The Heiress Bride (Sherbrooke Brides 3)

“No,” Alex said, and groaned. “Stop calling me ‘poor Alex.’ It makes me feel like a gouty maiden aunt.”

Sophie alerted the servants to the disaster and for the next few minutes pandemonium reigned. Emma stared wide-eyed at the mess, two other serving maids stacked behind her, gawking. Sophie brought a wet towel, Rory the footman behind her, craning to see into the bedchamber. Mrs. Seton trailed her with a basin of cool water.

“Here, drink this,” Colin said, and lifted Alex slightly. She sipped at the water he’d poured into a glass from the carafe on the bedside table, promptly grabbed her stomach, and groaned again.

“I remember drinking water sometimes made her stomach cramp,” Sinjun said. “Mrs. Seton, what we need is some hot tea.”

“Poor little mite,” said Mrs. Seton, and efficiently wiped Alex’s face. “Aye, birthing isn’t always an unafflicted joy.”

Alex groaned again, and Sophie announced, “I wasn’t sick for a minute.”

“Shut up, Sophie,” Alex said, teeth gritted. “First you don’t have the good sense to tell Douglas where we are and now you’re bragging about how wonderful you felt carrying Grayson when I want to die.”

“Shush,” Colin said, taking the cloth from Mrs. Seton and wiping Alex’s clammy face. “You’ll feel just the thing very soon, I promise.”

There were suddenly loud footsteps in the corridor, coming closer and faster, as if a battalion of crusaders had just arrived to free the Holy Land. It needed but this, Colin thought, staring at Douglas Sherbrooke as he burst into the bedchamber, flinging the door so hard that it slammed against the wall. Ryder nearly rammed into Douglas’s back, and there was Philpot, consternation writ plainly on his face, jumping up and down behind Ryder.

“My lord,” Philpot yelled above the jumble of voices. “They truckled right ov’r me!”

“It’s all right,” Colin said on a sigh. He continued to wipe Alex’s face. “Hello, Douglas, Ryder. Do come

in. Philpot, they won’t attempt violence in front of their wives. Ah, Emma, stop staring at the mess. Please clean it up. The rest of you—out!”

“I knew you’d come,” Sinjun said, beaming at both of them. “But this is faster than I expected, even for you two.”

Sophie was staring down at her slippers.

Alex just groaned and closed her eyes.

Douglas said dispassionately, as he strode to the bed and stood there, staring down at his wife, “So you were sick, were you? And on the beautiful carpet, I see. Well, Sinjun, it’s your own fault. You know how Alex is. Blessed hell, she threw up on every carpet of value at Northcliffe Hall. Didn’t you have the foresight to put a basin in every room? She even threw up on my favorite burgundy dressing gown.”

“You deserved it,” Alex said without opening her eyes.

Ryder wasn’t at all dispassionate. He strode to his wife, grasped her arms, and shouted two inches from her face, “Damn you, look at me, Sophie!”

“I’m looking!”

“You left me! You vex me, woman; your gall has gone too far this time.”

“My gall has never gone anywhere before! And you’re here, Ryder, here with Douglas, just as we knew you’d be, although Alex was beginning to think that Douglas wouldn’t come, just to punish her with his absence.”

“Yes, I’m here. I would never use absence as a punishment and neither would Douglas. Blessed hell, I was worried about you, nearly fretted myself out of my mind until I realized it was all a lie. You’re not pregnant.”

“I never said I was. You were strutting around all arrogant and pleased with yourself. I simply didn’t gainsay you.”

“I will beat you. Where is your bedchamber?”

“I shan’t take you to my chamber. Alex is sick. Sinjun was sick but she’s better now. Colin appears philosophical but I don’t trust it. You and Douglas are as you always are. Sinjun knew you’d be here. But I don’t know how you could be here since I didn’t tell you where we were going.”

“Yes,” Alex said, “how did you know, Douglas?”

Douglas was looking at poor Emma, who was cleaning up the carpet. He turned to his wife and said, “You twit. You think I couldn’t very quickly determine where you’d gone?”

“I told you I was going to see Sophie,” Alex said, refusing to open her eyes.

“Och, here’s a cup o’ tea for her ladyship,” Mrs. Seton said, and marched to the bed. She gave Douglas a severe look and he obligingly moved. She sat down and gently put the rim to Alex’s lips. “Oh, that’s good,” Alex said, her head falling back on the pillow after three healthy sips.

“The two of you look quite remarkable in that bed, side by side,” Ryder said.