The Switch (26 page)

The question was enough to snap Radcliffe's patience. Muttering a curse, he stormed out of the salon. Tomas and Stokes glanced at each other, then moved as one to follow him up the stairs.

Beth had just finished remaking the bed and was helping Charlie settle back into it when the pounding started on the door. Mrs.
Hartshair answered it, and Charlie heard Radcliffe's determined voice quite clearly: "I want to see my wife."

Mrs. Hartshair stepped aside at once, allowing him to enter before closing the door on the anxious gazes of Tomas and Stokes.

"Charlie?" Radcliffe hurried forward, then paused uncertainly at the side of the bed when he saw her. She looked exhausted; her face pale, hair disheveled and lank, and her eyes and expression incredibly weary as she glanced from the baby in her
arms to him. She had never looked more lovely to Radcliffe, and he told her so as he eased carefully onto the side of the bed, one hand moving to cover hers on the baby and squeeze gently.

Charlie made a face at the claim, knowing just how bad she must look, then smiled slightly. "Do you not wish to see your son, my lord?"

"Son?" He peered down blankly at the bundle she held. "He's a boy?"

"Aye. Would you like to hold him?"

Radcliffe looked doubtful, but took the small baby. Holding him awkwardly and feeling incredibly clumsy, he peered down at the child and felt something tighten in his chest. He looked oddly like a little old man: his eyes were squeezed closed, his head nearly bald except for a fine feathering of fuzz, his face all squinched up in displeasure and an angry red from the ordeal he had suffered, and he was flailing one chubby little fist about. He was the ugliest little thing Radcliffe had ever seen, and the most adorable. "He is so tiny," he marveled, feeling tears well in his eyes. He and Charlie had made this miraculous new life.

"You would not say that, my lord, had he squeezed his way out of you," Charlie muttered with asperity, and her husband looked briefly stricken, then saw the amusement dancing in her eyes and smiled.

"Actually, he is not small at all," Beth murmured, moving to join them. "For a baby, he is quite large, in fact. Larger than any of the babies I saw
born at Westerly."

"Beth has always had an interest in healing," Charlie explained when Radcliffe looked curious. "Back at home, if there was a body that was ill, or a birth taking place, Beth was usually there to try to help."

"Shall I take the baby out to show Tomas and Stokes so that the two of you can have a moment alone?"

"Aye, please." Radcliffe handed the child over to his aunt, then glanced around. The other women had already finished what they were doing and slipped out of the room. He waited until Beth closed the door silently behind her, then turned back to Charlie, bent forward, and kissed her gently on the lips.

"Thank you," he breathed into her hair as he hugged her carefully.

"You are welcome, my lord," she sighed, leaning into his embrace. "What for?"

"For our child."

"I seem to recall your having had a hand in that," she murmured with amusement as she pulled back to lean against the pillows, then heaved a sigh and grimaced. "I am sorry for today, my lord."

His eyebrows rose. "For what?"

"For ruining our wedding. I did not mean to, but when I saw that cobbler beating that boy—"

"You could not help yourself."

"Aye." She bit her lip. "I could not simply turn my head and ignore it."

"And I would not want you to," he assured her gently, and she raised her eyes to meet his gaze.

"Truly?"

"Truly. Your compassion for the weak, and disgust for injustice are two of the things I love most about you. Though," he added wryly as she relaxed, "I am grateful that in your condition you were not the one to jump on the man's back as you did with the
farmer over the pups. I was quite relieved when I pulled who I thought was you off the cobbler's back and found it was Beth."

"I was attempting some restraint," she said with dignity. "It is something I am learning from you."

"Then we are each learning from the other. For I have been learning to live again from you," he murmured, and realized that it was true; even his guilt had left him.

Charlie had told him all that she had learned of Mary and Robert's murder from Norwich as soon as they were safely home that night. Learning this news had removed a world of guilt from him. There was nothing he could have done to save his sister. Even had he convinced them to take the carriage, an armed guard, or an army, Norwich would have killed
them another day. He could not have protected her from him. Even Robert could not have.

None of them had suspected his intentions. He'd been quite mad.

"I am so happy and content just now, Radcliffe," Charlie murmured suddenly, and Radcliffe smiled and stretched out on the bed beside her, holding her gently.

"So am I, my love."

She was silent for a moment, then asked, "Radcliffe, would you really not change me for the world?"

"Not a bit," he assured her solemnly.

"Beth says there was no tearing and I should be up and about in no time. You know what that means, do you not?"

Radcliffe blinked at what he thought to be a change of subject, but tried to follow it gamely.

"What does it mean, my love?"

"It means we can go to your club soon."

"Oh, Charlie," Radcliffe groaned, then started to laugh as he hugged her. "I should have known you would not forget about that."

"Oh, come now, Radcliffe. It will be exciting."

"Oh, aye, it will be exciting all right," he agreed wryly. "Especially when someone recognizes you as Charles, and knows Charles is really Lady Radcliffe, and I am thrown out of my club. That will be most exciting."

"That will not happen. Beth and I have devised a disguise we are sure will work."

"A disguise, hmm?" he murmured doubtfully, his gaze fixing on the excited gleam in her eyes.

"Aye. And just think of it, husband. Me in my tight breeches. You the only
one knowing 'tis I." Her eyebrows waggled suggestively. "Mayhap we could find a room or a closet unoccupied and…" She shrugged slightly as her voice trailed away, and Radcliffe wasn't surprised to feel excitement stirring within him. It seemed like forever since they had made love, though it had only been the last week or so that they had stopped for fear of hurting the child. Her suggestion now was raising a great deal of interest in him. Only Charlie would consider the possibility of making love under the noses of the ton.

"When did Beth say she thought you might be up to that sort of thing?" he asked in a growl, and Charlie beamed at him brightly.

"I always knew you had the soul of an adventurer, my lord."