Chapter 29

Still reeling from all that had happened, Emmaline stood on the pavement outside Frederick's dockside home and shivered. With her father being tended by physicians inside the house, there was no way she would have left. Nor would she have missed watching Frederick being dragged away in irons behind the still imposing figure of Tiny who took four officers and Alex to force him into the back of the jailer's cart.

It was only once they were both inside it, the bolts shoved home, that Alex joined her and her brothers and said, "Might I have a moment with my wife?"

Sebastian and Victor, who had said very little since being removed from the house, stood like stone statues on either side of her, just at her back as if they had no intention of budging.

"I am safe with my husband," Emmaline assured them and reluctantly, they moved away to offer their statements to officers who looked quite bemused at the goings on.

When she looked to Alex, his gaze was filled with surprise.

"Husband?" he whispered in a questioning tone.

Emmaline placed a hand on his forearm. "That is what you are, is it not?"

"Yes, but I… after all that has happened, I thought that you—"

Emmaline had never seen him so vulnerable, perhaps even close to tears.

Tiptoeing, she took his face in her hands and smiled, "You shall not be rid of me that easily, Your Grace."

Alex, shaking in her hands, whispered, "You are a true devil lady after all."

Emmaline shivered. Coming from anyone else, she might have taken that as an insult. Coming from him, it lit her up like a bonfire.

"You are no devil, Alex, and neither am I," she stated, looking him firmly in the eye.

He gripped her hips then and pulled her close for all the world to see. "Have I ever told you, Em, just how much I have fallen truly, desperately and madly in love with you?"

Emmaline shivered with delight. Just hearing those words, she didn't care if every dock worker was staring, wild-eyed. She wrapped her arms around her husband"s neck and kissed him hard.

"You may tell me again, as often as you"d like," she whispered against his lips before she kissed him again. And the world spun on its axis, finally feeling like everything was falling into its true place.

"Perhaps, wife, we had better take this somewhere a little more private?" Alex suggested against her lips. Emmaline shivered again. She rather liked the sound of that.

After making love in the carriage on the way home, and again in their master bedroom, Emmaline rested upon her husband"s chest, utterly spent.

She was sore between her thighs and her foot still ached somewhat, but she felt that all was right with the world. Her father was back home, and Frederick was locked safely behind bars. She sighed deeply.

Alex stroked the hair at the back of her head, his nose pressed atop her crown. She heard him breathing deeply also before he asked, "My love, what are you thinking about?"

And Emmaline suddenly realized she was thinking about something. She was thinking of the first night they had spent together. It had been weeks since then. Even longer since her monthly courses. And suddenly, she sat bolt upright.

Instinctively and with complete surprise, she blurted, "Alex, I"m with child!"

Alex sat up beside her just as swiftly and laid his hand upon hers where they already clutched her stomach.

"How… are you certain?" he exclaimed, his face pale in the moonlight that shone through a crack in the drapes.

Emmaline thought he had never looked more handsome, or more terribly frightened.

"Are you not pleased?" she asked, feeling uncertain. She had never expected him to look quite so stricken when she told him that they had accomplished his grandest wish.

"Yes!" Alex said, getting up onto his knees to cup her face in both his hands. "A thousand times, yes! But are you quite certain?"

Tears pricked Emmaline"s eyes and she nodded. "I have not… I have not bled since before we were married."

It was only when she spoke the words aloud that the truth of it hit her like a ton of bricks. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she gasped over and over.

Alex held her close to his chest, silent for several moments as she wept. It was only when she began to calm that he asked, "Are you not pleased?"

"Yes," Emmaline cried. "I have never been so happy!"

Overcome with emotion, she kissed him again. As if he felt just the same way, Alex pressed her back down into the bed, moving between her thighs.

"I need you," she whimpered when he did not immediately enter her.

He stiffened, propping himself up. "Are you certain? I will not hurt you, will—"

Emmaline cut him off, pulling him down to kiss him and wrapping her legs around his waist to urge him deep inside her. He filled her up as if he could not bear to keep himself from her and Emmaline gasped with pleasure.

They lost themselves in each other, bodies writhing, panting, and moaning filling the air.

In all of Emmaline"s wildest dreams, she never imagined it could feel like this. She and Alex were connected not only physically but by blood, by the babe growing in her belly. And it felt magnificent.

They made love as if he were trying to put another child in her already and Emmaline embraced every moment, her body quivering with sheer delight. She screamed without a care for the poor servants that might hear.

And as Alex drew toward his own climax, he whispered in her ear with bated breath, "You are no devil. You are an angel. My savior. My love. Oh, Emmaline!"