The Marriage Act by Alyssa Everett

Author:Alyssa Everett [Everett, Alyssa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00XCZFU6Y
Goodreads: 25425635
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2014-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

—Samuel Johnson

That night, in the bedroom she shared with John, Caro paused with her hand on the bellpull. “Shall I ring for Sophia’s abigail?”

John shrugged. “I don’t mind helping you undress, if my assistance will do.”

“I would appreciate it.” She wasn’t sure why she didn’t mind his helping her now when four nights before she’d considered sleeping in her gown rather than disrobe with him in the same room, but then again, what was the point in affecting modesty after what they’d done in the hunting box? She went to stand in front of him so he could unfasten her buttons and unlace her stays.

As soon as he finished, he politely turned his back.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, you might as well look,” Caro said, realizing how ridiculous the arrangement was. “I doubt the sight of me in my chemise is really going to inflame your passions.”

He turned to face her again, unbuttoning his waistcoat. “I’ll strive mightily to control myself if it does.” The remark was his usual brand of sarcasm, but he’d no sooner said it than he looked suddenly self-conscious. “Caro, what you said tonight, about having a baby...”

“Yes?”

“What if it turns out you’re increasing? It’s possible, you know. That night in the hunting box, when I—”

“Yes, I understand how it works.”

“Would you be sorry?”

She’d never seen him wear a look of such anxious concern before—no, that wasn’t true. On the morning he proposed, as he’d waited for her answer he’d searched her face with the same keen air of expectancy.

“Sorry? Of course not. What a question.” Then she realized perhaps it meant he would be, however indulgent he’d been with Anne’s twins. “What about you?”

He shook his head with every appearance of certainty. “I’d like to be a father.”

“Oh. Good.”

“But it would complicate matters.” One side of his mouth twisted in a wry curve. “Boy or girl, I’d want to be involved in my child’s life.”

She tensed. “I suppose now you’re going to remind me that the children of a marriage are the legal property of the husband, and that you could take my child from me if I should displease you in some fashion.”

His jaw went slack with shock. “God, no. What do you take me for? Children need a mother, and the child would be yours every bit as much as mine.”

Instantly she regretted having accused him with no justification. It was just that she was so used to his doing his utmost to punish her...But she should never have spoken out of fear and insecurity, especially when he’d been on his best behavior all day. “Then what did you mean, ‘it would complicate matters’?”

“Only that I have no intention of being an absentee father. If you were to have a child, I’d be at Halewick a good deal more than I have been, not merely between diplomatic postings but also during trips home. You’d have to get used to seeing more of me.” He stripped off his trousers.

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