Page 81 of Raising the Duke’s Unexpected Twins

“He did?” she asked.

“Yes, and I told him just how I felt about things, and I – punched him in the face.”

Nicholas awaited her answer, and she lifted a brow in surprise before bursting into laughter.

“You didn’t!” she cried, lowering her voice to keep the children from waking.

“I did. And I will never regret that until the day I die. He made his threats, but at least he’s not been back to the den, and we put a good performance on at the earl’s ball. My cousin, Leonard, said that less people are concerned about our unusual situation.”

A good performance.

It had been a performance, in both of their minds, at the time. But after that, there had been the carriage, and then, the night in her bedroom. And now, things were so very different, at least for her. It was no longer a performance, and yet she felt as though she had to keep playing a part in a play she didn’t understand.

“That is good news, then.” She tried to smile, finishing off her cake and taking another sip of tea.

“Nicholas, I hate that we now take so much of your time, and now we are taking up your bed. I know that the den is important to you.”

He nodded and chuckled, looking back at the large, wooden bed with a canopy covering it, wide enough to fit five people across it. “I think there will be enough room for us all. And my bed is rather comfortable,” he said with a teasing grin.

She swallowed. She might know her own heart, and yet he’d been embarrassed about what had transpired between them, rushing off as quickly as he could.

Once Tim is well, who knows if he will wish to remain? He may return to the club as often as he used to. Fool – I should have believed him from the beginning that he was only a rake. I should not have allowed myself to get here.

She was glad when he spoke, cutting through the dangerous thoughts of her mind.

“Come. We should sleep. You especially, love. You need a full night.”

She nodded, her weariness suddenly filling her, but she finished her and then climbed up into bed beside Olivia. When Nicholas joined her on the other side, she turned on her side, to watch the slowly lifting chests of the twins between them. Her and Nicholas’s eyes met over the children.

“Good night, Cordelia.”

“Good night, Nicholas,” she said, wanting to say more but knowing it was not the time and it might not ever be.

If this was not a true marriage, then it had certainly come very close, and she wasn’t sure just how it was all going to end.

CHAPTER 27

Nicholas woke up with a smile on his face. He’d been in a dream, a glorious dream, where he and Cordelia had been walking in his mother’s garden, hand in hand. A great peace had come over him, and the children were there, both of them, older and playing together, calling out to them as they ran about.

The sun shone on his face, and when he roused, he turned on his side, his eyes fluttering open. He was still smiling as he looked down at the sleeping children, and at a sleeping Cordelia, her arm over Olivia, and her dark hair laying strewn over the white silk of his pillow, the scent of rosebud in the air.

His heart clenched as reality settled in. She was not truly his, nor were the children, and it felt wrong to want and to dream. In the dream, everything had seemed easy and right, but now in the light of day, his old fears returning. But he remembered David’s words from a few years before:

One of these days, you will find yourself ensnared by a lady whose mere gaze will make you fall to your feet. You will hang on her every word, and you would even lay down your life for her, just to keep her safe and happy.

He swallowed hard at that realization, staring over at a sleeping, peaceful Cordelia who did not know the warring in his heart.

I am afraid that I have found just that lady.

He startled a little when Cordelia’s eyes fluttered open, and when she smiled at him, a little sleepy but looking far less pale and much more contented, Nicholas felt his heart skip in a way that it had never done with any woman before.

This feels right, so why must I fight it?

“How’s Tim?” she asked in a low voice, leaning up a bit to look down at him, and at long last, the redness had gone from Tim’s cheeks. Nicholas laid a hand on the boy’s forehead.

“He is no longer so dangerously warm.”

If Cordelia’s first smile had practically brought him to his knees, then this second one was sure to kill him.