#georgebertha

Well, no, that was something of a lie.

She knew precisely how it had happened.

It wasn’t as though she and George had been abstinent in the months since their wedding. Honestly, they had had something of a difficult time keeping their hands off each other. She liked to tease him. To accuse him of being the insatiable one. The fact of the matter was, though, that she was just as bad. Maybe even slightly worse, she figured, if the events of that morning were anything to go off of. She hadn’t intended to make him late for work – truly, she hadn’t – but there had just been something about him standing there in the soft morning light, his hair still all askew from last night, that had left her unable to keep herself from coaxing him back into bed with her. Anyway, in her defence, the sounds he’d made had been far from ones of complaint.

She supposed, thinking about it now as she finally forced herself to venture into the sitting room, that her ending up in her current condition had been inevitable. It wasn’t as though she was upset about it either. Quite the contrary actually, the thought of starting a family with George – albeit much sooner than she’d anticipated – made her happier than she could put into words. There was just a small, likely idiotic, part of her that feared he might not feel entirely the same way when she told him. Things at the Merrimack Valley Rail Company were finally beginning to look up for him. For the longest time, his superiors had looked down their noses at him and dismissed his proposals and ideas, no matter how revolutionary they might had been, purely on account of his age. They thought of him as overly ambitious and had told him on multiple occasions that he’d been getting ahead of himself. He hadn’t let their comments put him off though.

He had continued to present and push his ideas, and eventually someone had taken him seriously. One of them had finally realized he’d known exactly what he was talking about, and not only had he earned himself a raise but a promotion alongside. Since then, his thoughts had been steered more towards his career. That wasn’t to say he’d been neglecting her – not in the least, he was still as attentive as always – but it did make that small part of her wonder if he might feel a baby would complicate things. If he might think of it as another thing to split both his time and his attention between. She tried to focus more on her rational side though. The side that knew he would be thrilled at the thought of becoming a father for the first time. The thought of them starting a family together. No doubt, he was going to fuss and worry and drive her almost to the point of insanity in the months before the baby came, but she would do her best to tolerate it.

Because it was George.

By the time six rolled around and she heard the apartment door open – he returned at the same time every evening, on the dot – she had managed to come a little more to terms with the idea. Reaching for the letter on the side-table where she’d left it earlier that afternoon, she got to her feet and smoothed down the skirt of her dress before making her way out into their entrance room where he was shedding his overthings. The smile he gave her told her that his day at the office had gone smoothly, and she let out a soft sigh of relief. This was most certainly a piece of news best delivered when the recipient was in good spirits. Before she had the chance to open her mouth and ask him about his day, he turned to her and pulled her in by the waist for a kiss. His lips were slightly cold against hers from the night air, but she didn’t pull away. She never did. Rather, she lifted the hand not holding the letter to his chest and took hold of the lapel of his jacket, chuckling into his mouth when he began moving her back into the sitting room. She knew exactly what was on his mind. The same thing that always was after a good day at the office.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” She managed between kisses, feeling him move one hand to the small of her back while the other worked its way up into her hair.

“Mm, I am,” He confirmed, removing her hairpins with ease before turning and dropping into his chair in a way that made her gasp as she fell into his lap. “Though I’m in a far better one now.”

She shook her head as she adjusted herself, shifting in his lap until she was straddling him properly, and when he captured her in another kiss she indulged him for a time before pulling back. The look of confusion that flashed across his face when his eyes opened and he looked at her again made her snort – there was something quite adorable in it – before she stroked his cheek.

“I received a letter this afternoon,” She told him, still reeling slightly from his kiss.

“Wonderful,” He shrugged. “Now can I get back to seducing you, please?”

She tsked, rolling her eyes good-naturedly at him, before bringing the letter still caught in her hand up and holding it in front of his face. “I think you should read it first.”

“Bertha, I couldn’t care less about the next charity event my mother has roped you into,” He practically whined.

“This has nothing to do with your mother,” She informed him.

“I still—”

“George Russell.”

He knew, when she resorted to using his full name, that she meant business and so he didn’t try to argue with her any further on the matter. Instead, he accepted the letter from her – though he allowed his pout to express just how unimpressed he was by the whole thing – before unfolding the piece of paper and starting to read. The first paragraph alone made his breath catch.

I am pleased to confirm what, I suspect, you may already have deduced for yourself. Your recent examination leaves me in no doubt that you are with child. Some six-to-eight weeks along, I would estimate, with a confinement to be expected in late October.

He had to read the whole thing through two or three times, just to be completely certain he’d understood it correctly, before he was able to set the letter down on the arm of his chair and look at her again properly. For a moment, he genuinely couldn’t find words. He merely opened and closed his mouth like a fool while she sat there in his lap, giving him a look that said everything.

“Do you see now why I told you to read it first?” She asked him, a hint of emotion in her voice.

The sound he made was more of disbelief than a chuckle as intended, his hands moving to settle upon her waist once more. “God, Bertha, I…I don’t even know what to say.”

“You could say you’re pleased,” She prompted. “I’ve been worrying myself over it all afternoon.”

“Of course, I’m pleased,” He was quick to reassure her, kissing her soundly before pulling back to look at her again. “You really thought I wouldn’t be?”

She gave him a shrug as colour rose slightly in her cheeks. “It sounds ridiculous when I think about it now, honestly, because I suppose that deep down I knew there was never a doubt. I…it’s just that I know how well things have been going for you at the office. You’re working harder than usual – you don’t even come to bed until past midnight some evenings – and I think there was just part of me that was worried you’d think a baby might complicate things or that the timing isn’t right. I mean, it happened so fast. We haven’t even been married six months, George.”

“Bertha,” He said simply, letting his arms slip fully around her so that he could run his hands up and down her back through her dress. “There isn’t a single situation you and I could be in that would make me see something like this as a bad thing. It may have happened sooner than we expected, and I may be slightly more focussed on work than usual at the moment, but none of that has any bearing on how I feel about this,” He brought one hand back around and laid his palm flat against her abdomen, watching the movement of her own hand as it came to settle atop his. “You are going to make the most wonderful mother. You’re going to be a natural, I know you are. Meanwhile, I’ll be standing there having not even the slightest notion as to what to do.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at that, all of the doubt she’d had all afternoon melting away. “We’ll get there. It might take some time, but we will.”

“Mm,” He hummed with agreement, bringing his other hand up to stroke a dark curl from her face. “How are you feeling?”

“Better than I feel I ought to,” She admitted. “I have been experiencing some nausea, but nothing unmanageable. I think the fatigue’s the worst thing.”

“I’d imagine our recent activities haven’t been doing much to help with that.”

“No, I wouldn’t have thought so.”

She saw his eyes darken to a shade she had come to know incredibly well these past six months then, and she felt his hand – which had moved to her waist once more – tighten a fraction as he studied her features for a long moment. When he finally leaned in again, it wasn’t to kiss her. Not yet. Instead, he pressed his lips just beneath her ear and the shakiest breath left her.

“I suppose,” He murmured, his mouth moving slowly down the side of her neck. “We ought to try to be more responsible about things.

“I suppose,” She managed, though the words left her a little less steadily than she’d intended.

“Rest,” His teeth found her pulse point and she gripped his shoulder, arching into him. “That was what Weston recommended in his letter, wasn’t it?”

“It was.” She agreed, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth as her head fell to one side on instinct.

“Mm. Moderation too,” His lips grazed her jaw again, followed by her cheek and the corner of her mouth. “Do you think you can manage some…moderation…Mrs. Russell?”

“God, you’re insufferable.”

“I don’t believe that was my question.”

“No,” She finally answered him truthfully, drawing back enough to look him in the eye once more. “Can you?”

He didn’t respond with words, choosing instead to close the remaining distance between them, and this kiss was nothing like the more playful ones they had exchanged earlier. This one had far more intent behind it, his hands mapping out the curves of her body with a fervour that made her gasp into his mouth. She pressed herself closer to him, her fingers raking through his dark curls, and she was unable to keep from moaning in the back of her throat when one of his hands slipped beneath her skirts and found the bare skin of her thigh just above her stocking.

The next thing she knew, he was tucking his other arm beneath her knees and standing from the chair with her.

“George…”

“Rest,” He said against her mouth, his voice huskier now than it had been moments ago. “Doctor’s orders.”

She threw her head back slightly and laughed, slipping her arms easily around his neck as he carried her into their bedroom and kicked the door closed behind him.

————

She was still panting when he fell down onto his back next to her a considerable amount of time later, her chest heaving under the sheet that covered them as the sweat began to cool on her skin. There had been something different about it tonight. There was always a passion between them, of course, a hunger that was always completely satiated by the time they came down from their mutual high, but there was definitely something different about tonight. There had been a sort of…depth…to it that she couldn’t quite explain, and whether that had something to do with what they both now knew or something else entirely, she had no idea. She supposed it mattered little what it was, though, and she found that she was unable to keep from smiling when turned her head on her pillow and looked at her husband. His chest was heaving just as hard as her own if not harder, and he looked to be about as dishevelled and satisfied as she felt.

“You know,” She finally managed to find words again. “When Weston suggested I ought to rest, I’m not entirely sure that that was what he had in mind.”

He laughed, a pathetic little sound, before running a hand over his face and turning his head in her direction. “No? Because something tells me you’ll get plenty after that.”

She rolled her eyes, but she knew he was right.

Undoubtedly, she’d sleep like a rock tonight.

Once a little time had passed and they had both come down somewhat, he reached for her and she allowed him to pull her into his arms, her head dropping onto his shoulder as her arm went across his stomach. Neither of them spoke for a few minutes, content to simply lie there in one another’s company and listen to the sound of their breathing evening back out, but eventually she tilted her head back against his shoulder which prompted him to look her way again. She felt the love she had for him deepen when he feathered a tender kiss against the end of her nose.

“So, you really are happy? Even those this changes things?” She asked him, her fingers tracing the curve of his bare hip.

“I am happier than I have ever been,” He assured her. “Except, perhaps, while watching you walk down the aisle. That was quite a happy moment too, I have to say.”

She snorted softly. “Well, I’m glad I wasn’t a complete disappointment.”

“You are a great many things, my dear,” He teased, running his hand up and down her back. “But a disappointment could never be one of them.”

She accepted the kiss he gave her and nestled deeper into his side, humming with contentment before another thought came to mind. “You know this means we’ll have to move eventually.”

He knew she was right. Their apartment on Water Street wasn’t small by any means, it had housed them perfectly since they had moved in following their honeymoon, but it wasn’t exactly the most ideal home in which to raise a child. Especially seeing as though it had only the one bedroom. It would be suitable, he imagined, while they were still in the newborn stages and for the first couple of months, but eventually they would have to upsize. Their child would need their own room and it would be beneficial for them to have a little more space for when they began to move around on their own. A garden would probably be ideal too, somewhere for them to go and explore and spend the warmer days when they came. It was truly something to think about.

“Perhaps we’ll start looking for a brownstone a few months before the birth,” He suggested. “We wouldn’t have to move in straight away, we could wait until the baby’s here and you’ve had the chance to recover from the birth. It would give us the space we need though, and we could hire a handful of staff to deal with the running of it day-to-day. Not too many to begin with – a butler, a housekeeper, a cook and a nanny to assist you in the earlier days – but we can always up the number of staff if we feel the need to. I just want you to be comfortable wherever we go.”

She smiled, bringing her hand to his chest and stroking little circles against his skin with his fingers. “I know, and I will be. I know you well enough to know you’ll make sure of it.”

“That makes me happier than you know,” He placed a kiss on her temple before reaching over to turn down the lamp. “Now, you should get some sleep or you’ll be exhausted come morning.”

The corner of her mouth quirked into a smirk as the room fell dark and she tucked her head into his neck. “I’ll be exhausted come morning regardless. You’ve made certain of that.”