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One year later
Charles woke when the maid entered his bedroom. Or their bedroom he should probably call it. After returning home from the Winterbottom’s ball a year ago, Millie had not used the bed in her own room. He snuggled up to her large body under the covers, as he listened to the maid. His hand came to rest on Millie’s stomach.
Even though Millie seemed to be still asleep, the child inside of her was certainly awake, rummaging around underneath his hand. The movements made him smile. Any day now the little one would arrive. It was only natural that space was getting cramped now.
Millie complained that she looked like a whale. She constantly told him how uncomfortable it was to be pregnant. That she had completely forgotten how discomforting it was. Charles would simply smile and tell her that she looked beautiful. Then he would tease and say that perhaps she did not wish for them to try for a fifth child.
The last time he had said it, she had stuck her tongue out. Then she had seemed thoughtful for a moment and said with a sigh:
“Ask me again in a couple of years.”
He surely intended to. At any rate he could not wait until this little guy – or girl – came out. Not just because he was curious to meet his child, but also because he wanted to sleep with Millie again – soon. The doctor had told them when she was six months pregnant that they should “refrain from marital duties” as he had put it. And now Charles was itching with desire for his wife.
He knew that it would be a while, even after the baby was born, but as soon as the baby was out, she could start healing and then the sooner they could...
The maid left the room and Charles moved even closer to Millie if it was physically possible. He kissed her neck and her hand found his under the covers.
“Lady Winterbottom told me of an important matter yesterday,” Millie mumbled as she pulled his hand from her belly to rest on her much fuller breast instead. This was unfair since of course Charles could not help but squeeze them and the feeling seemed to resonate with every part of his body.
“What did she tell you now?” he said as he remembered that she had spoken and probably wanted a response.
“She said that towards the end of her pregnancies she and her husband have always...” She let her voice trail off, and Charles was not certain whether it was because she was still a bit shy to say the word, or because she wanted him to guess.
“But the doctor said that we couldn’t,” he stated, feeling alert and completely awake now.
“Yes, because it might induce early labor. But there’s no risk of that anymore. This boy is in fact a bit overdo I think,” she said with a smile in her voice as she stroked her large stomach.
“But do you even want to?” Charles asked.
Millie nodded, finding his hand underneath the covers again.
“If you want to,” she said.
Charles did not need any further encouragement.
When he walked downstairs for breakfast an hour later, he realized he was whistling as Curtis sent him an astonished look. He smiled at the butler and continued into the breakfast room where he had breakfast with the children before he headed to parliament.
He came back five hours later in the afternoon, hoping that if Millie was up for it, they could repeat this morning’s exercise. But as he walked up the stairs to the house Curtis opened the door saying with a voice that was unusually stressed for the always composed butler:
“Your Grace, you are needed in her Grace’s bedroom right away.”
This definitely did not sound like the afternoon he had had in mind, and Charles ran up the stairs, not taking off his hat or coat. Surely, he could not have hurt her this morning. She had said that it would be alright.
He ran to her bedroom door, stopping to catch his breath. From inside he heard an odd sound, almost like a kitten calling for milk.
He rapped on the door, feeling both anxious, but relieved that there was no screaming or crying. The door was opened by one of the maids. She bobbed a curtsy before she stepped aside and allowed him a view of Millie lying in her bed, looking at him. She looked flushed, her hair an icy blonde cloud around her head, but the smile on her face was probably the happiest he had ever seen.
“This is Archibald,” she said as he came into the room. She held back the covers to enable him to see the tiny boy she was holding in her arms.
“It’s already over,” he said astonished as he sat down on the bed beside her, looking at the little boy. An overwhelming feeling of protectiveness and love rushing through his body. “Why didn’t you send for me?”
“Honestly there was no time,” Millie said with a smile. “As soon as you left, it started, and we only just had time to send for the doctor.”
Millie looked up and Charles realized that beside the maid, both the doctor and the housekeeper were in the room.
“Besides you had already done all you could by then, Your Grace,” the doctor said as he closed his bag with an audible click.
Charles immediately turned his attention to the boy who was making the odd sounds like a cat. Millie pulled down her nightgown and placed him at her breast and a moment later he was silent. Charles looked back up to thank the doctor and the two others, before they left the room. He kissed Millie as soon as the door closed.
“I should have been here,” he said.
Millie shrugged.
“As the doctor said, you had done all you could. And you did it very well this morning.” She kissed him again.
Charles put his arm around her and for a long time they sat in silence watching their new baby boy nurse then fall asleep in Millie’s arms.
“We can’t name him Archibald,” he then said.
“It was my father’s name,” Millie argued.
“I know but still...”
“We’ll call him Archie,” Millie interrupted.
“But Millie...”
“I love you,” she said as she interrupted him again.
“I love you too,” he said, stopped arguing and kissed her.
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Thank you for reading A Second Wedding Night. If you liked the book, please rate it, or leave a review it would mean the world to me as an indie author.
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If you are interested in how The Winterbottoms met, you can sign up for my newsletter to receive the novella of their meeting for free. No spam, I promise. Only news about upcoming books and the occasional freebie 😊
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If you are more curious about what happens when Millie has to keep her promise to her daughters and tell them exactly what happens in the bedroom, I have included a sneak peak of Falling for a Footman that will be out April 1, 2023. The next book in the series about Millie and Charles’s eldest daughter Charlotte and James, who is posing as a footman at the ducal estate Great Farleigh Hall.