Someone to Watch Over Me (Bow Street Runners #1)(89)

He shrugged slightly. "I thought that by taking one criminal off the streets, I might be saving someone in the future. And saving even one person is worth all the effort, isn't it?"

Victoria smiled and hugged him, feeling a great rush of love. "I knew it," she said, her voice muffled against his shoulder. "At heart you're an idealist."

She felt him grin against her ear. "I'll teach you to call me names, milady." Drawing his head back, he kissed her until she had no breath left.

Absorbed in pages of notes on an inquiry he was conducting, Grant barely noticed the knock on the door of his office at Bow Street. "Yes," he said gruffly, resenting the disruption to his concentration.

The door opened a crack, revealing Mrs. Dobson's face. "Sir Grant, you have a visitor."

He scowled in response. "I told you I won't receive visitors until sessions are concluded this afternoon--"

"Yes, sir, but...it's Lady Morgan."

Immediately the scowl left his face. Victoria seldom ventured to the Bow Street office, which was a good thing, considering that it was frequently populated by scoundrels and criminals. However, any chance to see her in the middle of the day was greatly welcome. "For God's sake, don't keep her waiting," he said. "Bring her in at once."

The housekeeper smiled and opened the door wider, and Victoria entered. She was a lovely sight, especially against the drab backdrop of the office, her trim figure clad in a gown of pale pink muslin, its high collar and long sleeves trimmed with rose ribbons. The bodice of the gown was plaited and laced with silk cords that tied snugly over the tantalizing curves of her br**sts. Rising from his chair, Grant waited until Mrs. Dobson had closed the door, and then he swept his wife in his arms and captured her smiling mouth in an ardent kiss.

"Just what I needed," he murmured when their lips parted. "A pretty wench to relieve my tedium."

"I hope I haven't interrupted some important work," she said apologetically.

"No work is as important as you." He toyed with the ribbon that trimmed her collar, and nuzzled the soft, perfumed space behind her earlobe. "Tell me what brings you to Bow Street, milady. Do you have a complaint to lodge or a crime to report?"

She laughed breathlessly. "Not exactly."

"Some testimony or information to offer?"

"In a way."

He sat in his chair and drew her down to his lap, his green eyes gleaming roguishly. "I want a full confession, milady." "Grant, no," she scolded with a discomfited laugh, wriggling on his knee and glancing uneasily at the door. "Someone might come in--what would they think?"

His hand slid beneath her skirts and wandered boldly up her knee. "That I'm a newly married man with an itch for his wife."

"Grant," she pleaded, her cheeks turning red, and he laughed, taking pity on her.

"Just when I thought I had rid you of all modesty," he said, squeezing her knee. "All right, then...I'll try to restrain myself. Tell me why you're here."

Victoria linked her arms around his neck, her expression turning serious. "I wouldn't have disturbed you, but...I sent for Dr. Linley today."

"Linley," Grant repeated warily.

Victoria nodded. "You see, I haven't been feeling quite myself lately, and rather than worry you unnecessarily, I kept it to myself until--" She broke off with a wince as his hand gripped her leg with unconscious force. "Grant!" she exclaimed, staring at him with bewildered dismay.

His heart pounded with sudden painful jerks. He found it difficult to speak through a flood of instinctive dread. "Victoria," he said scratchily, "are you ill?"

"Oh, dear, no...no, I'm only..." Victoria paused, hurriedly searching for a proper euphemism, but in her own anxiety, she couldn't think of a single one. "I'm pregnant," she said, her gloved hands rubbing his chest as if to soothe him. "There's nothing to worry about. We're going to have a baby."

Relief began to penetrate the sudden whirl of panic. He pulled her close, burying his face in the soft mounds of her br**sts, and tried to slow his breathing. "God, Victoria," he said. He heard her laugh shakily, and she clasped his head.

"How do you feel about enlarging our family?" she asked.

"Just that it's a miracle." Grant turned to press his ear against her heart, listening to the fast steady beat, thinking that everything in the world that mattered was right here in his arms.

"A rather commonplace miracle," she pointed out with a smile in her voice. "It happens to families every day."

"Not to mine, it doesn't." Easing her backward, Grant stared at her slim body, imagining her belly swollen with his child. "How do you feel?" he asked in concern.

Victoria caressed his face. "Impatient," she replied. "I can hardly wait for the day when I hold a baby in my arms."

As it turned out, a baby was delivered to the Morgan household far sooner than expected. Almost a month after the revelation of Victoria's pregnancy, she and Grant were enjoying a private supper at home when Mrs. Buttons interrupted them. The housekeeper wore a strange, almost comical expression, as if something had startled her and she still hadn't recovered from the shock.

"Lady Morgan," the housekeeper said uncomfortably, "a...a parcel has arrived for you...from Italy."