Chemistry of Magic: Unexpected Magic Book Five (Unexpected Magic #5)(78)
She kissed his jaw. “Your child just quickened. As it says in the journals, I felt it. It’s like being handed a miracle.”
Dare froze, fearing to disturb her or the spirits or the child she couldn’t possibly know about this early. But the magic of the night and the woman whispered of truth and miracles, and he wanted to believe it with all his soul. “I will trust anything you tell me this night.”
She laughed softly. “And question in the morning. But you will see I’m right. My courses are often late, but I’ve had none since we married, you realize. It’s possible. And I felt the spirit enter me.”
“If it’s possible,” he said with a contented sigh at this explanation, “I love you more just for your mystery. Sleep. You have to save your energy to bake my child.” He said that with a pride and satisfaction he’d never experienced in all his years of success.
Emilia cradled Ashford’s lusty, bellowing heir. In the bedchamber, Bridey examined the new mother. Emilia was grateful for Bridey’s confirmation that a new white aura resided under her heart, but Malcolm instincts had already told her of the life she carried. Now, she needed to grasp the challenges she faced—a forever husband and a child.
She needed her cousin Aster to explain how she managed all her new duties of wife and mother but still kept up with her astrology studies. But Aster had gone home with Theo to oversee the estate harvest and Theo’s growing glass manufactory.
“When Serena cries without reason,” Celeste said in sympathy as Emilia awkwardly try to quiet the squalling infant, “I try to imagine what gifts might be upsetting her. Do you think Ashford’s son might be gifted?”
“I think he’s large enough to be three-months old and won’t need anything except his fists and title to move mountains,” Emilia said dryly, watching the boy wrinkle up his face for another tempest. “Have they settled on a name yet?”
“At the moment, the list is an eternity long. He may need a brain larger than even his broad shoulders can carry to remember them. The weight of all those ancestors is heavy.” Celeste placed her sleepy daughter over her shoulder to rub her back.
“It’s a little terrifying to know we hold the future in our hands.” Emilia offered her finger for the infant to suck, thus distracting him.
A servant tapped at the door to announce, “Lord Erran has returned and wishes to visit. And Lord Dare wishes to accompany him.”
“We’re dressed. Allow them in,” Celeste called.
The men filled the feminine salon with their masculine energy and the aroma of fresh air and horses. Both exuded subdued excitement. Dare looked healthier than Emilia had ever seen him. Color had returned to his skin, although he was not as naturally swarthy as the Ives men. His gaze fell instantly on her and the babe, and his eyes lit with a lovely azure.
“Practicing?” he asked suggestively, but pride beamed from his expression.
“If your son is as demanding as this one, then you will have to tend him,” Emilia said sternly. “It’s a good thing Christie is big and healthy or this child would exhaust her within days. Do you have news you wish to impart? The two of you are practically spilling over with excitement.”
Dare settled on the settee beside her and gestured at Erran. “You did the work. You may have the honors.”
Erran shrugged and leaned over his wife’s shoulder to examine his sleeping daughter. “It is odd how honors no longer matter so much when one is blessed.”
Celeste kissed his jaw, then smacked his hand. “Tell us, O Smug One.”
The usually stern lawyer flashed a brilliant grin. “Your wish is my command, your highness.” He straightened and rested a hand against his wife’s chair back. “The duke is thrilled with the pharmacopeia. He has endorsed it fully, which made my task simple. I have negotiated a deal with a publisher who will be pleased to release it under the author name of E.M. Dare, botanist, and under the auspices of the Duke of Sommersville. The first printing will be enormous. If he sells even half of it, you will have a nice nest egg for feathering your laboratory.”
“Mixed metaphors, old man,” Dare said, hugging Emilia.
Without his hold, she might have floated straight to the ceiling. She sat stunned, unable to speak the volumes of gratitude that needed to be expressed.
Dare laughed and spoke for her. “Emilia is preparing a speech in her head that essentially says thank you a thousand times over. We are deeply in your debt.”
Emilia poked him with her elbow, reddened, and nodded agreement at the same time. Her tongue was lost. Published, at last!
Erran took a seat on the arm of his wife’s chair and lifted his sleeping daughter. “We’ll make Dare earn it back when the next election comes around. In the meantime, Will and his dogs have dug up your box with the draft copy and left it with your secretary. And Dare’s cousin Peter has been all that’s helpful in opening doors in Harrogate. Given the scene of carnage you left behind, it wasn’t an easy task.”
“How is Mr. Crenshaw faring?” Emilia asked, finally able to express her sorrow.
Dare hugged her tighter. “You are not to concern yourself with him. He carved his own path, and it is a greedy, crooked one. In related news, I’ve had my consortium working with Erran on our Harrogate problem. I hadn’t realized Peter’s wife is related to several merchants in the area. There’s a story for another day, but apparently, I have underestimated him to some extent.”