Honeymoon from Hell IV (2 page)

Instead of answering him, she squeezed
her eyes shut and shook her head.

“Is it the baby?” he asked, praying
that the answer was no. It was too soon for the baby. They had
another month before the baby was supposed to be born.

Reluctantly, she nodded as a sob
escaped her.

Please don’t let us lose
the baby
, he prayed as he carefully picked
her up and carried her into the house, because he didn’t think that
either one of them would be able to survive the loss this
time.

*-*-*-*

“He’s coming to,” he vaguely heard
James say.

“Huh?” was his only response as he
struggled to figure out how he’d ended up lying face down on his
bedroom floor.

“I did tell him not to come in here,”
James said, sounding amused as he helped roll Robert over onto his
back.

“This is why men don’t belong in the
labor room,” Mrs. Brown said, sounding putout as she tossed a wet
cloth at him. It hit him in the face before falling off and landing
on the floor, leaving Robert even more confused.

“What happened?” he asked numbly as he
struggled to sit up, but a wave of dizziness had him lying right
back down.

His answer was the beautiful cry of a
baby. Actually, it sounded more like-

“Twins,” James said with a huge grin as
he helped Robert sit up.

“Twins?” Robert repeated, not
understanding what James was saying.

“Twin boys,” James said, chuckling as
he reached down and dragged Robert to his feet. “That’s why your
wife was so huge.”

“I was not huge!” Elizabeth said, not
sounding very mad at all as she drew his attention towards the bed
where she was curled up on her side, smiling down at two wiggling,
but healthy looking, babies.

“W-what happened?” he asked, struggling
to remember what the hell happened.

“What do you remember?” James asked,
dragging him over to the bed where his family was waiting for him
and helping him carefully lie down next to the most beautiful
babies that he’d ever seen.

“Not much,” he admitted, trying to
shake his head clear.

“Well, after you carried Elizabeth in
here and sent for the doctor, your formidable maid Mrs. Brown
kicked us both out. While we waited for the doctor, you and I had a
long overdue discussion where you apologized profusely for being a
selfish bastard and begged my forgiveness,” James said, sounding
amused and drawing Robert’s glare.

With a roll of his eyes and a few
muttered words, James carefully sat down at the end of the bed and
reached over so that the baby nearest him could grab onto his
finger. “Fine. I apologized for being a bastard and not saying
goodbye to you.”

“That’s all?” Robert asked with a frown
as he reached down and softly caressed his son’s head.

“Well, you did apologize for
everything,” James said, sending him a smile.

“I’m sorry for not realizing that you
were in love with her, Robert. Our parents are sorry as well. They
should be here in a few weeks to tell you themselves. I should have
realized that something was going on.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for,”
Robert said, giving him a reassuring smile before he returned his
attention to the baby who was pulling his finger to his
mouth.

“Oh, yes there is!” Mrs. Brown said,
stepping up the side of the bed to smile down at the babies. “You
gave the doctor and me heart failure when you came running in here
like that!”

“I ran in here?” Robert asked, wracking
his brain, trying to remember, but it was all a bit
fuzzy.

James chuckled. “As soon as Elizabeth
started screaming you broke free, ran into the room, caught one
look at your wife giving birth and promptly passed out.”

“I don’t remember any of
that.”

“And I doubt that any of us will ever
forget,” James said with a wink that had Elizabeth laughing softly
as she leaned down and pressed a kiss against the squirming baby’s
foot that kept lightly kicking at her.

He looked at Elizabeth, noting the
exhaustion and pure joy in her eyes as she looked down at their
boys. She looked so damn beautiful, and he couldn’t help losing his
heart to her all over again.

“Twins, minx,” he said, gently pulling
his hand away from his son so that he could push a damp strand of
hair behind Elizabeth’s ear.

“Twins,” she repeated with a pleased
smile.

He leaned in, careful of the baby now
trying to grab onto his shirt, and brushed a kiss against his
beautiful wife’s lips. “I love you, Beth,” he said, using the name
that she hated to tease another smile out of her.

“And I love you, Robert
Lemonade.”

The Start of Their Happily
Ever After Before We Rewind Just a Bit and Get to Where Things Went
Wrong...

Four and a half years
later…..

“Did you bring it?” Robert demanded as
soon as the coach door opened.

James chuckled as he stepped out, his
eyes dancing with amusement as he held up a dark grey rock. “You
mean this rock that you so kindly asked for? The one that I had to
travel to London for in the middle of the night and search the park
for six hours in the freezing rain, because it was a matter of life
and death?” he asked dryly as he tossed the rock to
Robert.

“Thank God,” Robert sighed, catching
the rock and barely sparing his brother a glance as he headed for
his shop.

“What? No, thank you, James? I missed
you, James?” James asked, veering off to go greet Elizabeth and the
children, who were playing by the garden.

“Keep Elizabeth busy for an hour or
two,” was all he said as he pulled his shop door closed behind him,
praying that he didn’t accidentally break this one as
well.

*-*-*-*

Elizabeth released a sigh as she leaned
against the tree and watched as James played with her babies. He
was such a wonderful uncle and from what she’d heard from the rest
of the family, a wonderful father as well.

He was so kind and sweet, she thought,
laughing when the twins tackled him to the ground so that they
could show him how to give a proper bear hug. Her lips twitched
with amusement when James pretended to turn into a bear and chased
the twins all while cradling her youngest giggling son carefully in
his arms. Her smile turned watery as she looked down at the folded
parchment in her hands.

James had turned her dreams into a
reality.

About a year ago, he’d been looking
through the estates old ledgers and had come across her plans. Not
sure what to make of them at first, he’d questioned Mary and
Anthony who were only too happy to finally tell him what they
thought about Heather burning through the fortune that was meant to
help the poor.

Shocked, he’d taken another look at her
plans. Then he took a look at his wife’s outrageous spending and
what he saw had him finally putting his foot down and limiting her
spending to a modest monthly allowance. As a result, Heather was no
longer speaking to him, but he didn’t seem to care. Elizabeth
suspected that when Heather discovered that James had taken half of
her inheritance and created a charity with it, that Heather would
probably never speak to him again. Then again, that would probably
make James the happiest man alive.

She wished that he’d reconsider and
move to America. She knew that he would love it here. He probably
would have made the move years ago if it hadn’t been for Heather.
Her sister refused to even consider it, never mind visit, which
meant that James visited once a year just to get a break from her.
Next year James was bringing his girls along with their parents for
a visit whether Heather liked it or not. Elizabeth suspected that
she probably wouldn’t like it.

“It’s good to see him,” the deep voice
that she adored said as a strong arm was carefully wrapped around
her waist and she was pulled back against the man that she loved
more than anything.

“It is,” she murmured her agreement as
she turned herself in his arms so that she could wrap her arms
around his shoulders, “but it’s even better to see you.”

“Missed me?” he teased as he leaned
down and brushed his lips against hers.

“Terribly,” she said, smiling against
his lips. “When I came back from feeding the baby you were already
gone.”

“I’m sorry, minx. I had some work that
I needed to finish so that I could spend tonight focusing on you,”
he said, kissing her again.

“I have you for the whole
night?”

“The whole night,” he promised as he
leaned in to kiss her.

“What about James?” she asked, feeling
bad that he’d traveled all the way from England to visit and they
were abandoning him on his first night.

“Can entertain himself for one night,”
he said, brushing his lips against hers one last time before he
stepped away.

“This is for you,” Robert said as he
held out a small beautifully carved box.

She didn’t have to ask him to know that
he’d made the box himself. It was absolutely beautiful and
something that he would no doubt be able to get some of the
merchants in town to buy. He could probably have a very lucrative
business if he focused on making furniture and trinkets, but that
would mean spending long hours away from her and the children and
she knew that he didn’t want that. Instead, he settled for making
the things that he loved in his spare time and focused on
supporting them by building and fixing homes. He was very good at
what he did and was in high demand.

They would never be rich, but as long
as they were able to keep their children safe and happy then
neither one of them cared.

“Happy anniversary, minx,” he said as
she opened the box and saw…

A necklace made out of
stones?

Whatever it was, it was beautiful and
she loved it because he’d made it for her. With a smile, she leaned
up to kiss him, but he stepped back and focused his attention on
the necklace.

“This white bead is from the old barn
where you covered me in honey and feathers,” he said, drawing her
attention back to the necklace. “This bead,” he said, pointing out
a grey stone bead next, “is from the tree where I cut your hair
off. This bead is from…”

He went on explaining where every stone
had come from, pausing every now and then to smile, laugh or to
reminisce about tales from their childhood. She listened as he went
through each bead, growing more amazed by the minute. When he
pointed out the bead from the orangery, she felt her bottom lip
tremble. As he finished with the stone that he’d picked up outside
their bedroom window on the night that she’d given birth to
Jonathan, she found herself falling in love with her husband all
over again.

“I love it,” she said, an
understatement. It was the most beautiful, thoughtful gift that
anyone had ever given her. It also made her realize just how much
she meant to him.

“I’m glad,” he said, leaning in to kiss
her, only this time she didn’t let him go.

“It’s my turn to give you your
anniversary gift, Mr. Bradford.”

*-*-*-*

He was dying. There was no other
explanation for it. His limbs weakly trembled as he dragged himself
across the room. He couldn’t think of a time when he’d been so
thirsty or hungry in his life. Several times over the last
twenty-four hours he’d considered yelling for help, but he was
beyond help. He knew that.

The cause of his destruction stirred
behind him. He picked up the pitcher of water and chugged the
lukewarm liquid. It did nothing to quench his thirst or ease his
empty stomach.

“I think I’m dying,” he
mumbled.

A weak laugh came from the
bed. “I
know
I
am,” Elizabeth said. “We have to stop…we have to…I need food…and
water…..the baby, Robert,….think of the baby,” she implored
weakly.

He took a deep breath. The baby needed
food. His baby. He couldn’t help grinning. His minx was making him
a father again, hopefully giving him a little girl to spoil this
time. He hugged the pitcher to his chest and brought it over to
her.

“Here. Drink this and I’ll get dressed
and have Mrs. Brown send some food up.” He frowned as he looked at
the door. “I wonder why they haven’t checked on us by
now.”

“Probably because we scared them away,”
she said as she took the pitcher from him. She almost dropped it.
Her arms were so weak, but she couldn’t drink lying back this way.
She got up on her knees with great difficulty. The only thing that
mattered was the water. She didn’t care about being ladylike or
anything else. She drank greedily, not caring about the water that
spilled down her chin and down her chest and stomach. She was so
thirsty. When she had her fill, she placed the now empty pitcher on
the bed. Her eyes met Robert’s intense gaze and she knew that
things were about to take a turn for the worse.

“Oh no,” she whimpered.

Robert stared at the water dripping
down his wife’s breasts. He licked his lips. Every part of him save
one was protesting the sight. He followed her frightened eyes
downward. He was more than ready to go again. It felt like he
hadn’t had her in years instead of minutes.