Read Online 1862 by Robert Conroy - Free Book Online Page B

compromising on the slavery issue. Valerie D’Estaing was outgoing and vivacious, liberal and tolerant in her views, and took chances with her reputation that sometimes shocked the more conservative Rebecca Devon.
    They did, however, share a love of learning, art, and politics. Rebecca envied the Frenchwoman’s ability to live her own life and not wait on the pleasure of others. It occurred to Rebecca that European women of status were far more liberated than Americans were.
    Valerie D’Estaing was also one of those people who was genuinely concerned about the welfare of others, in particular those whom she considered her friends. Among her virtues Valerie included loyalty. Thus, she had been almost as shocked as Rebecca had been when Thomas Devon died as an aftermath of Bull Run. She had stood by Rebecca at the graveside and had tried to help her work through her grief although she sometimes thought there had been more to the relationship between Rebecca and Thomas than she had known.
    Valerie was gratified that her efforts at solace were starting to bear fruit. Always a slender person, Rebecca had become almost unhealthily gaunt from not eating, and had withdrawn into a world of her own. Now she was starting to eat well again and had actually gained some weight. The hollows in her cheeks had begun to fill and her eyes, always Rebecca’s best feature since they were large and expressive, once again looked lively and not haunted. The results made Valerie D’Estaing extremely happy. It was time to take the next several steps to ensure Rebecca’s complete recovery. Rebecca, however, had ideas of her own.
    “Tell me,” Rebecca said as they strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue on a day that was bright enough and warm enough to encourage such late-December activities, “have you heard from Captain Knollys?”
    Rebecca grinned as Valerie sighed emotionally. “My British lover has flown, probably never to return. I shall have to find another. Fortunately, that should not take too long with so many fine young warriors in the city. However, you may be more successful at that than I.”
    Rebecca flushed. “I have never taken a lover. That is your game, dear Valerie, not mine.”
    “I know. Your late husband was your first man and you went to the bridal chamber a chaste but eager virgin. But now you are a woman in every sense of the word. No one expects you to be lacking in knowledge of what goes on in bed between a man and a woman. For instance, you cannot deny that you saw your husband naked and aroused.” She had spoken in French, which Rebecca spoke fluently. It ensured that passersby on the crowded street would not overhear intriguing snippets of their conversation.
    Rebecca looked away without comment. Valerie paused and put her hand on Rebecca’s arm. “Dear Rebecca, are you implying by your silence that you never saw him naked in the three years of your marriage?”
    Rebecca nodded and took a deep breath. Sex was something that she and Valerie had never talked about to any real degree. “Nor did he ever see me,” she admitted. Back in Boston, she had seen her younger brothers unclothed on a couple of occasions, but never her husband, and never a man aroused.
    Valerie shook her head in disbelief. So many Americans were such fools. “Do you wish to talk about it?”
    Rebecca did. She had married Thomas Devon when she had been twenty-five and he thirty-seven. She had done so because Thomas Devon had presented himself as a good, decent, and hardworking man who promised to honor and respect her. His proposal also relieved her of the social and emotional burden of being a spinster or old maid. Partially because of the scar on her neck, Rebecca did not consider herself a beauty, and she had no real money to speak of. She was also considered to be a little too outspoken in her zeal regarding the need to abolish slavery. This had stood her well in Boston, but not in Washington.
    “I had hoped for happiness, if not