'No,' he said, drawing her face against his neckcloth. 'Neither of us belongs in London now, Nell. We shall leave for Scotland, shall we, and stay there until after our confinement. You will like Scotland, I think. It was made for wood nymphs. And there we need not care what society says about us. I never have cared much anyway, but I still would not wish to see you wounded by gossip.'
Helen sighed with contentment. 'How lovely it is,' she said, 'to have someone to plan for me. Will you always do so, William? I have always thought I wished for total independence, but now I realize that I have been merely waiting for a man to whom I should be happy to surrender control.'
'That sounds dangerously meek, Nell,' he said. 'I do not for one moment believe you, you know.'
She smiled impishly up at him. 'I am most awfully hungry, you know,' she said. 'I forgot all about luncheon. It must have been hours ago, was it?'
He smiled back and leaned down to kiss her on the nose. 'Come on,' he said. 'We might as well go back and face the embarrassment of meeting Elizabeth and Robert. I can just see the I-told-you-so expressions on their faces. I shall carry your things.'
'William,' she said, twining her arms around his waist just when he would have moved away. Her face was alight, he saw when he looked down at her with a questioning smile. 'I felt the baby move for the first time yesterday. He really is there.'
He hugged her to him once more and kissed her hard on the lips. 'I should hope so, you absurd little wood nymph!' he said.
