You wake before dawn, the grey light of London still timidly filtering through the heavy curtains of the room. Your body feels heavier than usual, not from tiredness, but from the life growing inside you. Your hand instinctively rests on your already rounded belly, in an almost unconscious gesture.

Beside you, William is still asleep. Lord Melbourne seems less like the man feared in the corridors of power when he is like this: his face relaxed, his features softened by age and the intimacy that only you know. His dark hair is already beginning to show silver strands, and his hand, even asleep, seeks yours.

He always does this.

Since the birth of your son, his firstborn, the heir he never believed he would have. William has been sleeping more lightly, as if he feared that the world might take something else from him while he was distracted.

When you move to sit up in bed, he wakes up immediately.

"Is everything alright?" ge asks, his voice hoarse, still heavy with sleep, but his green eyes already alert, assessing you with almost alarming precision.

You smile slightly. 'It is. It just… It kicked."

William relaxes, but only a little. He leans closer, carefully placing his hand on your belly, as if touching something sacred and too fragile for the world he knows.

"Stubborn". He murmurs, with a hint of a smile he rarely shows in public. "Just like you."

You laugh softly, and he tilts his forehead against yours. There's something profoundly different about him now. The man who was once tough, cynical, even cruel when necessary, has become… vigilant. Protective to an almost possessive degree.

He's lost too much in the past to take risks again. And he will not take any risks with you.