lady wife.”
She scooted up a few inches and kissed him, soft and sweet and with all her heart. “That would be wise.”
Caroline watched the snow begin to fall from where she stood on the balcony of her room at Chilgrave which was directly above the ballroom. Music drifted up from below, but the warmth of the Christmas season failed to reach her.
For two years she had believed that John was gone. All that had been a lie. She removed the small bit of silver from her cloak pocket and held it up in the moonlight: a cuff link with an antique coin as its face. She had given the pairto John as a gift shortly before he died. She had found this cuff link on the floor next to Avery when she had found him wounded at that townhouse in Grosvenor Square.
Somehow then she had known the awful truth—that John wasn’t dead. But she hadn’t wanted to face it. She had meant to go after Avery in that tunnel, but something had made her turn back. She had seen him, heard his voice, and before she could think she was lifting her weapon. And when John had threatened her brother and Letty, she had done what she had to, at great cost.
Caroline closed her eyes and cast the cuff link deep into the garden. She was done with love, done with dreams of a future with children and a loving husband. John had shattered that illusion. Perhaps, in some perverse way, she should thank him for that.
“Lady Caroline?” Avery’s voice called out softly. He stood in the doorway leading back inside to her bedchamber.
“Mr. Russell,” she greeted. “Why aren’t you with the others?”
He stepped out onto the terrace with her. “I am leaving shortly. I wished to say goodbye.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, I am needed back in London. There is much to