The Duchess

who brought it says Lady Sirena has had her baby.' He handed Allegra the sealed packet.

Allegra took it, and quickly broke open the seal. Her eyes flew over the page, her smile widening. Then she looked up at Quinton. 'It's a boy!' she told him. 'George Octavius William, and we are his godparents. Is the footman still here?' she asked Crofts.

'No, Your Grace, I sent him back. We did not know when to expect you,' Crofts told his mistress.

Her face fell, but then she brightened. 'I need time to write to Sirena. I shall send one of our people over in the morning. Perhaps we shall go ourselves, Quinton. A little boy! How happy they must be,' Allegra said almost wistfully.

'You must rest for several days,' the duke told her. 'A winter in London, followed by our recent adventures, and all this travel make it very necessary for you to take your ease for a short while. I do not want you getting sick, Allegra.' He took her hand up and kissed it tenderly. 'Remember, Duchess, we have work to do yet if we are to catch up with Sirena and Ocky.'

Allegra smiled sadly, pulling her hand away from him. 'I shall go, and write to Sirena now so that it may go off first thing in the morning.'

They ate their dinner in silence. Allegra had to admit that she was tired. They climbed into bed together, and he cuddled her in his arms, kissing the top of her head, but he knew instinctively that she was not in the mood to make love. Allegra, the duke understood, needed, as her stepmother had said, to come to terms with what was happening. He slept soundly in his bed, awakening to find the sun streaming into the chamber, and Allegra gone from their bed. He called to her, but received no answer. He pulled on the bell cord.

'Good morning, Your Grace!' Hawkins answered his summons almost immediately.

'Has the duchess gone down to breakfast?' he asked his valet.

'No, my lord. Her Grace ran off at first light. I believe Honor said she was going to visit the viscountess and the new baby.'

'Damnation!' The word slipped out before he could prevent it, and he saw Hawkins hide a smile. He turned the subject. 'When are you and Honor getting married?'

'Three weeks, Your Grace,' the valet answered. 'The banns have got to be read. And it won't be a moment too soon, it you gets my drift, my lord.' He winked at his master.

'Good lord!' the duke exclaimed as his valet's words sunk into his sleep-befogged brain.

'Honor says we can't tell Her Grace, my lord, but I thought you ought to know,' Hawkins said.

'Yes,' the duke agreed, 'but Her Grace will know eventually, won't she, Hawkins?'

'Aye, sir, but 'tis to be hoped that Her Grace will, by then, be in the family way herself,' came the reply. Then Hawkins actually blushed. 'Begging your pardon, my lord.'

Quinton Hunter waved his hand. ' ‘Tis all right, Hawkins. Are my clothes and shaving gear laid out in the dressing room?'

'Aye, sir.'

'Then see that there is something for me to eat, and then go to the stables and have my stallion saddled. I'll have to ride overto the Earl of Pickford's estate after my breakfast,' the duke told his valet. He climbed from his bed, lifting his nightshirt to pee in the chamber pot that Hawkins held out for him.

He dressed, and after a hearty breakfast, rode out. He didn't know whether to be angry at Allegra or not. She was exhausted, he knew. Their adventure in France, for all the ease with which they had accomplished their mission to rescue the Comtesse d'Aumont, had been harrowing. She was distressed by her father and stepmother's news, and equally upset that she was not having a child yet. But she would. Of that he was quite certain. They would have children if he could but make love to her again.

It was a beautiful spring day. The air held a hint of warmth. The flowers bloomed on the roadside. The meadows were filled with lambs who gamboled and chased one another while their dams baaed fretfully. It was the kind of spring day that poets wrote odes about, he thought. He reached Pickford Hall in midmorning, was shown into a morning room, and offered wine, which he declined.

'Have you seen him?'' Viscount Pickford demanded by way of greeting his oldest friend as he entered the room.

'I have only just arrived,' the duke said, amused.

'Allegra said you wouldn't be coming probably for several days,' Ocky said.

'I told Allegra not to come for several days,' the duke replied. 'Has she told you of our adventures in France?'

'France?' Viscount Pickford was astounded. 'No. What the hell were you doing in Froggieland, Quint? And Allegra was with you?'

'And Marcus, Eunice, Adrian, and Caroline, too. And did I mention that Allegra's maid, Honor, speaks rather good French?' he concluded with a chuckle. Then he added, 'But first I would see your heir.'

'Damn you, sir, I cannot refuse my son's godfather his first glimpse, but then you are going to sit down and tell me everything,'' Viscount Pickford declared.

'Agreed,' the duke answered his friend. 'Where is my wife, by the way?'

'With Sirena. Allegra has cooed Georgie to death, and now is gossiping with my wife. She looks tired, not at all at her best, I fear.'

The duke followed his friend up the stairs to the nursery where he was given a peek at his three-day-old godson, a plump pink and white lump of infant with a tuft of pale golden hair. The baby opened a pair of rather bright blue eyes to observe his visitor, and then closed them again, as if to say, I don't find you important to my existence right now, and so you are dismissed.

The duke chuckled with amusement.

'Who do you think he looks like?' the viscount demanded to know.

'He looks like an old gentleman right now,' the duke responded, 'so I suppose we could say he looks like your father. I assume the earl is pleased with your first efforts.'

'Over the moon,' Ocky said with a grin as they left the nursery to return to the morning room.

'And Sirena is recovering from her ordeal?'

'She carried him like a prize mare, and birthed him like a woman in the fields. It was amazing! That dainty little slip of a girl I've wed. The doctor said he had never seen anything like it. Says she can go on breeding for years to come.'

'It must run in the family,' the duke said as they entered the morning room again and sat down.

'What on earth do you mean?' the viscount queried.

'This is for your ears alone, Ocky. You cannot tell Sirena until her mother does. Lady Morgan is expecting a baby in Maw' the duke said, and then laughed aloud at the look on his friend's lace.

Finally Ocky said, 'You are jesting, of course.'

Quinton Hunter shook his head in the negative.

'Damn me if that doesn't beat all,' the viscount said. 'That's why she hasn't been about in recent months, isn't it? Is she all right?'

'Other than being as big as a sow about to litter, she seems to be. Allegra, however, is very upset by this turn of events.'