Page 33 of My Highland Rogue
Finally, he pulled back, leaving her standing there, her breath ragged, hands still clasped around his neck.
“I need to go see Sean,” he said.
She nodded, grateful that she didn’t need to talk right at the moment. She didn’t think she could.
A moment later she dropped her arms. “I need to go see Lauren. I’ll see you at dinner.”
When she went to check on Lauren, she found her sister-in-law in some discomfort.
“I don’t know why, Jennifer, but I’m not feeling well.”
“That’s nature’s way of announcing that your baby will be born soon,” Mrs. Farmer said.
“I’ll send a tray up for you,” Jennifer said.
Lauren shook her head. “I don’t think I could eat. I haven’t an appetite and I feel odd, Jennifer.”
“Would you like me to stay with you?”
She wanted to be with Gordon, but Lauren needed her right now.
“Could you?” Lauren stretched out her hand. Jennifer covered it with her own.
“Of course I can.”
She would send word to Gordon. That would mean that he would eat alone. Or perhaps he would prefer a tray in his room as well. Or, he might still be with Sean.
She left to manage dinner. She returned a few minutes later to find Mrs. Farmer sitting in the corner, occupied with a book. When Jennifer offered to sit with Lauren while she went to eat her own meal, the midwife considered the matter for a moment before nodding.
“I’ll be gone only a short while, Lady Jennifer. I believe that the birth of the countess’s child is imminent.”
Poor Lauren looked terrified.
Jennifer stayed with her sister-in-law long enough for Mrs. Farmer to eat her dinner. Mrs. Thompson sent two trays up to the suite, one for Lauren and one for Jennifer. Unlike Lauren, she had an appetite.
She offered to read a book Lauren had begun, thinking that it might take her sister-in-law’s mind from the impending birth. She kept reading for two hours until Lauren fell asleep.
Jennifer finally tiptoed out of the room, waving to Mrs. Farmer. The midwife barely returned a nod.
Chapter Thirteen
Jennifer entered her suite and lit one of the lamps in her sitting room. She walked to the windows and stood there a moment. Here, the view overlooked where the north wing had once been, the expanse of open area and the rolling hills. Tonight, she barely saw it as she stood there.
For several moments she thought about what she was considering. Her mother wouldn’t approve. Neither would Ellen. The world would label her as some kind of fallen woman, but wasn’t she considered a spinster now? Someone who was unloved and unwanted? What did it matter what other people thought?
She wanted and needed to be with Gordon more than decorum or morality or decency or any word that someone might use to condemn her.
She bathed, put on perfume, then donned her loveliest nightgown and peignoir, a gift from Ellen on her last birthday. The pale yellow silk floated like a cloud over her body, almost feeling like Gordon’s fingers on her skin.
Her body hummed and her skin felt hot. Even the delicate silk felt like too much covering.
After donning a cotton wrapper and her slippers, she left her rooms. Adaire Hall seemedeven larger as she descended one staircase and ascended another to get to the main wing.
Jennifer was almost at Gordon’s room when a footman stepped out of the shadows and bowed to her. She stifled a yelp and grabbed the neck of her wrapper with one hand.
“Good evening, Lady Jennifer.”
After what had happened to the north wing, her father had put precautions into place. Consequently, a half dozen footmen were stationed throughout Adaire Hall, their primary duty to ensure that fire wasn’t an ever-present danger.
