Deep into her womb

Randy knew that he should pull out. He had to. Charlotte' disappearance, even the loss of her maidenhead could be explained away, but not if her belly grew heavy with his child. No amount of social niceties or careful negotiation would be able to hide the fact that the unwed daughter of Lord Marlton was carrying the child of a common Highwayman. His child, the mental picture of this striking woman round with a nine-month belly and swollen breasts was too much for him to take and with a series of loud grunts he deposited yet another full load of his semen in her womb.

"Yesss!" Lady Charlotte's gasp of pleasure and satisfaction was only a small consolation as her wondered if had ruined this remarkable young woman forever.

A minute later as they lay together on the great bed Randy tried to apologize.

"I'm sorry, Lady Marlton." Randy lowered his gaze. "I lost control."

"I don't understand, Mr. Fuller." Charlotte looked at the man in confusion, "I thought ... " she didn't know what to think, surely that was the expected conclusion to a man and woman lying together. "What we did ... I wanted you to take me again ... I wanted you to lose control." Her words trickled into feeble silence, what would Mr. Fuller think of her? For the first time in her life, she wished she had more experience with men, well at least with the carnal nature of men.

"What if you become pregnant?" Charlotte's married friends had shared a little regarding the mysteries of procreation; if she understood their opaque explanations correctly, then the possibility of conception this week while possible was not high. Mr. Fuller was unaware of the silent calculations going on in Charlotte's head and explained his thinking more clearly. "I don't want you to have to go through what happened to Mary." The pain in his voice was palatable and Charlotte was starting to understand why he seemed upset.

"Tell me about your sister." Charlotte realized with surprise that she actually wanted to hear about the pretty young scullery maid she only vaguely remembered.

Randy was as surprised by Charlotte's question as she was when she asked. With a long, pained sigh he decided that Lady Marlton should know more about the young life her family had destroyed.

"Mary was the sweetest, kindest most open-hearted young woman you could imagine, Miss Charlotte." He began slowly as they lay side-by-side on the bed in the darkness of the cave.

"That's why she was such an easy target for the scoundrel who seduced and impregnated her."

"Who was the man?" Charlotte asked, "I asked my maid, but she said no one knew, that Mary refused to tell anyone. That's why my father was so angry."

"We don't know either," Randy tried to keep the cold anger from boiling out. "When she was weak with fever and labor she called out for a man named 'Jack', I'm guessing he was the man that gave her that volume of poems."

Charlotte's eyes flickered back to the shelf where she first saw the small picture of Mary and the book of sonnets. With a start of understanding Charlotte, suddenly knew who this Jack was. All her life, her stepbrother went by 'John'. He father was very insistent that 'Jack' made the young man sound like a village idiot but the extra loop in the 'J' on the faceplate of the book was exactly the same as the 'J' from John in her brother's signature. The timing was right too, only a few months before the scandal, John was unexpectedly sent by her father to Ceylon. Was that her father's way of handling the budding romance?

"What!?" Something in her face must have given her away because Mr. Fuller was staring at her with the intensity and fierceness attributed to Black Brand. "Do you know who 'Jack' is?"