The Secret Love of a Gentleman (54 page)

“With one pistol shot,” John stated, his eyebrows lifting as he leaned back against his desk. “You are good.”

Rob smiled.

“I told you,” Harry said.

How foolish that he’d discovered the one thing he could best his family in at this moment. Perhaps knowing he was the best at something, though, would give him more confidence in his politics.

“But do not expect me to pat you on the back for it. It was stupid to do it alone,” John added.

“He was not alone,” Harry stated.

“And what if I had lost two of my sons?” His father’s hand lifted in a gesture of lack of control. But Rob did not wish to be controlled—and nor did Harry.

“It was my choice. Caroline is my wife, she is my responsibility and she will be waiting for me, and I can travel with her now and not fear Kilbride because I have taught him the lesson he needed to learn.” Rob turned away then. He was no longer a child to be scolded and if he chose to manage his responsibilities alone, then it was his choice.

“And if he pays more thugs to come after you?”

“I will carry pistols in the carriage, and then I will go back to his house and shoot him in the head,” Rob threw over his shoulder. He turned back and faced them all. “I can take care of myself. Not every man has an army of servants and connections about him, and they manage without it.”

“He can take care of himself. I vouch for it,” Harry stated. “He is the most independent of us all.”

“Robbie, you are the most sensible of my children, you should not be the one who turns out to be the death of me,” his father sighed.

Rob smiled and said no more, but left them.

Chapter 49

“Caro,” Rob climbed into the carriage.

Drew and Mary had been waiting with Caro, but it was not them she wished to be with.

Rob pulled the door shut and waved at Drew and Mary as the horses pulled their new carriage into motion.

“Good luck!” Drew shouted.

“God bless you!” Mary called.

Rob was sitting in the seat opposite Caro, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his thighs, as she occupied the whole of the other seat, lying on her back.

“How are you? Sorry I took so long.”

“I am bleeding again.” The weight of the knowledge caught in her chest as a sharp, hard pain. She had seen it when she’d gone up to the retiring room, and then Drew had been outside and she had wanted to cry, but she had not.

Rob gripped her hand. “Do not worry. We will ride to the edge of the city, stop at an inn, and then I will send a lad from the stable to fetch the doctor. All will be well.”

Yet he’d paled.

“Has she kicked since the wedding?”

“No.” That was Caro’s fear too. If she could feel the baby moving she would not feel so scared.

“Is there much blood?” Their carriage rocked and creaked over the cobbles.

“Only drops.”

“Then let us not worry until we know there is a need to. It is you, me and our daughter here: mother, father and child. What will we call her when she is born?”

“Rob, I cannot—”

“She is living. You said you did not tell me about her because you wished to enjoy her life for as long as it lasted. Well, she is still alive, and if we do not know how long for, then let us give her a name now. What will we call her?”

Caro squeezed his hand. He always knew what to say. “Sarah. It was the name of a nursery maid we had when I was a child. She was the only one who was nice to me when I was young.”

“What happened to her?”

“The Marquis saw her paying more attention to me than my elder sister, Elizabeth. Sarah was dismissed.”

“Life has been cruel to you.”

“No. Not now, and not then. I had Drew, and now I have you.”

“Yes, you do have me, Mrs Marlow, and you must endure me at your side forever more, till death do us part… and that will likely be a very long time away as I am so young.” His fingers played with the ring on her finger as he spoke, twisting it around and around.

“You are foolish.”

“So my father has just been telling me. That was why I took so long.” He smiled, but sadness hovered in his eyes. He was afraid for Sarah too. “But I will ask your forgiveness now, Caro, because you may become bored of me. I am not a man who will look for wildness or seek out constant things to stimulate life.”

“You are not forgiven. I am not looking for a man like that. I would not like him. I will love the man I have married, who has high morals and will dedicate himself to changing this country’s laws for the better, and I will be proud of him. But I will ask forgiveness of you now, because I am afraid I will be boring and age too quickly, and you will grow tired of seeing my face and hearing me speak of mundane things.”

His eyebrows lifted and his eyes widened. “You are not forgiven, Caro, I cannot forgive you that. You will always be loved. I shall always look forward to being greeted by your smile when I wake or return home, and to listen to you speak with me in the evening when we are sitting in our chairs, by the fire, an old, tottering couple, who have loved each other their whole lives.”

“And now you have made me cry. You are not supposed to make me cry on our wedding day.”

“No. I am sorry.”

He leaned further forward, and she whispered over his lips before he kissed her, “You are forgiven.”

Chapter 50

Caro reached across the carriage and touched Rob’s knee. “I am still bleeding.”

He sat up and gripped her hand. He was drifting into sleep. They were on the edge of the city.

He looked at her dress. She knew they were only tiny spots, but the blood scared her.

“Do not worry we will stop.”

He turned to open the hatch and tell their driver to stop at the next inn.

They stopped at the Red Dragon, barely outside of London, and Rob sent a groom riding back into the city for the doctor. He arrived an hour later.

“You are married?” the doctor stated impudently as he glanced at Rob when he entered the room.

“We are married, but we ceased our journey because my wife suffered more bleeding and so we did not wish to go on without your reassurance.”

“I told her to rest.”

Caro was lying on the bed in a room in the inn. She felt very tired, but there had only been spots of blood. “I walked up the aisle, that was all.”

“And also stood to receive our guests.”

“I could hardly lie down to do that.”

“And travelled in a rocking carriage…” The doctor stepped forward. “Will you lift your dress and I shall listen for the heartbeat and then we may see what ill has been done.”

Caroline’s heart raced, and her gaze met Rob’s. He leant to help her raise her dress. There was a very definite outward curve. His fingers brushed over her skin for a moment. It was the first time he’d seen it.

This was not what he ought to be doing on his wedding night, unclothing her before the audience of a doctor.

Regret whispered in the air when Rob undid the ribbon securing her drawers and slid them below the curve of her stomach. She was afraid, and yet she felt guilty because this was not how a wedding celebration ought to be.

The doctor pressed her stomach gently. “Your little one has just kicked me, so I am fairly certain the babe is determined to remain within. But let me check for the heartbeat to ensure all is secure.”

Caro reached out for Rob’s hand. “I felt her.”

Rob smiled as the doctor pressed the funnel end of the cold instrument to her stomach. He slid it around a little, and then said on a low breath, “Yes. I have it. The heartbeat is swift and sure.”

“May I listen?” Rob moved about the bed as though, if the doctor said no, he would insist.

“Here.” The doctor straightened up and held the horn as Rob leant down. Rob’s free hand touched the first curve of her stomach.

When he straightened up, moisture glittered in his eyes. “I have heard her heart beating.”

Caro wished that she could.

“The child is healthy, but there is still a high risk of infection, and for the child to be lost.” He’d looked at Rob, but then he looked at Caro. She brushed her dress back over her stomach. “You must be careful and continue to rest, and I am afraid you must do so for the rest of your term.”

“I shall ensure it,” Rob stated. “But might I buy that thing off you, and then I may listen for the heart if we are afraid. We intend to continue our journey in short stages.”

The doctor made an irritated sound, but he handed it over.

The man was so superior, she was glad she would not continue in his care.

“I shall walk downstairs with you,” Rob said.

Rob was gone for ten minutes. Caro rolled to her side and curled up a little. Sarah was still within her, her little heart still beating, and her legs and arms thrusting out.

When Rob came back it was with bread, creamy butter, cheese and tankards of ale.

“How are my girls?”

“Happy and hungry. Fresh bread has never smelled so nice.”

“Sit up a little.” He set the tray he held down, and then came to put the pillows behind her back. Then he filled a plate for her and set it on her lap.

“Thank you.”

“You are welcome. But Caro, when you showed your stomach… There is a large dark bruise at your hip. How—”

“It is where I fell. My hip struck the stairs when I lost my balance, when Albert came at me and George.”

Rob sighed, his eyes telling her there was anger and grief in his heart. “I am glad of everything I have done today.”

She held his hand. “I am glad we are married too, but I am sorry, this cannot be the wedding night you hoped for.”

“No, but it is ours, and I am a patient man. Sarah and you are precious. You are what is important. I would not be selfish.”

He took off his morning coat, then slipped off his shoes and filled a plate for himself before walking about the bed to sit beside her.

“I am sorry this is not the wedding night you would have wished for,” he said, smiling.

She had thought her first wedding night heaven, then it had tumbled into hell. “I am happy just to be alone with you.”

“And Sarah.”

“And Sarah.” She smiled.

After they’d eaten, Rob took her plate and called for a maid to come and clear away. Then Rob helped Caro undress and change into a nightdress, before undressing himself, down to only his underwear. Then he blew out the candles and slipped beneath the covers with her, in the dark.

His hand lay on her stomach for a moment, before he moved closer and kissed her. Warmth and desire flooded into her blood, though her desire would be redundant.

Her tongue danced about his, and her fingers combed into his hair. “You have a scar.” It had been beneath his fringe.

“From when I fell from my carriage.”

She kissed him again.

He broke the kiss after a while and rested his forehead against hers. “You ought to sleep. You were tired.”

She nodded and when he rolled to his back, she rested her head on his shoulder.

Their wedding day resembled their entire journey north, it was slow and nerve-wracking and then at night it was quiet in whatever inn they found, and she lay with him, kissing him before she slept.

They reached their new home a week later than they had planned.

“I believe this is it,” Rob stated, when they turned off the road.

“You have not seen the house…” Caro looked at him.

She was sitting up against pillows, and she could look through the far carriage window easily, but to see out of the one beside her she had to twist around. “Oh!” She turned a little more as a charming large red-brick house came into view. It had six sash windows along each floor, and there were two floors, and then attic rooms, and the portico was a half circle with two pillars supporting a decorated roof, where a cherub aimed a bow at them. “It is beautiful.”

“It is,” Rob confirmed, his hand reaching out to take hers.

This was their new home.

The carriage halted and people began appearing. A young man hurried to open the door as Beth came from the house. She had come up here to take on the role of housekeeper as soon as Caro had asked. She was smiling broadly, as though she loved her new post and their new home too. A tall, stiff middle-aged man walked beside her.

Another man, a groom, walked from about the side of the house.

“Sir, madam, welcome.” Beth curtseyed, as Caro lay like the Queen of Sheba on her pillows. “We have been keeping an eye out for your arrival,” Beth stated as Rob climbed down. “This is Mr Birch, he is your butler, and Mr Brown, the head groom.” They bowed to Rob.

“It is good to meet you,” Rob said, before turning back to Caro. “I will carry you.”

He had been carrying her in and out of inns for a week, and his leg had become stronger because of it. She wrapped her arms about his neck and hung on, and so they crossed the threshold into their home.

It was a sunny house, two of the huge windows opened into the large, square hall, where the servants stood in two lines, and Caro could see into a large room on either side of the hall. A dining room and a drawing room, and there were two more doors and two more rooms at the back.

“This is Jenny, Mary, Polly…” Beth introduced the two lines of servants, the women on the left and the men on the right. But Caro felt too silly being carried throughout the introductions, it distracted her mind, and she could not remember their names.

“Would you rather recline on a sofa downstairs or go up to our room,” Rob asked when the introductions were done.

“May we go upstairs? I am tired.”

“Yes, of course.”

“All is ready. Polly will you show Mr and Mrs Marlow upstairs?” Beth said.

“Thank you, Beth.” Caro gave her a smile.

“The house is beautiful. I am so happy, Rob,” her fingers stroked the back of his hair.

He smiled. “I am happy too.”

“Beth, please would you have some lemonade brought to the room and if you have any biscuits…” Caro called across his shoulder as he began walking upstairs.

“Freshly baked this morning, ma’am.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, the room is lovely,” Caro exclaimed when Polly led Rob into their bedchamber. Another two large windows shone light into it, and though it might not be a suite of rooms as she had known at Albert’s and Drew’s, it was a large room with two chairs and a chaise longue by the fire, and then a large four-poster bed in bright-orange toned, glossy wood.