“I was so worried about you,” he confessed as she lay in their bed again. “I had no idea the baby was so large. Ten pounds is enormous.”

“The doctor thought he might be,” she said, but she didn’t tell him that she hadn’t wanted a cesarean, for fear that they couldn’t have had any other children. She knew that if she had told William there was even a question of it, he would have forced her to go back to London. But she was glad she hadn’t, she was glad she had been brave, even if she had been a little foolish. There would be more babies now … and her beautiful son … They were going to name him Phillip Edward, after William’s grandfather and her father. And she had never seen anyone as beautiful, she thought, as she held her son for the first time.

Emanuelle finally left them at dusk to go back to the hotel, and when he walked her downstairs, he saw some of the men who worked for them waving at him from the distance. He waved back with a smile, thinking they were congratulating him on the arrival of the baby, but as he looked at them, he realized that they were calling something to him, something he didn’t understand at first, and then he heard a word that made his blood run cold and he began to run toward them.

“C’est la guerre, Monsieur le Duc … C’est la guerre …” It was war, they were telling him. Britain and France had declared war on Germany that afternoon…. His baby had just arrived, and his wife had almost died … and now he would have to leave them. He stood listening to them for a long moment, knowing he would have to go back to England as soon as he could. If he was able to, he’d have to send a message to England now. And what would he tell Sarah? Nothing yet. She was too weak to hear it. But she’d have to know soon enough. He couldn’t stay much longer with them.

And as he hurried back to their room, to check on her and the sleeping child, there were tears rolling down his cheeks. It was so unfair … why now? She looked at him as though she knew, as though she sensed something.

“What was all that noise outside?” she asked weakly.

“Some of the men came to congratulate you for bringing such a handsome boy into the world.”

“That’s sweet.” She smiled sleepily, and drifted back to sleep again, as he lay beside her and watched her, fearing what would happen.






Chapter 12





HE next morning dawned sunny and warm, and the baby woke them just after dawn with muffled cries for his mother. William went to bring him to her, and put him to her breast as he watched them. The hearty boy seemed to know exactly what to do, as Sarah smiled at him weakly. She could still hardly move, but she was better than she’d been the night before, and then suddenly she remembered the noise outside, and the look on William’s face, and she knew something had happened, but William still hadn’t told her what it was yet.