Page 82 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

“Thank you,” she whispered again against his lips.

“I love you,” was Robert’s reply.

“I love you too,” Jo told him and raised herself a little to be able to look at him. “I think I knew too, that I cared for you…that it could blossom into something more, if I had the courage…”

“Thank God that you did,” Robert muttered before he kissed her again.

Epilogue

On the road, York, December 1806

“I cannot wait to meet her,” Jo said breathlessly as she leaned her head against Robert’s shoulder.

Robert had become remarkably adept at coaxing her into being intimate in the carriage. She was much better at forgetting the people around them and he was glad that she was. It was a long drive from Riddlesmarsh Hall to Barforth Castle. It was decidedly much better to spend at least some of the time racking pleasure from Jo’s body.

He was still inside her after their latest coupling. The third since they had left the inn this morning. But to be fair to both of them, they had not had time to be intimate before leaving. They had been up before dawn and in the carriage by the first sunlight hoping to reach Barforth Castle before it grew dark.

“Who?” he had to ask as he remembered Jo’s words.

“Sophia,” Jo said as she sat back in his lap to look at him.

Her forehead was slightly sweaty from her doing most of the work. She was wearing a thick dark green woolen cloak, a wool dress in a bright blue beneath it and his hands were resting on her thick woolen stockings underneath her dress. Only her core was bare.

Robert had heard that some merchants had started advertising undergarments to women, but if Jo ever wanted to wear them, he would have to find their marriage contract again and renegotiate it. He liked that he could always lift her skirts and have her wherever he wanted.

Which he had done frequently and in as many places and positions as possible just like she had suggested in her contract. They had given up using protection against conception only a month or so after their reunion. It had proved too tedious and since they both knew that they wanted a large family, there was no reason for them to wait. He hoped that Jo would soon tell him that he was going to be a father. His hands traveled from her thighs to her stomach and he spread them over her softly curved hips.

“Robert?” Jo asked gently and gave him a quick kiss. “You are not listening,” she teased him with an affectionate smile.

“No,” he said and moved his hands to grip her hips more firmly and possessively. “But you are sitting in your lap with my cock still buried inside you, you can hardly expect me to pay great attention to what you have to say about Thornston’s fiancé.”

Incredibly enough, he had received a letter from Thornston about a month ago, that the private detective had been able to find his cousins. Only a week later, a letter had arrived telling them that he had become engaged to the eldest. Sophia.

Robert had frowned when he read the name but thought nothing of it. There had to be hundreds of women by that name. Thousands.

Thornston and his fiancé had been staying at Barforth Castle for a fortnight now. Since Thornston did not have a family of his own, he had wanted his fiancé to become acquainted with Robert’s and Xavier’s.

“But it will be like having a new sister. And everyone likes her so much. Your mother and Philomena have both been raving about how nice she is. I am almost afraid she will dethrone me,” Jo said with a grin as she moved to sit beside him on the bench. Robert placed his arm around her shoulder and tucked the woolen blanket around her again before fixing his clothes with the other hand.

“They do seem to be exceptionally fond of her,” Robert said. All of them except one.

He had received five letters from his mother about how happy she was that Thornston had finally found someone and how much she liked her. Philomena had written thrice – all letters addressed to Jo – also mentioning Sophia in each letter; it was evident that his sister was starting to form an attachment to her just like she had with Jo.

Maggie had written to him twice. Mainly talking about how much she hated the weather and missed London but mentioning that Sophia was a decided plus to the company. The only one who had not mentioned Sophia with a word was Xavier in the one letter he had sent in the past two weeks. Instead, he had written at length over his troubles with Rafe, who was refusing to return for Christmas because Xavier would not permit him to join the military.

“It will be interesting to meet her,” Robert said, and it was true.

He had tried to assure himself that he was being paranoid, but he did look forward to joining the party and seeing for himself that this Sophia was not the same woman as the one Xavier had met in Vauxhall Gardens all those years ago.

Jo did not say anything, and when he looked at her, she was biting her lip contemplatively.

“I know what you were thinking before…” she began, then faltered as she thought or gathered courage or whatever she had to do.

Robert knew her well enough by now not to interrupt, but his heart still pounded faster at the thought that she had figured out that the woman Xavier had met in Vauxhall might be Thornston’s fiancée. Not that he could work out how she knew. He had never mentioned the woman’s name. But his wife was clever and something might have given him away.

“…when you touched my stomach,” Jo then continued and Robert held his breath while he waited for her next words.

He had tried not to push her on the matter. Not to let his excitement show. They had all the time in the world. Both of them were young. There was no reason to be impatient.