"They said I would find you in here. That you'd been in here for an hour."
Victoria swept into Baby William's nursery, and his wet nurse flew to her feet with Emma Portman. Melbourne slowly stood, William cradled carefully in his arms, and Victoria admonished him,
"Sit, Lord M, whilst you're holding him."
He looked vaguely amused but obeyed. Victoria nonverbally dismissed the staff on hand to care for the little prince, and both women curtsied and backed from the room. Once they'd gone, Victoria sat beside Melbourne, admiring the way he looked with his sleeves rolled up and his son against his chest. Melbourne passed the child over to Victoria, who panicked for a brief moment before taking him.
She loved her son, and after six weeks of his life, she was finally beginning to feel comfortable around him. But she was nowhere near as comfortable as her Lord M was. Motherhood was not something that would likely come naturally to her, Victoria reckoned. She let Melbourne adjust her arms a little around the wrapped baby, but he instantly began to wriggle against her hold, and she whispered,
"He wants his Papa."
"He'll be fine," Melbourne assured her, pulling the soft white blanket more firmly about Baby William. Melbourne kissed the baby's forehead, then his queen's, and he said softly, "All babies long for their mothers."
"I wonder if I did," Victoria mused, and Melbourne did not answer. She stared down into Baby William's face, and he cooed a little. She smiled to herself and said, "You were right about his eyes, I suppose. They are blue."
"Still loads of time for them to change, Ma'am," Melbourne said, scratching at his wavy brown hair. Victoria frowned with confusion, looking back down into her son's eyes.
"Change?"
"Well, yes, Ma'am. A baby's eyes very often start out blue, then settle on green or even brown," Melbourne said. Victoria swallowed hard and met his gaze.
"So very much I do not know about any of this," she said. "Thank God Baby William and I have you."
"Oh, you'd do just as well without me," Melbourne asserted, but Victoria shook her head. Baby William began writhing in her arms again, and he let out an angry little cry.
"He's hungry," Melbourne said confidently, taking the baby from Victoria's arms and rising swiftly. "I shall go get the wet nurse for him."
"Will you ride out with me?" Victoria asked, smoothing her skirts as she stood. Melbourne nodded over his shoulder.
"Yes, Ma'am. As soon as he's settled."
Victoria watched then as the nurse and Emma came back into the room. Melbourne showed no shame at all as the wet nurse pulled down her loosened bodice and arranged Baby William against her breast. His cries stopped at once as he began to suckle. The noise was unnerving to Victoria, and she hurried to pat the baby's head as she strode away.
"I shall come and visit him before bed tonight," she promised, and Emma Portman curtsied.
"I'm sure His Highness delights in the visits of his parents, Ma'am."
"Particularly those of his father," Victoria smiled. She left then, accompanied by Melbourne, and her eyes stung a little as she walked down the corridor.
"Victoria," Melbourne said gently. She turned to face him, blinking away the tears in her eyes, and he put his hands up to cup her cheeks.
"You are a beautiful mother to him." His eyes were warm and reassuring. "You are young, and you've had no experience whatsoever with this. He is well cared-for, and that includes by you. And, really, Victoria, I think his eyes will stay blue like yours."
"Oh, Lord M. You have always known perfectly well how to repair an ill mood within me," Victoria whispered. She was uncertain about motherhood in general, about whether Baby William even liked her. But her Lord M was there to reassure her, and so she let her head go against his chest. She squeezed a little at his shirt and whispered,
"I was so afraid I would lose you entirely and be left on my own with all this."
"Well, I am here, for better or worse," Melbourne said. "Now. You said something about riding out."
"The Christening will take place next month in the Throne Room, if you are amenable to that," Melbourne said as he came into the bedroom later that night. "I've just come from a meeting with Sir Robert Peel and the Archbishop."
"That sounds fine. Thank you." Victoria paused, running her fingers through her long hair. "I held him for a half hour. William, that is. He slept the entire time, and I think he is happiest with me when his eyes are shut."
"Oh, Victoria." Melbourne untied his robe and hung it up. "He adores you, and he will adore you even more with time. The doctors say he is growing beautifully."
"Like a little beast, they told me," Victoria nodded. "He is perfectly formed and eats well, and for that we should give thanks, given the circumstances of… everything."
Melbourne's illness, she meant, and the early birth. Melbourne's face warmed as he climbed up onto the bed, and he sighed as he asked,
"How is the bleeding?"
A little shock of want cut straight through Victoria, and she murmured, "It stopped three days ago."
"Did it?" Melbourne reached for her hand and held it, stroking his fingertips over her palm and giving her a serious look. "And do you feel well in yourself?"
"I want you," she said plainly. He smirked a bit, but she barreled on, "I want you again, Lord M. So, so badly. It feels as though it has been an eternity, and I can stand it no longer."
"But of course we must be very careful," he warned her. "We wouldn't want to put you in the same position again so soon."
"Quite right," Victoria nodded. "But, then, we managed a very good long while without… you know, without putting a child within me. Many months, we lasted."
"I shall do everything in my power to protect you," Melbourne said gravely. He kept stroking her hand, and the feel was so overwhelming that Victoria found the courage to ask him,
"Will you be… just a little rough with me, Lord M?"
"Rough?" His eyebrows flew up, and he scoffed a bit as he asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Victoria felt her cheeks go warm. "When I was with child, and I was atop you, you swatted at my bottom a little."
"Mmm." Now it was Melbourne's turn to flush scarlet, and he shook his head a bit as he insisted, "That was instinct, Ma'am."
"I liked it," she told him. "I thought about it often. I still do. Will you do it again?"
His mouth fell open a little, and he blinked a few times, but he finally whispered, "Lie down on your stomach, Ma'am."
She did as he said, feeling breathless as he pulled her nightgown up and over her arms. She was naked to him then, and his fingertips dragged from her shoulder blades down over her back. She wondered vaguely if he found her fat now; her perfectly flat stomach from before had given way to a softer state of being. If he minded the extra bit of plumpness upon her form, he did not show it. He growled quietly behind her and squeezed at her backside with both hands. Then, very suddenly, there was a little smack from his right hand.
Victoria squirmed and moaned a bit, relishing the heat she felt on her skin when he pulled his hand away.
"Again," she instructed him. "Harder."
He obeyed, striking her more firmly this time and grunting with obvious desire. Then he smacked her left side, and soon his hands were alternating back and forth, his force growing more firm and his pace more steady. Victoria cried out at last, the burning and pain too much to bear any longer. Her wrists were caught up above her head, and he squeezed them hard as he drove himself into Victoria's womanhood. She let out a muffled shriek into her pillow, and Melbourne began to pump himself steadily in and out.
It felt good, all of it. The way his hands pinned her wrists down, the way her backside was pulsing hot from his spankings, the way he was driving himself into her at just the right angle. VIctoria came with a force unknown to her, moaning like a harlot and not caring one bit about it. She clamped onto him erratically; she could feel it happening. Suddenly Melbourne wrenched his manhood out of Victoria's body and slid it up through the cleft of her backside. There was wet heat against her skin, then. He was finishing all over her back. His fingers tightened around her wrists, and he whispered frantically,
"Oh, Victoria. Victoria."
She lay there staring at the wall, not moving as he cleaned her up with a wet rag from the wash table. She studied the wallpaper, and then she admitted,
"I had thought perhaps I would never find the intimacy with you that we shared before I was with child."
Melbourne appeared beside her and snuggled her up against his body. He shrugged a little and reminded her,
"When you and I started out, Ma'am, I was already an old man who had endured fatherhood before. Intimate life does not dissolve with the birth of a child."
"I see that now," Victoria nodded. She raised her eyes to his green ones and asked, "And you still want me? Even now?"
"More now than ever," he replied, stroking at her back and kissing her forehead. "Get some rest, Ma'am. You've an early meeting tomorrow with Sir Robert regarding Canada."
"Oh, yes." Victoria yawned broadly. "I'd forgotten. Thank you for reminding me. Goodnight, Lord M."
He was quiet for a moment, and then he finally whispered, "Goodnight, Ma'am."
Author's Note: So, history tells us that Lord M liked spanking, but he and Victoria have not explored it thus far. And we definitely know that motherhood did not come instinctively to Victoria. I also think it's a common concern (especially among women) that their partner will no longer find them desirable after childbirth. So this chapter was just exploring a lot of those feelings! When we move on, we'll explore more politics, see both Lord M and Victoria as maturing parents, and explore some of the jealousies that Victoria experiences when she learns more details of Melbourne's past (gasp!). Thanks for reading, and PLEASE do leave a comment if you get a quick moment.