Lady Bellamy was full of advice for Elizabeth - starting with her diet. The amount of things that she could not eat was only eclipsed by what she should eat apparently. Elizabeth could not make herself eat liver no matter how good it was for the child - she had only just stopped vomiting regularly and did not want to start. But it was easy enough to drink milk and eat cheese to make her milk come in (she was surprised Lady Bellamy had not scoffed at her intent to nurse the child herself) and if it wasn't quite as pleasant she could drink beef tea to strengthen her blood.

It was apparent Elizabeth had told Lady Bellamy at just the right time as shortly after she did her swell of the child seemed to grow more rapidly and by the time the gossip had spread round Port Royal it was visible even when Elizabeth was dressed. James remains ever fascinated and if Elizabeth was not quite as mad for intimacy now - she was quite happy to indulge his fascination with her changing body.

When his officers take him out to celebrate his upcoming fatherhood, she made him late for his own night out by dragging him off to the bedroom and using her mouth to drive him crazy - it's been sometime since she indulged him in that fashion given how demanding she had been. Occasionally she had taken him in her mouth but he rarely got to finish there.

She did not think he minded being late and when he arrived home in the early hours - half carried by Lt. Groves he was in no fit state for her to demand anything after all. Lt. Groves was very merry himself, "Mrs Norrington," he told her brightly while refusing to look her in the eye. "Congratulations on your happy news." He grinned drunkenly as James squirmed out of his hold, straightening himself up as if he could sober himself up from sheer will. "The Commodore has told us all what a wonderful mother you will be." He slapped James on the back. "Put all the girls off he did talking about his wife all night."

Elizabeth laughed even as James looked horrified by the lieutenant sharing anything of their night. "Good night Lieutenant, your help is much appreciated," she said pointedly and had a footman show him the door - she gives the man a penny to see the Lieutenant safely home - it was not his job but the Lieutenant had brought James safely home despite his intoxicated state. On his way out she could hear the Lieutenant telling the footman that Theo was a very fashionable name currently. Elizabeth did not think he realised his commanding officer had been replaced by one of his servants but she cannot focus on them - she had a drunken husband to deal with.

James did not want to be put to bed and when she did finally persuade him up the stairs he scooped her off her feet and carried her to what had become their bedroom, she had not slept in her own room in an age, wobbling all the way. He had a lot to say for himself and it was clear he remembered her demand that she have attention both before and after his celebration. "James you are too drunk," she scolded and a little relieved when he deposited her in the bed. But he only shushed her and began to pull at her night wrap.

"I am not drunk," he denied which amused her. "Except perhaps on you," he adds. "I still cannot believe it," he added his hands wandering over her. "That you are my wife. I have loved you for years - I have wanted you since your debut." He spent the whole time he was talking touching her and while it was all so sweet his words mean she cannot help but feel guilty. He had implied such before but it was different to hear it so directly. It was almost a relief when trying to distract him with kisses takes him in a new direction. "You are so beautiful," he told her. "I want to taste all of you. Touch all of you. Feel all of you." His mouth drifts to her breasts which are swollen and sensitive and she squirms as he uses his mouth and hands to tease her nipples until she did not think she could bear any more.

James looked up at her and his green eyes are dark with drink and lust and she couldn't help but ask - while he was being so direct. "Do you prefer them now?" she said "I have a more of a womanly shape since the baby. . ."

But he scoffed at this "Your breasts were perfect before and they are perfect now," he told her firmly. He teased them gently. "The only thing I do like now," he said suddenly and for a moment she held her breath but he only became more smug, "is how sensitive you are." She flushed that he had noticed this but he was not wrong - every since the child had shown even the slightest touch drove her crazy and it was never only a slight touch James' offered. He took one nipple in his mouth until she cried his name and then moved to the other and drove her quite mad. "Do you think you could spend just from this?" he asked. Elizabeth closed her eyes and did not answer because she could not think - because it was entirely possible she could spend from that and she thought she might. But then he lifted his mouth and kissed his way down her body and fastened his mouth to a sensitive spot on her thigh before he had more to say. "But I would not want to neglect you here," he said as he lapped at her and she squirmed - he kept stopping to talk. To tell her quim was pretty and tight and sweet and she was reduced to wordless pleading as she was both embarrassed and excited beyond belief when he finally quieted and focussed his mouth where she needed it.

She had assumed he would want to have her after that but the brandy put paid to that idea and when she tugged him back up beside her he was asleep nearly as soon as his head hit the pillow. If he had been that talkative all night then that would explain Lt. Groves refusing to look at her. That or James finally had voiced his complaints about all the times Groves had dared to ask for two whole dances. She supposed she would find out the next time they were social - if James had bragged about her to all the officers she might not get any dances. Then she might be able to steal an extra one with James instead of having to behave.

Elizabeth woke long before him the next day and she was not sure what was worse, his hangover or his embarrassment. He was both mortified and ill - he looked green. She kissed his cheek and told him to stay in bed and sent him up some ginger tea to leave him to it in privacy. The retching sounds she heard later indicate the tea was no more helpful to him than it was to her.

She left him in privacy for another hour or so and then went to check on him to find him up and dressed but looking paler than she had ever seen him. "Poor darling," she said pressing a kiss to his cheek. "How much brandy did you drink?" she asked. He only flushed and asked her to sit down.

"Elizabeth my behaviour last night was inexcusable," he said. "I did not mean to speak to you so. Or to manhandle you when I was so intoxicated in your condition- I am ashamed to have-"

"Shh," she said pulling him close. "You carried me all of four steps or so down the hall James, neither I nor the child were in the slightest danger." She blushed a little herself. "And nothing you said was unpleasant to hear." She decided to tease him a little, "nor was any of it news. You may never have been so explicit but you have always made your opinion clear." It made her own confusion worse - there was more to her feelings than relief and lust - she was sure of that. But Elizabeth was clearly a poor judge of what love was. She distracted herself from that topic which made her feel bad. "I am more worried about what you told Lieutenant Groves - poor man could barely look me in the eye when he escorted you home."

James remembered very little of the night out but he did spend the few weeks trying frantically to remember if he had spoken inappropriately to his subordinates about her. He denied it of course but Elizabeth could tell by the way his brow furrowed whenever he was thinking about it it plagued him. She tried to tell him she did not care but he was unconvinced. She supposed James' telling a tavern of officers (and anyone else who was listening) just how much he enjoyed having her could only help with their other lie. But she was not entirely sure telling James that would reassure him at all.

Instead Elizabeth distracted him by demanding his help planning for the child. She threw herself into decorating with a fervour that only concerned him and her father. She made James look over catalogues of baby furniture and fabric samples. He was no use at all and only ever assured her whatever she wanted for the nursery she could have. "Well obviously," she told him impatiently. "But I want your opinion. Which cradle do you like best?" It seemed like rather a lot of pressure for her to pick everything for the child. On top of being fat and having a constant headache and weird stomach churning pressure that seemed to come and go. She scowled at him and he came to her side at once. He was being unbearably sweet.

"I like whatever you want best, sweetheart," he said desperation in his tone. Elizabeth flung the catalogue on the floor and went upstairs to rest. James chose not to follow her which was good because if he was sweet to her anymore she might have cried and if he didn't just man up and pick something she was going to shout at him and neither of those were ideal.

When she eventually calmed down she decided she was going to get the catalogue and take it into the garden and shoot it and pick a crib that way. Surely announcing this plan to James might make him actually choose something and if not her aim could do it.

When she got downstairs thought there was a letter addressed to her - not a note or an invite but a proper letter from England. James looked a little wary of her. "I have not read your letter," he assured. "But my mother has anticipated us," he said. "She has sent a whole crate of family heirlooms. To encourage me now I am finally married." And there in the middle of the living room in the midst of some very dreadful wrapped china, was a cradle. It was dark wood and set on rockers and while it would not be what Elizabeth might have chosen - "Was that yours?" she said.

"Well I cannot confirm myself," he said wryly. " We all know how little use my memory has been of late. But my mother has said so." Elizabeth found herself touched by the idea of an heirloom for the baby. Her father had gotten rid of all such things after her mother's death - an event Elizabeth had never liked to dwell on and even more so these days.

"You did not tell her" she said self consciously her hand falling to the swell of her stomach. Of course why should he not be honest with his family if he wanted to yet she felt suddenly embarrassed and nervous of her letter - what would a woman write to a daughter in law who was carrying an illegitimate child.

"No," he assured her pulling her close and pressing a kiss to her hair. "It is just a hint from her - I have a four page letter detailing how I am not getting any younger if I should want a large family. There is a family portrait in there somewhere."

Elizabeth abandoned him at once to peer in the box and pull out the large painting and strip off the protective paper. The family portrait showed a rather stern man in uniform and a smiling woman with four children. Two young boys in military style dress jackets, a girl in a silk dress to match her mother and an unbreeched baby boy in his own rumpled skirts holding on to both his sister's skirt and a drum. James looked mortified and she realised that both the older boys have brown eyes. She had known of course he was a younger son - nearly all military officers were and he had spoken unflatteringly of at least one older brother. "You are the baby," she said delighted - she hadn't realised. Elizabeth, of course, in the grand scheme of her family was the eldest and did not feel precluded from this position at all simply because she had no younger siblings. "You were adorable. We shall certainly hang this in the nursery."

James looked like he might argue for a moment and she turned her gaze pleading and he kissed her and gave in. "Alright," he said gruffly. "At least no-one but you and the nurse will see it in there."

Elizabeth made an outraged face. "I see," she said. "So you will never go in the nursery then?"

James pulled her close. "I will be much to busy with our child to be looking at horrendous portraits." She laughed.

"Fair's fair James - you've seen all my father's paintings of me." There was a sizeable collection of such at Government House. "Perhaps he might even part with one," she offered. "For a matched set."

James laughed. "I am not sure he will be persuaded - he is rather attached."

"Well I am sure when I promise him a family portrait with his grandchild when it arrives he will be convinced," Elizabeth said brightly. "And we will have to send one to your mother." He cannot criticise that she is sure.