Anna sighed, leaning back against John in the tub. "I didn't realize the Embassy had a tub this large."

"I had it imported for us."

"Did you?" She giggled and put her hand behind her to stroke his cheek while his hand ran over her abdomen. "How generous."

"I couldn't fit into your tub so I needed to get a new one." He ran his hand along the edge of the tub, finding hers to interlace their fingers. "Although this house is a tighter fit all around."

"James and I liked it when we lived here." Anna turned her face enough to kiss John's cheek. "And I like sharing it with you now."

"What about everyone else?" John adjusted behind her, the hand not holding hers continuing to run over her expanding belly. "We've got to find a place for them."

"Once the house is finished then they can take it back."

"I mean…" John sighed, kissing Anna's hair. "Long term."

Anna shifted, sitting awkwardly sideways to hold his gaze. "How long term?"

"The rest of our lives." John released her hand, running a finger along her arm to her shoulder. "We can't stay in India Anna."

"Why not?"

"It's not made for us anymore." John pulled his hand over his face, sighing. "I came here to get Vera away from England and all the ways she could get us into trouble there and it just made a mess here. Thomas came and made an even bigger mess until I'm left with the reality that all this would've been solved if I confronted the problems I had in England."

"You feel like India is where you came to run away?"

"Yes." John pulled Anna back to him, wrapping his arms around her as the water sloshed toward the sides of the tub. "I can't run from that anymore."

"But now all of our problems are here. Our lives are here." Anna took his hand back with hers, holding it diagonally across her chest and resting her cheek on his forearm. "Wouldn't leaving now be running from our problems all over again?"

"No. We'll stay, finish what we started here, and then leave." John's chest expanded against her back and Anna rose with it before falling back as he sighed. "I've got responsibilities there that I've been putting off for far too long."

"What about our responsibilities here?"

"We could leave them in good hands." John's lips pressed to her temple. "Maybe I'm just being stupid. The house'll be finished and we can-"

"No." Anna tightened her grip on his hand, shaking her head. "We need to consider this."

"We do?"

"Of course." Anna kissed the back of his hand. "If it's a concern to you then it's a concern to me and I want… I want to help you find a solution to this."

"It won't be easy."

"For better for worse, remember? I promised that at our wedding." Anna giggled and then gasped when John's hand slipped from her abdomen to her nerves. "And this… This is the better part."

"I should hope so." John murmured into her neck, holding her closer to him as his fingers teased lower to run along the seam. "We've not had much time for this lately."

"That's what happens when your mad half-brother decides to burn the house down and kidnap a child." Anna closed her eyes, trying to lose herself in the gentle sensations of John's fingers on her. "It distracts from the important things."

"But it shouldn't." John kissed under her jaw, spreading his legs a bit more to bring her closer to him. "I'm sorry we've not shared as much lately."

"We've shared plenty." Anna tried to laugh but her voice caught in her throat as John's fingers entered her. "My bed, for instance."

"Just for sleeping." His response vibrated against her throat. "Like everything else in this house I wanted to desecrate with us but we've only used for functional necessities."

"I'm sure having a single sofa makes it a bit difficult to engage carnally there." Anna's free hand joined John's at her center while the rings on their left hands clinked together then they interlaced their fingers again. "Or any other surface of the house when James could walk in at any second."

"That would dampen the moment." John kissed across her shoulders, pressing his thumb to her center while her fingers encircled his wrist to guide those motions. "Something we'll have to think about for this little one."

"Baby's coming sooner than you think." Anna's hips bucked as John hit the spot inside her his fingers seemed desperate to find. "There, it's right there."

"I'll take good care of it." He soothed against her ear. "Just let me tend these gardens for you and relax."

"How can I when you're driving me mad with pleasure?" Anna forced her eyes open, catching sight of John's eyes in the mirror on the far wall. "I'm practically vibrating with it."

"Then I'm close to my goal." He added another finger and sucked the spot at her neck while bending his elbow so their interlaced hands could cover one of her breasts. "Do you still touch yourself?"

"What?" Anna could hardly focus as John's assault on her senses continued and the smolder in his expression in the mirror did not abate.

"You showed me, before our wedding, how you touch yourself."

"I learned it from you."

"Do you still do it?" His teeth nipped at her earlobe and then adjusted them so their mouths could almost meet. "Did you do it before I used my fingers on you that first time, in the garden? Did you used to touch yourself and think of me?"

"Only once." She ghosted her lips over his. "When I thought I'd never have you I promised myself just one time. I'd think about what it would be like and then never consider it again."

"Then you has far more patience and self-control than I did." John brushed his lips over her cheek. "I thought of you so many times. I wanted you with everything I had in me. And then, when we were together…"

"What?"

"It was better than I imagined."

Anna took John's lips and came in the same moment.

His fingers guided her through the climax, bringing her back down slowly until she sagged against him. But when his fingers left hers, and he shifted his legs slightly, Anna blinked her hazing eyes. Blinked to meet the devious grin of his in the mirror before he lifted her at the hips to bring her wet folds over him. John supported her there, running the head just through her folds until she keened and thrust herself down onto him.

The rumbling groan quivered through his chest and into her. John kept his hands at her waist and manipulated them, using the shunt of his hips into her to maintain a motion restricted by their position and the tub itself but still managing to strike all the right places inside her. The places that had her sighing and grabbing for the sides of the tub.

John rolled his hips against hers, bringing her hips to snap wetly in the water against his, and trusted the grip of one hand on her before reaching the other across her body to manipulate her breasts. Anna cried out, the growth of her breasts and the increased sensitivity of pregnancy making each of his touches like lightning to her skin. And when he tweaked one of her nipples before kneading and massaging her skin, Anna keened. Her grip tightened on the side of the tub so her rings clacked on the metal while her other hand delved between them.

Her fingers ran over her tender nerves, sparking them back to life, and dabbled between them to find the hanging weight between his legs. Anna met his darkened gaze in the mirror and squeezed a moment before starting her assault on him until he scrunched his eyes closed. But the frenzy took over him then and all Anna could do was try and bring herself along with him.

A flurry of appendages had water escaping the edge of the tub but left them both sobbing and sighing their finishes. John's mouth laid a set of kisses over her shoulders and neck until he could take her mouth again. Their hands fluttered for a hold on one another until they managed the awkward rest of Anna on John's left leg.

When the kiss broke, their grins infectious and self-perpetuating, Anna pulled John's hand under the water to rest on her abdomen. His eyes blew wide when the shift of life under her skin kicked or bumped against his hand. And it almost broke her heart to see the tears in his eyes as he waited for the next movement.

"Does this happen often?"

"Often enough." Anna kissed him again before lifting herself from the tub as slowly as she could safely manage. "Sometimes Baby keeps me up at night kicking against my ribcage or my backbone but it passes when Baby settles."

"I'll guess that what we just did," John lifted himself from the tub and retrieved one of the towels to wrap around Anna. "Didn't settle Baby too much."

"Not at all." Anna went onto her tiptoes to kiss John, her hand holding herself steady on his chest. "But I don't mind. I'm not trying to sleep at the moment."

"Then we shouldn't ever try to engage in bed?"

"I'm not trying to sleep then, either." Anna shook her head at him, drying herself as she faced the mirror. "And if we do go to England, I insist that all of our baths are in tubs that large."

"Did milady like it?" John came behind her, wagging his eyebrows at her as he bent to kiss her.

"I usually like any chance I have to be with you." Anna eyed her hair in the mirror and set to brushing it back before John extracted the brush from her hands. "Are you an expert in lady's hair, Mr. Bates?"

"No, but I can brush it." He combed through her hair slowly, careful of curls and tangles. "When I was growing up in England, we had horses and I'd brush them after a ride."

"They made you brush them?"

"The grooms insisted." John moved through her hair, Anna sighing in contentment as the motions sent shivers through her. "Said it taught you appreciation for the beasts bearing you."

"James loved horses. Loves elephants just as much and wants to own one so he can ride it everywhere one day."

"Maybe he will." John met Anna's eyes in the mirror. "Do you think we should stay here? Even after everything that's happened?"

"I think Mary's right and you might, one day, be made Viceroy of India."

"And what of my obligations back in England?" John continued to another section of her hair. "I've got estates, lands, and titles there that demand my presence. And if we're going to raise James there he needs to start sooner, rather than later, to integrate into society."

"We couldn't leave until after the baby was born anyway." Anna ran a towel-covered hand over her abdomen. "I wouldn't make the trip safely in that condition."

"We have to wait for the trial to conclude here all the same." John snorted, "It still defies all understanding that he'd be so stupid."

"Desperate people rarely make wise decisions." Anna titled her head to help John reach the last section of hair. "And his machinations ended in his own devise when he thought he was too clever for his own good."

"I'm just…" John set the brush down, his fingers moving through Anna's hair now to massage her scalp. "I didn't think he could hate me that much."

"We're not supposed to hate that much." Anna's breath hitched as John's free hand settled in a delicate manipulation of her breast. "What are you up to Mr. Bates?"

"The continued satisfaction of my wife." He crooned in her ear, never breaking eye contact with her in the mirror as he removed the towel from her body. "For the moment, I'm your willing slave, dedicated only to your pleasure and contentment."

Anna pressed herself into his hold and then contorted as his other hand left her hair to slide over her abdomen to her clit. His fingers flicked at it and Anna opened her legs to allow him better access. But when his kisses dotted down her back and his hand left her breasts to hold her hip, Anna gripped the vanity hard enough to dig ridges into her palms. Ridges that bit harder when John's tongue set to work on her folds.

There was no forgiveness to the tile floor but John did not stop lapping and licking at her until Anna came with a shriek. Her legs shook and her thighs trembled but John only paused long enough to stand. Anna seized his lips and he drove into her with a single thrust. It buried him so deeply they both took a moment just to breathe.

And then he moved.

The swift shunt of his hips, the sticky slap of skin as sweat beaded where water once was, and the slick slide of him into her filled Anna's senses. She brought her hands to her breasts to the pleased chorus of growls from John. And when that proved too little, her hand tried to replicate her earlier motions at her clit. His earlier motions at her clit.

But he stole every thought from her in an instant. Each piston of his hips bringing them together shattered her plans. Her fingers stuttered and fumbled to try and find the pleasure she so desperately sought but when John's fingers joined hers they found it together. They came with stuttering groans that had John sagging toward her and Anna pressing her hands even closer to the edge of the vanity.

When they recovered, John removing Anna's hands to take them delicately in his own and massage them back to life, Anna kissed John gently. "I think we need to go back to England too."

"What?"

"You're right. We can't stay here, with all the dark clouds this business has brought us, and we need to build a real home for our children." Anna tucked herself close to him and John wrapped them both in a towel as if to wipe away the sweat. "When the trial is over and the baby's fit enough to travel, we'll go back to England."

"Alright." John kissed her forehead, "I'll start making the arrangements.

And start they did.

James was livid in the beginning. He ranted and railed about having left England, how it was not his home, and then went off into a tirade of Hindi that Anna could barely follow before finally calming himself in the corner of his room. She crossed to him, reaching for his hand, and tried not to let the sting show when he jerked himself free of her grip.

"It's not for at least a year, James. We've got time to enjoy here."

"But not forever."

"Nothing's forever."

James pouted, deep lines gouging themselves in his forehead. "Is this because that man kidnapped me?"

"Partially but also because you're father's got interests in England he needs to look after now. Especially with you and the baby to keep in mind."

"He's been here for long enough. Why not just raise us here?" James threw out his arm, motioning in the general direction of the house Mrs. Hughes lived in on the estate. "If Arjuna can stay with Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson then why can't I?"

"Because unlike Arjuna, you've a mother and father. Arjuna's no one but Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes. Besides, he's Indian."

"I could be Indian."

Anna tried not to laugh when James's sincerity bled through on his face. "But you're not. You're British and no matter how much you love it here, or how well you speak the language, or how much you want to Indian, you're not. You can't be."

"Why does Lord John have to leave?"

"Because…" Anna sighed, "Because his cousin made it impossible for him to stay here. If we do then we'll have to go around India with everyone knowing that the horrible things that happened to us here happened."

"And they won't know that in England?"

"It's not gossip there the way it is here." Anna finally managed to take James's hand. "And John's not the same person he was. Too many of the people he cares about died here. It's painful for him to stay."

"But if we go back to England…" James met his mother's eyes, "Don't we go back to the same place we left because you had me and I didn't have a father?"

"No, we're going somewhere else." Anna put a hand to her abdomen. "And it's different now. You've a father, you've a title, I've got a title, and there's another baby on the way. We're different people than we were."

"So we're going back to England because everyone's tired of running away from whatever made them leave?"

Anna froze, her mouth half open at her son before she swallowed and nodded. "That's exactly right."

"Then I can stay. I didn't run away form England and I've not got anything here that gives me pain."

"Maybe one day you'll come back."

"You won't let me stay?"

"I'm not leaving you here unsupervised."

"But I could live with Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes and Arjuna and-"

"No, James." Anna worked herself to her feet. "We're going back to England and that's final."

"Then we're just running away again." James stood quickly and pointed a shaking finger at Anna. "It's just running from one place to the next. First here, from England, and now back to England from here."

"It's not like that now James."

"But we've got other things to do here."

Anna sighed, "We've a year, James. One more year here and then we're going home to England."

"This is my home. I don't care about England."

"You'll have to, since you're going to help people run it one day." Anna nodded at him, "We're rebuilding the estate and finding a way to run the schools but once the baby's fit to travel we're going back."

James did not speak to her for a week beyond one-syllable responses and his papers in class. Mrs. Harding and Mrs. Hughes took the news better than James did and even accepted the positions John offered them to continue running the homes and schools John built in the area. Even Arjuna seemed happy with his adopted parents and the chance to stay on the estate he called home.

But the work continued. So late that one evening, closer to Anna's due date than most felt was safe to have her continuing to walk around on her own, she found him in the little study of her small house. Even with the estate almost finished with the reconstruction and renovation they stayed in the house. In John's words it was 'not to risk getting too attached before we move' but Anna was sure the idea of reentering a house were so many mistakes lay hand-in-hand with death rubbed him the wrong way.

Her knock on the door was gentle and she entered the room with barely a sound. John looked up from his work and almost cracked his hip on the desk in his hurry to stand up and come to her. Anna waved down his worry but he did not stop fussing until she sat on a chair near the desk.

"Are you alright?"

"I was until I realized my husband hadn't come to bed and this would be the third night in a row that he's burned the candle at both ends."

"Would you have me any different?"

"No." She grinned at him, taking his hand as he stood near her. "What are you doing in here so late? It's not as if it won't wait until the morning."

"It might not but…" John shrugged, "It's about the estate management and with Matthew no longer working as my solicitor I had to revert to a man Robert recommended and… I don't like him as much. He's a bit stuffier than I prefer and he's slow moving."

"So you're doing all the work yourself?"

"Seemed safer." John put his hand to her cheek. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Anna assured him, her eyes flicking to the desk before she bit her lip. "In fact, I know a way you could make me feel even more fine."

"How?"

"By helping me make that desk a little more yours." Anna stood and maneuvered to the edge of the desk, pressing her weight on it to test the strength of the legs. "What's this made out of?"

"Oak, I think. It was imported."

"Then we'll definitely be bringing this back with us." Anna nodded at the edge, "Care to help me onto it?"

"Why?"

"Because I want you to take me on this desk, Mr. Bates."

"Anna, in your condition-"

"In any condition but this is where I am now." Anna patted the wood. "We had that table in your library once…. With all the lawyers right outside the door."

"This is different." John helped Anna onto the edge and made her as comfortable as possible on the surface of the desk that did not even squeak. "Our possible listening ears could come at any moment."

"That, I highly doubt."

"Even so." John chided but his hand skated up the inside of her thigh all the same. "What have we here?"

Anna grinned, her hands looping around his neck. "Did you find something Mr. Bates?"

"It's more what I didn't find." His finger drifted over her clit and then down the length of her. "My lovely wife seems to've forgotten to wear her undergarments outside the bedroom."

"Only if you think I came here without a strategy." Anna adjusted her hips as John rolled the ends of her nightgown up over her hips.

"And what strategy was that?"

"That if there were fewer obstructions you'd take me."

"You're probably right." John put his lips over hers, "But, if you wanted it, I'd take you anyway."

"I do want."

"Then your wish if my command." His fingers entered her as their lips met.

And John proved his words true. With his fingers working inside her and his tongue exploring her mouth thoroughly, Anna could do nothing but roll with the gentle climax his dedicated and focused motions wrought in her. And when he dragged a chair closer to her spread legs, Anna held the back of the desk to keep herself upright under the assault of his tongue while his hands explored under her nightgown to find her breasts. An act that sent her over the edge a second time.

Even when John finally entered her, moving slowly and surely to keep them calm and collected, his mouth oscillated between hers and her breasts through her nightgown. The fabric dampened from his mouth, rubbing across her fritzing nerves and ever-more sensitized skin, left her gasping and sobbing in pleasure as John brought her to the edge a third time. When he followed himself, still moving with all the aching dedication of a concerned husband and father, Anna could only merge their mouths together and seek out the last tastes of her there.

Those memories sustained her through the birth and subsequent two months until they could do more in bed than simply wrap up in one another's arms for an hour or two before the baby bawled and wailed for something. And despite their haggard appearances, their general exhaustion, and the strain on their senses, they managed through until the baby slept peacefully. Peacefully enough that, before they left for England, John insisted on the christening.

"This is his home, just as it was ours, and a part of it'll always stay with him this way." John held the boy close to him, rocking slowly. "Maybe next time we'll have a girl."

"Maybe." Anna lay back against the pillows. "Now put him down and come and get sleep. Day after tomorrow'll be nothing but packing and loading onto the ship. I don't want you exhausted for that."

John kissed the baby's head one final time before resting him in the cradle and crawling into bed with Anna. "It's lucky Lady Mary's coming with us or we might've had to pry James away from Mrs. Hughes."

"I gave him months to prepare for this and he's still upset." Anna cuddled closer to John. "He was right and I had told him a year but… Nine months is practically a year."

"You carried a baby for that long so I'll bow to your superior knowledge on the subject." John tightened his arm around her. "George'll be good company for him on the ship. They'll get into just enough trouble to drive us all mad but not enough to get conscripted into the British Navy."

"If he's a terror I'll sell him myself." Anna laughed against John, holding him tight for a moment before releasing. "I guess it's a new start for all of us. Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson here, with the estates. Gwen with the schools. And now Mary and George back in England with us."

"Don't forget Mr. Talbot."

"Who could forget," Anna paused to laugh, "That Mr. Talbot's going with them as 'security' in case their 'safety' is threatened."

"You laugh-"

"I do."

"You laugh but ships are dangerous places for single women and children."

Anna nodded, "Don't I know it."

"I'm sorry darling." John tipped his head to her, "Did I remind you-"

"No," She patted his chest. "Just rest and we'll confront it all in the morning."

After the christening, of John Harrison Bates, future Duke of Kenwick and Lord of Moorland, North Orkney, and West Galway, they were on their way. James almost forgot all about how much he did not want to leave India when he and George could explore every nook and cranny of the ship. And managed to give John and Anna enough time to lock their cabin door for an afternoon.

Even with the humidity at sea, the heat of the stifling cabin with the window cracked to let in the weak breeze, Anna attacked John. His hesitancy, especially after the birth, drove her mad until it was all she could do not to climb atop him in public and work them both into a frenzy. But with a locked cabin door, their two sons in the care of someone else for awhile, she could successfully seduce him.

And she did.

He sat at the table, completely unaware, as she stripped herself to nothing in front of him. When John finally looked up from whatever documents he might send in either direction at the next port they reached, his eyes went wide and then his pupils took over his entire eyes. It was all Anna could do not to laugh and spoil the moment when he almost strangled himself getting his tie off his neck. But then his lips were on hers.

Their bunk was too small and the wall threatened splinters, but with Anna's hands holding the table John stepped in behind her. His hands ravaged her, leaving her crying out and whimpering for his touches to increase, to hasten, and to strike those places where she desperately needed her. But John could tease as well and he took his time tracing over her skin as if trying to remember it anew.

"Do you remember the library Anna?" He whispered in her ear, his fingers keeping her on the edge but not allowing her to fall over. "When you put your mouth around me for the first time?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember what I did after that?"

Anna squeezed her eyes closed and gripped the table harder. "Yes."

"I'm going to do it now."

"Please do."

John drove into her, bending Anna over the table, and started with the tauntingly slow motions he used as their foreplay. But when Anna dug her nails into his thigh, or reached around for his hanging sack, or even raked her fingers over the flesh of his ass, he succumbed to her bids for "harder, faster, deeper" until the table scraped over the floor. The heat of the room, the possibility of those in the cabins next to them hearing, or even the chance that the lock would not hold and anyone would see them did not matter. Anna only had time to revel in the feel of her husband driving into her as her body accustomed to the sensations she missed for so many weeks. And he only had time to bow to your demands.

They came together, gasping for air in the stuffy cabin, and worked onto the bunk. The tight fit kept them together so they could not cool as they hoped but, eventually, they dozed in the waning heat of the space. Anna's fingers traced over his face, kissing his lips before she fell asleep.