“He is fine,” Grace said with a smile. “We just need to get this little fellow cleaned.”

A son. I have a son!

John wondered if a daughter would be next. That seemed to be the trend in the family.

“Push once more, my lady.” The midwife held out her hands. “Another little boy.”

Two sons! “How are we going to tell them apart?”

“For the moment at least,” Grace said as she took the second child, “they have different color hair. The first has blond hair, and the second one has reddish hair.

“That will make it easier.”

“You will have to watch them. The hair might fall out or change color,” she advised.

“This is the last time, my lady. Push.”

His jaw dropped. “Is there another one?”

Mrs. Fallows shook her head. “She must deliver the afterbirth.”

He watched in horror as two bloody bags slid out of his wife. “That’s the afterbirth?”

“It is, my lord.”

Grace handed him the first baby. John had never held a person so little in his life. A rush of love so strong it almost brought tears to his eyes overcame him as he gazed down at his firstborn. “How did we make such a perfect being?”

Eleanor was being helped from the chair. “I do not know. He is beautiful.”

While she was being cleaned and the bed readied, Charlotte handed him the second baby. This one was just as perfect as the first. The love he felt for this baby was just as strong as for the first. What would they be like as they grew?

“John.” Charlotte held out her hands. “I want to hold at least one of them.”

“Yes. Of course. They are perfect.” He handed her the first one. “I can’t keep thinking of them as the first and second. We were so sure we’d have a boy and a girl. We don’t have two boys’ names.”

“What is the first name?” Charlotte asked.

“Adam, after John’s father, Timothy after our grand-uncle, and Charles after Charlie,” Eleanor said. “The Earl of Fauconberg.”

“We already have two Gideons, so you do not want to select that name,” Charlotte mused.

“Why not pick our maternal grandfather’s name, John’s maternal grandfather’s name, and the name of someone he admires?” Grace suggested.

All three of them, looked at him and waited. “What is the first name?”

“Bertin,” Eleanor said.

“Very well. The second name is Oliver and the third name will be Fredrick, after my grand-uncle on my father’s side.”

The babies began to fuss.

“They must be hungry.” Eleanor unbuttoned her nightgown, and Grace showed her how to nurse the baby.

“I’ll get the wet nurse, my lady.” Jobert hurried out of the room and returned a few seconds later with a young woman, who took the child from him.

“I suppose I should tell Kenilworth he is an uncle to two boys.”