“Medicine,” he said, surprising Alexandra with an approving nod. “That’s quite a profession. Your mother will be…”
“Don’t worry,” she said, lifting a hand. “I don’t actually intend to practice,” she said. “I only wish to—“
Suddenly, from somewhere in the manor came a peal of laughter and then an ungodly squeal, and everyone emerged from their hiding places to go see what the matter was.
Ben himself was up in a flash, and Alexandra was directly behind him. Altogether they rushed into the hall, only to discover that Merrick’s wife was suddenly in labor.
Everyone stood staring at the puddle on the floor, as every last occupant of the house came scurrying out of the woodwork.
What was more, everyone, including Chloe’s husband, stood staring at poor Chloe, who now stood in the middle of the foyer, looking terrified. No one seemed to have their wits about them to do anything at all— until Chloe bent over and gave another ungodly yowl, and Alexandra realized that, for better or worse, she might be the only one with the knowledge to help. “Is there a midwife?” she asked one of the servants.
The woman looked terrified. “She’s late, mum, waylaid by the weather. Her boy took ill, she’s—”
“Don’t worry! I am a doctor,” howled Chloe.
“A lot of good you’ll do for yourself in that condition,” said Alexandra. “Please,” she said to the kitchen maid, “Send someone to Hampton Court at once to inquire about a doctor.” And then she turned to yet another servant and demanded, “Boil rags, bring them upstairs.” And then to Chloe’s husband and to Ben, “Dear God, don’t just stand there! Carry her upstairs!”
CHAPTER 9
24 DECEMBER
Rule No. 9:
On Keeping It Private.
You are not required to kiss under a mistletoe hanging in any public place. Gentlemen, please! Be mindful! Ladies, please! Consider your reputation!
Ben didn’t recognize the woman possessing Lexie’s body; it certainly wasn’t the retiring young lady he’d known since early years. Proper though she might still be, she was comporting herself with all the confidence of a matron—only perhaps to be expected, considering that she’d fended for herself most of her life. And still, it surprised Ben. This was not a face she’d ever allowed him to see.
Like nobody’s business, she took charge of the situation, despite that he would have expected his dutiful sister to fulfill the role. Caught off guard, Claire was as dumbstruck as the rest of them.
“Well!” said Alexandra, clapping her hands, and Chloe gave another hapless yelp of pain.
Afterward, all four men scrambled to do Alexandra’s bidding, all at once attempting to lift Chloe, but her husband impatiently shoved everyone aside and swept his wife into his arms to carry her upstairs. Only Alexandra followed, leaving the rest of them to stare, openmouthed, at their ascending forms, and long, long after they had departed, Ben stood staring up the stairwell as Claire wrung her hands with worry. “Well,” she said. “We all knew a Christmas baby was entirely possible. But I really didn’t believe it would happen.”
“I shouldn’t have made the poor dear laugh,” lamented Lady Morrissey. “I—”
“Stop,” said Ian. “We are all to blame for not minding our own affairs, but this was nobody’s fault. That child was due to arrive sooner or later.”
“And nevertheless, do you think she overexerted?” worried Lady Morrissey, and Mr. Cameron snapped, “What I believe, my dear, is that Chloe is very, very pregnant.”
The servants all dispersed, while Claire, Ian, Cameron and Lady Morrissey all remained to pace the hall and to wait for the physician’s arrival. Ben left them to do their worst to the marble floors and ascended to look for Alexandra.
He wasn’t particularly worried. In truth, they weren’t far from the Palace—only a few hundred meters. Snow or no snow, the doctor would arrive in due time. There was no way they would allow a member of the Royal House of Meridian—a guest of the Crown—to suffer through childbirth unattended. Whether the physician had to travel by horse or by foot, he had no doubt the man would arrive within the hour. And in the meantime, Chloe herself was a doctor, and he found that he was perfectly fascinated—and eager—to learn what more Alexandra knew—Alexandra, the woman he’d so long believed hadn’t the head for anything more sober than ballgowns or jewels.
Waiting for her to emerge from Chloe’s bedchamber, he stood on the upstairs landing, still watching for the physician’s arrival from his vantage of the upstairs window.
His expectations proved entirely correct. A fine thoroughbred appeared in less than thirty minutes time, and once the man arrived and entered the birthing suite, Alexandra herself emerged, wiping her hands on her satin skirts, with hardly a care for stains. With a very shy smile, she came to stand by Ben at the window, and said, “Well… wasn’t that exciting?”
Ben found himself grinning at her, seeing her through entirely new eyes—eyes that had never truly seen her before. “Indeed, it was,” he said. “You were quite the champ.” And he watched as her cheeks bloomed rose.
“I’m sorry if I was rude earlier,” she said, looking chagrined.
He lifted a hand. “No need, Lexie. You did as you should have done faced with a lot of bumbling idiots.”
“Not quite bumbling,” she demurred, and peered down at her hands, then held them primly before her as she glanced out the window. “But sadly,” she said. “I was rather enjoying our conversation…”
For once, she’d refrained from saying, but Ben knew very well that’s what she was thinking, as was he. And yet, so it seemed, he was the one with the mistake in thought. Alexandra couldn’t have changed so much overnight. No, indeed. She was entirely other than he’d ever supposed—more like Claire than even Claire was. She had a brain, and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
“So was I,” he admitted, and when Alexandra met his gaze, he could see that she had gleaned some of what he was thinking. Her blush deepened, and she peered down at her joined hands, looking for a moment as she had that day he’d wrangled the promise of a kiss from her…
He had been so callow then… and she so artless—all her feelings discernible in her eyes… as they were right now.
Ben had known then that he’d loved her. Something about that lovely, starry-eyed look she used to give him had always made him feel like a king in her presence—and wasn’t that the thing about love? The way one felt in a loved one’s presence?
Until recently, Alexandra had always made him feel as though he was more than he was.
She’d made him long to be the man she wanted him to be…
And then, after the ordeal with her father, he’d found he loathed himself, both in and out of her company.
“She’s too good for you,” he heard the echo of a voice from years past—a grim-faced ghost he should like to forget.
The one thing nobody ever knew—no one but he and Lord Huntington—was that, indeed, once upon a time, Ben had asked for Lexie’s hand in marriage.