The next day didn't bring much reprieve. After a restless sleep, morning began with nosy children, the little ones especially. Chrissie's questions were relentless even with the older kids trying to appease her. Eric and Lily were the quietest, looking between their father and stepmother and trying to make sense of the situation for themselves.

In turn, Cedric and Evangeline did their best to appear more okay than they were. There was nothing to say to the children until they knew what to say to each other. Of course, with seven children, there wasn't much opportunity to speak alone at length until nightfall. By that point, they feared the exhaustion of the day would lead them to a repeat of last night's argument.

"Perhaps we should stay down here a bit longer," Evangeline said as she placed her empty teacup on the tray, still in the habit of tidying the study at the end of the day despite Cynthia's efforts.

"Whatever for?" Cedric questioned.

"We do need to talk about what happened. I think I'd feel better with some distance between us and the children."

He frowned. "I promise not to yell like I did."

"I don't promise not to cry. I hated that they saw me like that."

"It wasn't my shining hour with them, either. At least you had their sympathy."

"No matter," she said, wanting to defuse this back and forth before it became the focus, "I'd still rather we both not have to worry so much about volume."

"Fair enough," he agreed.

Cedric sat down in his chair again, Evangeline in hers. Agatha's had long since been moved to one of the corners of the room, remaining unused while Evangeline had been given one of her own style as a wedding present from Cedric. She never would have dared try to take the old one over knowing what a connection it was to him. Knowing this, he knew and even wanted some provisions to be made for his new wife.

His eyes wandered over to that corner now, though, forever a symbol of his first wife no matter where in the room it was placed. Having her here with them, as it were, didn't help matters for him any.

Having seen the glance, Evangeline looked over her shoulder and then back at Cedric with a sigh. "I hadn't thought of that."

He waved his hand. "No mind."

"I guess this is where we start."

"Is it absolutely necessary?"

"Cedric…"

"All right, I'm sorry. Truly, I am. About all of it."

"I might've handled things better before now," she said softly. "You weren't completely off about my wanting to please you."

"I could have gone about it in a nicer way."

Leaning against the back of the chair, feeling as though it would give her some distance, she admitted, "Fact is, I'm always going to be a servant girl deep down. I wasn't raised to be a wife and mother. Pine for you as I did, I wasn't prepared for what it actually meant to be with someone."

"You're a wonderful wife and mother, Evangeline. Even when the kids were at their worst, you were the only one they didn't play tricks on."

"That doesn't mean it's come easy. I had more practice with the mothering bit. I feel that's come more naturally. But being a wife?" Biting her lip, she looked down at her hands clenched in her lap. "I've… I feel I've let you down a lot of times."

"Never," he said, leaning forward in all seriousness.

"It's okay if I have. I just want you to be honest when I do, is all."

"You've put the expectation on yourself to be the perfect wife and the wife you think I want you to be. Now, maybe I haven't been as sympathetic as I should be to your situation, being the second wife as you say. Perhaps there are times I unconsciously wonder why you might, I don't know, react a certain way to something that Agatha might've reacted to in a different manner. I'm not keeping a tally of it, though. You're both so different. It's like I said last night, I love you so differently."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes…" he answered with a hint of nervousness.

"When did you realize you were in love with me?"

He took a breath and thought for a moment. "I never really thought about it."

"Was it only because I said that I loved you and that you had to marry that afternoon?"

"Heavens, no. I knew before that."

"How long before?" she pushed.

He grumbled, though not angrily. "There's not an easy answer to that. I don't think it was a single defining moment. You helped me through the most difficult time in my life. I came to look forward to the moments in the day I'd get to see you. I missed you when we didn't have those moments. You loved and took care of my children. I didn't stand a chance."

She chuckled.

Cedric went on. "I suppose if I had to pick a singular moment I could have put my feelings into words was when you left with Aunt Adelaide."

"Oh?"

"Despite my relief that none of the children had been taken, it was like a dagger in my stomach when I realized you were gone."

She tried to discreetly brush the tears from her eyes. "You never told me that before."

"I think I've managed to block out most of that period of time with Mrs. Quickly. The nights were long without you. Even longer were the hours in her company."

"I'll admit it was the only time I felt myself more worthy of you than another."

"Stop it with that nonsense. I never saw you as beneath me. Our relationship became improper soon after Agatha passed, innocent as it was at that time. I no longer concerned myself with our statuses after that. Marriage for us seemed like the next logical step."

"You never thought me stupid or childlike?"

"Not for a moment."

Evangeline sat up. "I just hope to one day be better at all this. I know I don't speak up enough. A lot of this might've been avoided."

"I'm culpable, too. I have asked a lot of you in this marriage — trying to put off having more children and all that goes along with it and such. It was selfish of me and I should have realized what a strain it's put on you sooner."

"We both agreed it would be easier not to have another baby right now, though I do wish that didn't come with certain sacrifices."

"Well," he said, trying to lighten his tone, "seems like that problem will be solved for at least a little while. If you're already pregnant we don't need to worry."

"I suppose not."

He reached for her hand, adding a final thought on the more serious matters. "I know I've made you feel like I'm dreading our child. I haven't meant it that way. Please, don't think that I dread the thought of being blessed with another even if it means a tighter budget. I should never have let on how terrified I am because you should be excited. I've taken that away from you."

"But I don't want you to think I don't understand why you're scared. I don't want you to pretend that you aren't. You have every right to be."

"But you were right when you said that if that's what's meant to be that we're wasting the time we have together now. I don't want to waste any more of our time."

"Neither do I."

Standing, he tugged on her hand which he was still holding. "Then let's start now. I can't take you on a trip, but we are overdue for a proper honeymoon."

"But what if I'm not pregnant after all?"

"Do you really believe there's a chance you aren't?"

Slowly, she shook her head.

"Then let's go upstairs." He kissed her cheek. "I owe you one hell of an apology."