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Five months later
The cry from above sent Archie to his feet. He had been half asleep in one of the chairs by the low burning fire in the small cottage that he had rented for Lavinia and Cecilia’s aunt. The cry was so very different from the pants and swearing that he had been hearing for the past hours. His child had been born.
He began to pace the carpet once again, waiting for news. What was taking so long? If the child was crying, then surely everything had gone according to plan.
He wished he had taken Gregory up on his offer to accompany him. It would have been pleasant to have him keep him company instead of having spent many hours alone in the parlor. But when Gregory had made his suggestion, Archie had not considered that Cecilia would of course be helping her aunt and the midwife who was tending to Lavinia. When Cecilia would give birth, he would gladly take up Gregory’s offer of companionship.
Or if, he should probably say. They had been married six months now, and it was not for a lack of vigorous trying that Cecilia had not yet conceived. She was excited about her new ward though and did not seem too preoccupied with the fact that she had not become with child yet. He had been a bit concerned when Hester had officially announced that she was expected in January. But Cecilia had only seemed happy for Hester and Flint.
Archie looked at the gray April day outside of the window. His child had not chosen a particularly sunny or beautiful day to be born. His child. His child that he would raise with Cecilia. His heart swelled with equal parts gratitude and love as he thought of how she would raise his child alongside him. How she seemed to be looking forward to meeting the child just as much as he did.
***
“Are you certain you do not want to hold him, Lavinia?” Cecilia asked.
The warm newborn was bundled in her arms, and it hurt her a little to offer it to the other woman, even though she was the one who had just given birth to it.
“No,” Lavinia told her and turned her head. Her dark hair, the same hair that Cecilia’s newborn child had, was soaked through with sweat as was the nightgown she was wearing. Her face was red, and her eyes rimmed with dark circles.
Both the midwife and Cecilia’s aunt had assured them that it was perfectly normal that it took more than a day and a night to give birth to the first child. Lavinia had been exhausted at the end and Cecilia had felt for the poor woman, who had to labor only to give her child away. More than once she had had to remind herself that it had been Lavinia’s wish.
“Leave her alone for a moment, Cecilia, Darling. She is weary,” Cecilia’s aunt told her gently.
Cecilia pulled the newborn tighter into her embrace again but did not move from the side of Lavinia’s bed.
“You know that I will take care of him as my own. I already love him as my own, I think.” Her voice faltered on the last words, as she looked down at the little boy. His upturned nose, closed eyes, and tiny ears had the exact same shape as Archie’s.
“Thank you,” Lavinia said quietly and looked out the window. “It is a great comfort to me to know that.”
“Are you certain...?” Cecilia started again and once again held out the baby. It seemed impossible to her that Lavinia would not even hold the child she had given birth to.
“Cecilia, go show your son to your husband. I am certain he is eager to hear news of how it is all faring,” Cecilia’s aunt said gently, but firmly.
Cecilia nodded and left the room. When the door closed, she heard a frustrated sound from Lavinia.
“I know, Sweetheart. This is not easy, but you are doing the right thing,” her aunt crooned.
“I know,” Lavinia said in a watery voice, “I just... It’s just that... I am just exhausted...”
Her aunt continued to soothe Lavinia and Cecilia hurried down the hallway, feeling that she was intruding on a private moment. She stopped at the end of the hallway and took a few deep breaths to steady herself before she ventured down the stairs.
Archie was already in the downstairs hallway when she reached the last step.
“How did it go...?” he breathed then quieted as his gaze dropped to the bundle in her arms.
“Your son,” Cecilia said in a shaking voice.
“A boy?” Archie repeated in a stunned voice. Cecilia offered the baby to him, and he gently took it from her, looking down at the small child with awe on his face. “He looks nothing like me,” he then stated softly, in what sounded like a mix between a laugh and a sob. Cecilia had never seen him this close to tears before.
“The ears do, I think,” she told him, her own voice growing hoarser.
Archie held the baby with one arm, then tugged her against him with the other. Cecilia rested her head against his chest looking down at the tiny boy, who was still sleeping.
“How are you feeling?” he murmured against her hair.
“Just tired,” Cecilia stated, but her shaky voice gave her away. “And sad,” she admitted. “Lavinia is more upset than I thought. But somehow, I am also relieved that she at least felt something for him.”
“Does she... does she want to keep him?” Archie asked, his voice breaking with emotion.
He had not spoken much of the child; Cecilia would always be the one who brought it up, but she had sensed how happy and relieved he was that they would be raising the child together.
“No,” she murmured and turned her head into his chest, breathing in his calming scent of bergamot, leather, and simply him.
They stood like that for a long time, until the boy woke up and immediately started crying. The wetnurse that they had hired for the child was brought out and fed him before he was tugged into a crib that had been placed in the parlor where Archie had been waiting.
Archie sat in the chair beside him, and Cecilia plopped down on his thighs and relished in the feeling of immediately being encompassed by his arms.
“I am glad I do not have to do it any time soon,” she mumbled against his shoulder as she looked down at her sleeping son.
“What?” Archie muttered and sounded as if he was drifting off to sleep himself.
“Giving birth. That looked excruciating.”
“I thought you wanted a child of your own?”
“Not my own, our own. Our son will need siblings. I just... for the time being I am quite content that it is just the three of us.”
Archie was quiet for a long while and she thought that he actually had fallen asleep.
“I received a letter from my father yesterday. He wrote a very cryptic message that if my ‘new charge’ as he phrased it was a boy, he would be happy if we would name him after my grandfather.”
“Edward?” Cecilia asked.
Archie hmphed.
“Do you think he knows?” They had not told either of their families the true heritage of their future ward. Cecilia’s mother was outraged enough that she would be willing to take one of Aunt Elizabeth’s children in. She could only imagine how her mother would react when she learned that the child was actually the illegitimate son of her husband.
“I would not be surprised,” Archie mumbled. “My parents have a way of knowing everything. This might very well be his olive branch, saying that he will accept the child without question.”
“Edward. I like that. Edward Gaywood Montagu.”
Archie hmphed again.
“Gaywood?”
“Most assuredly. He is my son after all.”
“He is,” Archie muttered and with that, they fell asleep.
Thank you for reading An Accidental Elopement. 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 a free novella you can sign up for my newsletter to receive the novella Winter Hearts for free. The story of how the side character Rosie’s parents met. No spam, I promise. Only news about upcoming books and the occasional freebie 😊
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If you are more interested in continuing the series, you can do so in Three Wishes Upon a Tombstone about Gregory and Rosie. You can find it, where you normally buy your books.
On the four-year anniversary of her husband’s death Rosie decides that it is time she starts living her life again instead of simply surviving. She makes three wishes on her husband’s tombstone: She wants to start her own charity where she decides who will benefit from the money, she wants to host the party of the season, and she wants another child – preferably without remarrying.
And where does her childhood friend Gregory fit into this? Absolutely nowhere. The desire she starts feeling for him is highly inconvenient, especially when it turns into more than attraction.