Page 137 of Duchess Material

After another twenty or so minutes, the plane settled, and she could get herself a drink. She carried another air sickness bag with her.

“You alright?” Natalie asked.

Lucy took a swig of sparkling water and nodded.

“Please tell me you’re not about to get sick on me.”

“I’m not. This isn’t catching,” Lucy said, voice low.

“Oh, is it not?” Natalie asked.

Natalie caught on. Lucy shrugged.

“So, when did you find out?”

“Technically, I haven’t,” Lucy said. “But I am convinced it’s happening.”

“Uh-huh. Any reason you’re avoiding an answer.”

Lucy took another swig. “Well, I’m about to see my husband again for the first time in about a week. I don’t want to drop this on him first thing. Second, I’m about to spend a week in a castle with my ex-boyfriend and his fiancé after he got into a screaming match with my husband a few weeks ago.”

Despite George’s good behaviour during their dinner in Chicago, he doubled down on his spat with Winston while at Gerry’s stag last month. It had not gone well.

“Stop worrying about the hubby. Ignore George. According to everyone who was there, George was in the wrong. No one is going to let anyone say two words to you about anything. I won’t. I will go all mama bear on him.”

“I hope you’re right—about all of it.”

“You know I’m right. As far as my dear brothers go, they won’t be in Thirlestane for a bit. So, tell him before then. Or at least take a damn test, woman.”

Lucy suspected Natalie was right.

“You two have barely been in the same city for more than forty-eight hours. How?”

“You know as well as I do, Nat, that when every minute counts, you make it work,” Lucy chuckled.

“Rita will shit a brick.”

“And she’s not going to know—nor is your mother—until we are comfortable sharing.”

“Yes, captain,” Natalie joked.

Natalie was able to avoid more turbulence as they landed in Edinburgh. Lucy felt nervous headed to the family castle only about forty minutes outside the city. Natalie must have felt it because she reached out and squeezed Lucy’s hand.

“Why are you being all weird? This is Winston’s home. You realise it is also now your home, right? It’s your castle as much as his.”

“It’s his Mum’s.”

“It will be yours someday. It will always be yours. You’ll raise your kids there. You must own it. Where is the Countess?”

“She still doesn’t exist.”

“She does. I’ve seen her. Stop worrying about being enough. If you weren’t enough, you wouldn’t be here with me. Winston wouldn’t have married you. People wouldn’t rely on you for everything. You must start throwing your weight around in your personal life just like at work, okay?”

Lucy smiled a bit and nodded. Her Castle. Lucy wasn’t convinced a place that big would ever feel like home. She still felt that their house in London was too big. And now, Winston was discussing buying something larger once they had kids. She grew up in shoeboxes on army bases and tiny apartments in shitty neighbourhoods. She was relieved that their children would never experience life in an apartment with a leaking ceiling and roaches, but a castle as a home did not compute.

When the girls arrived, the men were out and would be back at dinner. Upon arrival, Lucy was expecting to be shoved in any old room. Instead, she was taken up to one of the nicest rooms in the place. It wasn’t as if the place had bad rooms. However, when she’d stayed here before, it had been with George, and they hadn’t had a huge walk-in closet and a bathtub the size of Texas. No, this was special. Was Natalie right?

“Your ladyship,” a maid checked in, “please do not unpack. We’ll manage that.”

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