Page 50 of An Accidental Elopement

“And then I felt an immense sense of love, followed by an equally immense sense of worry. For Edwina and the child.” Henry gulped and Archie took a long moment to study him.

Growing up, they had not been particularly close. Henry was five years his senior and had alternated between being annoyed that he had been usurped as the family's favorite by his younger brothers, finding them too childish to bother with, and leading them into mischief that they were not old enough to handle and had resulted in Gregory breaking his arm at one event and Archie to sprain both his ankles at another.

When they had both been in their twenties, before Henry married Edwina five years ago, there had been four or five years that had brought them quite close. Archie had been old enough to become a member of the gentleman clubs and enter the gaming hells and they had found that they shared quite a few interests in those days.

They had even hosted a couple of house parties together at both Farleigh Cottage and Henry’s estate Seacourt Manor for other bachelors and women of questionable reputations. But that was before Henry had become boring and staid when he married Edwina. Only looking at Henry now with his young child, Archie did not find his brother dull. In fact, he actually understood his emotions: if Cecilia told him she was expecting he was certain his emotions would mirror his brother’s.

“I’m...” Archie leaned forward and put the empty tumbler on a side table, then steepled his fingers looking intently at them as he spoke. “I had an affair with an actress before I married Cecilia...”

“Oh, I know,” Henry interrupted him in such a smug voice that Archie looked at him as a reflex. The smirk on his brother’s face was instantly wiped away as he met Archie’s eyes.

“She is expecting,” Archie mumbled despite being certain that Henry had already guessed.

His brother’s face went completely expressionless for a moment.

“Have you found a solution?” he asked in a more subdued voice than he had used before, and Archie was certain that it was not because he was afraid to disturb the sleeping child.

“I offered to pay for a doctor to remove it, but she refused. One of her friends had her body destroyed by it. I tried to explain that I would of course find a good doctor and not a quack, but she still refused,” Archie mumbled.

“What will you do then?” Henry asked gently.

“I have been trying to find a family that will take in the child and pretend that it is their own... but I have had no luck yet.” Archie rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. He felt drained all of a sudden.

“It sounds as if you are trying your best despite the circumstances,” Henry told him gently.

Archie looked surprised at his brother. He had expected to be lectured, had perhaps even wanted it, but he only saw concern on Henry’s face.

“It could have happened to me as well,” Henry continued even more gently, answering the question that Archie had not asked. He gave his brother a thin smile in appreciation.

“Does Cecilia know?”

Archie nodded. He might have told his brother if his throat had not constricted at that moment. He swallowed profusely several times before he was able to answer.

“She... she seemed angrier that I had not told her, than that I am having a child with another woman,” Archie finally managed.

Henry gave a bark of laughter that started the child awake with a cry. Henry rose quickly and started pacing the room, patting his son’s back and shushing him at the same time. Archie watched this for a couple of minutes and was about to think that the child might go on for hours and planned his retreat when the tiny child yawned in a way that practically split his face and seemed to doze off again against Henry’s shoulder.

Sighing with relief, Henry sat again.

“He is truly exhausted. He cried for almost two hours before Edwina threw us out.”

For a moment they sat in silence and Archie tried not to think of an overly tired Cecilia throwing him from their bedroom carrying their infant child. The image made his entire chest feel as if it was in a vise. He had never imagined that a sour female, a crying infant, and the lack of sleep would be something that he would strive to achieve.

“I suppose that you have done everything you can to apologize?” Henry asked and made Archie pay attention to the present again and not a future that might have been if he had not been such a fool.

“For now,” Archie murmured. “I need to prove to her that she can trust me, and I still need to figure out what to do with the child.”

“Have you asked her?”

“Cecilia?” Archie asked incredulously.

Henry nodded as if it was self-explanatory.

“In the best marriages, the two parties help and advise each other, like Mother and Father. I suspect this is what Cecilia wants from a marriage as well.”

Archie nodded slowly. He had no wish to burden Cecilia further, but he could not deny that Henry might be right that that was exactly what she wished to be.

Twenty-Four