Читать книгу The British Bachelors Collection - Сара Крейвен, Kate Hardy - Страница 61

EPILOGUE

One year later

KNOWING THAT HER adventurous husband was champing at the bit to be off on the most taxing mountaineering hike he’d undertaken since his leg had fully healed—this time on Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain—Kit hesitated outside the stately bedroom in the private wing they’d made their home in at Falteringham House.

They’d moved in shortly after they’d married because Hal had decided it was time he came back to his ancestral home and learned the ropes of running the estate with his father. Kit had agreed. Although it wasn’t easy, getting used to living in such a grand place, she was definitely adapting to it and had been delighted when her father-in-law, Sir Henry, had asked if she’d like to take over the PR aspects of running the estate. She’d taken to the job like a fish to water.

But now Hal was busy packing his gear to head off to Ben Nevis, and she couldn’t help anxiously biting down on her lip at the thought of the adventure he had ahead of him. He would only be gone for the weekend, but any separation from him had to be endured always seemed like purgatory to Kit. Sometimes she would swear that they were literally two halves of the same soul, and even after nearly a year’s marriage their need for each other seemed to grow even greater, not lessen. However, she had promised him on their wedding day that she would never seek to curtail the sports and adventures that gave him pleasure just because she was fearful of the danger he might put himself in. Hal was a loving and devoted husband, and challenging himself was part of who he was. Kit wouldn’t want him to be any different.

But maybe today she had good reason to revise that view...

Lifting her hand and briefly sucking in a steadying breath, she rapped on the walnut door. ‘Hal? I know you’re busy, but can I come in for a minute?’

No sooner had she finished speaking than he opened the door, and just as though she’d been brought face to face with his six-foot-two, straight-legged frame for the very first time her heart skipped a beat. He was wearing faded jeans and a dark blue chambray shirt, and his tawny chameleon eyes glinted with pleasure as soon as they alighted on his wife’s face.

Straight away his arms encircled her waist to bring her close against him. ‘Since when do you need to knock on the door to ask if you can come in? This is your bedroom too, sweetheart.’

‘I know.’ She smiled, but her voice was perhaps not as steady as she would have liked it to be. ‘I just thought I’d see how you were getting on with your packing and if you needed any help.’

‘You can’t resist offering to help me, can you?’ Hal lowered his head to brush his warm lips tenderly across his wife’s. ‘I know you mean well, angel, but I’ve been climbing and hiking long enough over the years to know the drill for how to pack and what to take.’ His smooth brow puckered for a moment. ‘But that’s not it, is it? I mean that’s not the reason you wanted to come in and talk to me? Is everything okay? I know you’ve been feeling a little under par since we came back from our trip to Morocco a few weeks ago. Do you think it’s something you ate that’s caused it?’

‘No, Hal, I don’t think I’ve been under par because of something I ate.’ Apprehensively Kit lifted her gaze to his. ‘I’ve just found out that I’m pregnant.’

‘What?’ His expression was so shocked it was almost comical.

‘I’m pregnant.’

‘How do you know? Have you been to see a doctor?’

Her stomach plunged at the uncertainty in her husband’s tone. ‘Don’t you believe me?’

‘If you tell me it’s true then of course I believe you—but how do you know you haven’t made a mistake? That it’s not just some kind of tummy bug? I’ve heard there’s one going round...’

‘I bought a pregnancy test and it was positive. I’m going to have a baby, Hal. Do you mind? I know the news probably could have come at a more conducive time, seeing as you’re about to make your first mountaineering trip since the accident, but I hoped it might make you determined to be extra careful when you’re up on that mountain and to come home to me just as soon as you can so that we can celebrate.’

‘I’m going to be a father... We’re going to be parents!’

Lifting her high into his arms, Hal hugged her hard and swung her round in a circle with delight. Then he kissed her hungrily and passionately until she had to push against him to let her up for air. Dizzy with relief that he shared her joy that they were going to have a child, Kit cupped Hal’s chiselled jaw and smiled tenderly up into his eyes—eyes she now knew she’d lost her heart to from the very first glance.

‘I’m so glad that you’re pleased about it, Hal. For a moment there I was afraid you might not be.’

He gave her a bemused look. ‘Why on earth would you think that? I told you on the day I asked you to marry me that it was what I wanted most in the world—to marry the woman of my dreams and settle down and have a family. Don’t you remember?’

Kit sighed as Hal delivered her safely to the ground again. ‘I remember. But I don’t want you to settle down, my love. It’s never going to be in your nature to just be content with raising a family—and that’s not a criticism. I know you have to run the estate, but that’s no reason not to do the things you love as well...the sports and the challenges that give you pleasure. As long as you promise not to take too many unnecessary risks—because I want you to come home in one piece to me and our children—then that’s fine by me. You wouldn’t be the adventurous and brave man I married if I tried to change you in any way. I love you just as you are, Hal Treverne.’

‘And I adore you, Katherine Treverne. And I promise that from now on I will never take any dangerous risks that I don’t have to. You and our children will always be the most important things to me in the world. And talking of celebrating our good news...I don’t have to leave for Ben Nevis for a while yet, so why don’t we start our celebrations early?’

He was already lightly pushing her towards the vast king-sized bed that they shared and Kit didn’t have a single thought in her head to protest, no matter how ‘under par’ she felt.

Hal and their marriage meant everything in the world to her, and for as long as they lived she would happily take every opportunity she could to let him know it.

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from HIS TEMPORARY MISTRESS by Cathy Williams.