Lady In Distress (The Langley Sisters Book 3) (12 page)

She had never been so exhausted; fear was eating her insides and climbing into her throat. Was this really normal? Was Livvy going through what every woman did or was she having complications? The doctor was still talking confidently; however, she felt as if in the last few hours nothing had changed. She was not advancing. And what of the baby? Would it be born healthy?

“Bella?”

Opening her eyes, she saw Luke. He stood before her. His hair was damp and she wondered when it had started to rain. She flattened the palms of her hands on the wall behind her to stop from reaching for him. She wanted his strength at that moment, the feeling of his arms around her making her feel safe. Dragging her eyes from him, she looked over his shoulder to where Jenny and his mother stood. She’d not seen them until now, such was the power Luke had over her, the ability to see no one else when he was near. Stepping around him, she hurried to Jenny and let herself be folded into the welcoming arms.
 

“It seems to have been going on for so long, Jenny. I don’t know if that’s as it should be or not?”

“Well now, Miss Isabella, when I delivered my Luke here, it took me two days, so I’d not be panicking yet.”

“Oh, Mrs. Fletcher, did it really?” Lifting her head, she noted that the woman was no longer scowling at her as she had that day in Twoaks.

Luke’s mother nodded and gave her a pat on the hand as she passed.
 

“Now we’re going in there, my love, and I know you want to also, but you must eat something first, as you’re pale as my morning porridge. Luke, here, will see to it you get something,” Jenny said, pushing her at him.

“No, I want to come—”

“You’ll eat before going back in there.” Luke’s words were accompanied by his hand around her waist, and she was urged down the stairs.
 

“I know I should eat, yet I’m not sure I can.”

“Yet you will,” he said, leading her to Will’s office where a fire still smoldered in the grate. He gently lowered her into a chair and then left the room.

Bella’s yawn was loud as no one was there to hear her. Arching backwards, she attempted to ease the ache in her spine that the tension had put there. She wondered that there were so many people in the world when woman had to go through what Livvy was at this very moment enduring. Shuddering, she regained her feet. Perhaps she would spend her life looking after her nieces and nephews, and rethink her plans to marry and have a family.

“Sit down, Isabella.” Luke walked back into the room with a tray in his hands which he placed on the table beside her.

“My sister—”

“Will be all right for a few more minutes.” He lowered her back into the chair, and then braced his hands on the arm of the chair and his face was suddenly inches from hers. Big and dominating, yet she wasn’t scared. How could she be when she knew what this man was? His kindness, the gentle man he had often shown her.
 

“You asked me to do something for you, now I’m returning the request with one of my own. Eat and rest for a few minutes then I will let you go back into that room. Livvy needs you to be strong now, not collapse at her bedside.”

Looking into his lovely, blue eyes she felt herself yield. He was right, of course, but worry was making her unreasonable and emotional. Neither of which were healthy emotions to have when he was close.

“Go now, Luke. I promise to eat.” Bella needed him to leave her, before she did something foolish like touch him. “Please go.” But as she said the words, her fingers were suddenly there on his face, tracing the curve of his chin. “You’re cold.” It was a silly thing to say but Bella could think of no other as she lowered her hand once again to her lap.

“Its winter,” he said with a gentle smile. And then it was gone, and his lips were on hers. She cupped his cheeks as his lips placed soft kisses on hers. Achingly sweet, Bella wanted to stand and have him hold her; feel his hard body around hers. She wanted it so badly her legs started to rise.

“No, sweetheart.” The rasp of his words told her the kiss had affected him. “Eat now. You’ll need your strength.”

She nodded, and he rose to move to the door, where he then leaned against the wall as if to guard her from anyone else attempting to enter the room while she ate.
 

“I was there when my brothers and sister were born, Bella, and through each birth I wondered how my mother would survive, and each time she did.”
 

Bella picked up the scone slathered in jam and began to eat as he spoke.

“Were you scared?”

He nodded. “She promised me the first time, when I stood at her bedside terrified that I would lose her, that this is the natural process and it has been happening to women for more years than she or I could count. She said that although there is pain, there is also joy at the end, and it is that she remembers most.”

“I feel so helpless in there with Livvy, Luke. I can do nothing to take away her pain.”
 

“Being there with her, comforting her, that is what she needs from you.”
 

“Will you eat something?” Bella questioned him when she picked up her teacup.
 

“I have just eaten.”
 

“I-I won’t apologize for what happened while I was skating.” Bella needed to say the words.

“And I won’t apologize for that kiss…or the other one.”

“I don’t want an apology for the kisses.” Bella held her breath as she looked at him, saw the fire in his eyes. “I-I wanted them as much as you.”
 

“Bella.” Her name sounded like a plea on his lips, but he said nothing further.

She dropped her eyes and finished her meal; only then, when she had herself composed once more, did she rise.
 

“I shall go back to Livvy now.”

“And I shall be here if you need me.”

She stopped beside where he leaned on the wall, watching her.

“I don’t know what will happen in London, or what our future holds, yet I do know that I have much to thank you for, especially given what my father asked of you.”

“You have no need to thank me for anything.”
 

“I was angry when you told me of the letter but now I realize the sacrifices you have made for me, Luke.”

“It was never a sacrifice, Bella.”

“Th-thank you.”

“Go now.” He touched her cheek again and then opened the door for her to pass through and suddenly London did not appear such a treat, nor something she had always longed for. What she longed for was Luke Fletcher and the wonderful feelings he produced inside her.
 

***

“So we have Lord Ryder, and Jenny, who has one child, and Esmay who has eight. Plus Miss Isabella, who is still a child herself?”

“I’m not a child, Doctor Brown,” Bella protested from her position behind them at the rear, where the woman had relegated her.
 

“Compared to the rest of the people in this room, you are,” Esmay Fletcher said, moving towards the wash bowl to wring out a cloth to wash Livvy’s sweaty face with.

Bella shot a look at Livvy, but she had not heard as another pain was gripping her.
 

“I am not a child, Mrs. Fletcher, nor am I leaving,” she said, pointing to Livvy, “My sister was there for me through some of the darkest hours of my life and I will not leave her when she is suffering, no matter what you believe or feel about me.”

Luke’s mother looked at her for several seconds and then nodded. “It’s admirable of you to want to be here. I’m sure there aren’t many your age who would.”

“My sisters and I are very close.”

“Did Luke tell you he bought us a new house, and that we are to move in this week?”

Surprised that the woman was confiding in her, Bella shook her head.

“Tis true he tricked me into visiting it. Told us we were going for a walk and we ended up at the new house. I knew, of course, that something was about, but I followed along, and then once I was inside he convinced me to live there.”

Bella knew he could be persuasive. “And is it lovely?”

Esmay’s eyes lit as she smiled.

“It is, Miss Isabella, very lovely. And he has repaired and painted it, and filled it with lovely things. I’m fearful of what people will say when they know I have moved there.”

The worry was real, and Bella patted her hand. Luke got his pride from his mother.

“Mrs. Fletcher, everyone who knows you well, knows what an honest and hardworking person you are, no one will say anything, and most will be pleased for you. If by chance anyone does, then surely they are not worth your time.”

She was subjected to a look like her son’s.

“My son thinks highly of you, and now I can see why.”

Nothing more was said as Livvy drew their attention once more.

The pains started to increase steadily over the next hour until Will had nearly bitten right through his lip with worry. The doctor, Esmay and Jenny tried to urge Will and Bella from the room, but they refused. Finally, when Bella had begun to despair that the baby would ever be born, Master Henry Ryder made an appearance. He looked like a prune and was the color of two-day-old porridge, and was the most beautiful baby Bella had ever seen.

“Never get tired of this part,” Doctor Brown said, taking the baby and wrapping him in a soft blanket before handing him to Livvy.
 

Bella hadn’t realized she was crying until Esmay Fletcher held her in her strong arms. “I still cried with my eighth,” she said, and together Bella and Esmay watched Will and Livvy look down at their beautiful boy.

Phoebe arrived minutes later with Finn and, to Bella’s surprise, Luke. She wasn’t surprised that Will had asked for him as she knew the bond they shared; she was surprised he had come.

Will held the baby and Luke approached slowly, a gentle smile on his face.

“My boy loves babies. He helped me bring some of mine into the world and he’s always been a better father to them than their own was.”

Esmay was watching Luke, as Bella was, her words soft so he couldn’t hear them.
 

“I never realized, but of course he must be good with so many siblings.”

Will handed little Henry to him and Luke took the precious bundle without hesitation, fitting him into the crook of his arm as he slowly rocked backwards and forwards.
 

Bella watched him stroke a finger down Henry’s cheek, and thought that perhaps one day, the child whose cheek he stroked would be theirs. His eyes met hers then, and she knew he saw her thoughts clearly because they matched his own.

“Where are you going, Bella?”

She hadn’t even realized her feet had carried her towards the door until Phoebe spoke.

“I need to wash, Phoebe. It has been so long. I shall return soon, I promise.”

Bella smiled to the room at large and left. When she reached hers, she washed and pulled on boots and a heavy coat and left the house. Her leg was stiff after so long in the room and she needed some time alone to clear her head. Walking into the cool evening air, she hoped that the exercise would help erase the last of the tension inside her, help erase the longing that still gripped her after seeing Luke holding Henry.
 

***

Luke walked slowly toward the stables. He was happy for Livvy and Will. The baby was sweet and they, and the rest of the family, would smother it with love.
 

Bella had looked exhausted when he walked in. Dark shadows under her eyes, hair a mess, yet she was still beautiful to him. He’d seen the look in her eyes as he’d held Henry too, because he’d felt it also, felt the need to hold his own child, the one they created.

The problem was that before he had kissed her and felt her soft curves pressed against his body, he had only imaged what she felt like. His love for her had been pure and sweet, and left him with an ache in his chest. He’d wanted to protect the wounded girl she had been, but now—now he wanted her beneath him. He wanted to kiss every inch of her body. He dreamt of making love to her, learning the things that made her sigh. His need for her had changed with that one kiss, from sweet to all encompassing need.

“Luke?”

Luke looked over his shoulder to watch one of Will’s maids approach. Not wanting her to see what thoughts of Bella had done to him, he kept walking into one of the stable. “What can I do for you, Stella?”
   

“You’ve a fine look about you this evening, Luke Fletcher,” she said, slipping into the stables behind him.”

He turned so quickly he stumbled back against the wall, and then she was there before him.
 

“I’ve admired you for a long time.” She accompanied these words by running her hands over his body.

“Stella, what are you—”

When she touched him through his breeches the breath hissed from his throat.

“I hope this is for me,” she purred.

“My mother is in that house, I have no wish for her to find me here, with you, Stella,” he said quickly, grabbing her wrist and pushing her away.