Daughter of the Rebellion

Chapter 30

"You're really going to make me wear this thing the whole time?" I complained, dying to rip the obnoxious blindfold from my face as the carriage bounced along.

"Absolutely," Richard said. "Don't you dare peek."

"Don't you think I'm uncomfortable enough as it is?"

"Think of it as my revenge."

"Revenge?"

His hand came down gently on my swollen belly. "You didn't tell me about this for an entire day."

I rolled my eyes, not that he saw it. "It wasn't a whole day."

"Still."

"Can't I even have a hint?" I tried.

At breakfast this morning, Richard told me that he had a surprise for me, but he refused to say a thing about it other than that it was a little ways away and that I had to wear a blindfold during the ride there if I wanted to be allowed see it.

Richard paused for a second. "It's big."

"That's the same hint you gave me before we left," I whined.

He laughed. "You should have thought about specifying before you asked."

Pouting, I crossed my arms over my belly and humphed loudly making him laugh again.

"Patience," he said. "We're almost there. Maybe next time you'll think twice about keeping me in the dark for so long."

I wanted to keep up this playful argument we were having, but I couldn't help smiling at the thought of there being a next time. It was really possible. Richard would have his heir. If not with this baby, then with another, and we wouldn't need a surrogate for it.

"If you won't tell me, then distract me," I said.

"How would you like me to do that?" I could tell by the sound of his voice, he was smiling.

"I don't know...." I thought for a second. "Names," I decided. "We haven't talked about that yet.

He didn't answer right away and it made me curious.

"Richard?"

"Well, I'm not sure what you'll think," he said. "But there's a long-standing tradition that boys are always named for someone in the family. The first would be named for the father and then any others would be named for other men in the family, depending on how prominent they are. In our case, since I was not the original heir and therefore not named for my father, if we had a second son, he would be named for my father. Then, since I had no other brothers, it would be my father's brothers, and then any cousins, etcetera. But I don't think we'll get that far. My father had plenty of brothers."

"How many is plenty?"

"Enough that I don't think we'll get to them all."

"So, no matter what, we won't get to pick a boy name? Ever?" So much for naming any of my children after Papa.

"I suppose if we had twenty or so, we might get to come up with an original name." He was joking, but I wasn't sure I liked the fact that any sons I had were already named.

"After the first, we are free to have whichever and however many middle names as we like," he said, sensing my thoughts. "If it were just about thumbing my nose at Society, I'd gladly do it, but it's not."

"What do you mean?"

"To some I'm seen as...well, not a usurper exactly, but I was not bred to be the heir as my brother was. Whenever a second son becomes the heir, people usually see him as a poor choice. A back-up that is acceptable if it becomes necessary. They expect me to make mistakes, be unrefined, and generally live an unsustainably extravagant lifestyle. They expect that I might run my father's properties and investments into the ground if I don't lose them to gambling debts first."