The Royal Heir - The Valtoria Diaries 2

The Beaumont name bank

"Those pregnancy books weren't kidding about morning sickness, were they?" Maxwell sighed. Today had not been a fun day. He had mainly spent it sitting on the floor of their en-suite bathroom, holding Jen's (admittedly lovely) hair back as she puked into the toilet.

She sighed, and looked at him. "But it stopped being morning hours ago! Maybe I just.. ate some bad.. ughh.. fish?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Three days in a row?"

She reached for the glass of water that he was keeping freshly topped up for her. "I'll be fine! Nothing to worry about! I'm totally..."

At this her expression snapped back to that pained face that he'd seen so often over the last few days. He hated seeing her like this, so sad, so drained – and let's face it, it was completely his fault she was like this. He gently rubbed her back while the wave of nausea passed.

Afterwards, she groaned. "Why did you let me agree to this whole thing, Maxwell? Whyyyy?"

"I seem to think you were just as up for it as I was..."

"I mean, I love you.. and I love our baby, but this is the worst thing you've ever done to me!"

"You weren't complaining at the time," he said with a smirk.

She smiled gently. "I still wonder which time it was, you know."

"Well, you know my thoughts. I think if this little bean's a girl, we'll be calling her Miley."

She looked as if she didn't follow. "And that is because.."

"Miley-high! Geddit?" He was proud of himself for that one, but that wasn't pride in Jen's eyes.

"We can talk about names later, maybe when I'm not puking all day," she sighed. "Although I still think that might have been a little bit too early. I know the doctor said it was possible, but I'd only just come off my period then. I think it might have happened in St Louis."

"Jeez, Jen. What was the timetable back then? Three times a day? It's anyone's guess really.."

She giggled. "Remember when we took a break on the road trip and we snuck off for a walk..?"

"Phew. I'm still glad we didn't get caught. Can you imagine that? Duke and Duchess of Valtoria arrested on public indecency charges.."

"You didn't care at the time, babe, in fact if you remember it was your idea..."

"Yes, and it seemed like a good one until that nosy squirrel rocked up! He could have dobbed us in to the authorities, y'know.."

"Well, we had a good excuse. The pressure to produce Cordonia's heir was clouding our judgement.."

"More like how sexy you looked in those little shorts was clouding my judgement..."

She sighed. "They were good times."

"They were. But, this sickness will pass, and we'll have more good times before the baby arrives, I promise." The pile of what to expect books he'd ordered had arrived a few days ago, and he'd already whizzed through the key bits. "It's like I read in the books. Your libido will soar during the second trimester..."

"You hope," she said. "Ugh...."

She pulled away and threw up again, coughing and spluttering afterwards. "Ugh. I'm sorry, Maxwell."

"Hey. I take my role as your birth partner very seriously, you know. I'm not leaving your side through any of this. And like I said, it'll get easier after a few more.."