trying.
“Why should I?”
“To open yourself to new experiences. Free yourself.”
“I’m free enough.”
He frowned. “I see that haunted expression when you think no one is looking. I see your occasional hesitations when he touches you. Rose, you can’t tell me truthfully that you’re entirely happy.”
I could, but I chose not to. I wanted to know what he’d say. “My life is better than it was. What more do I need?”
“You know there are men who love seeing the body of a woman in a certain condition.”
“Pregnant, you mean?”
He flushed along his cheekbones, dark slashes of colour. He meant himself. I continued, sensing a new piece of information coming my way, and I quelled a surge of triumph so I could maintain my attitude of interested doubt. Enough to encourage him to talk, not enough to make him think he’d won me over. “Yes, I do. You are in that condition, aren’t you, Rose?”
“I imagine that becomes more obvious every day.” I hadn’t tried to hide my pregnancy. He’d been studying my figure closer than I’d thought. That made me uncomfortable, so I tried to divert the subject from me. “I’m surprised that Julia hasn’t found herself in an interesting condition.”
He sighed. “I’m not sure she can. I know I’m capable of fathering a child.”
I stared at him in shock, and he gave me a melancholy smile. “A lady of my acquaintance wished to bear her husband a child and came to me for help. No, you can’t know her name, and you won’t discover it.”
Oh, but I would. Within a week or so of sharing the information with Alicia. Servants knew everything and for the right price, so would we. But I let none of my triumph show. “And Julia is very—active.” Presiding over the Cytherean Club must be hard work. Particularly since Julia, a cold fish, did it for power, not for pleasure. Whether it was the power over her partner in bed, or power later when they could threaten him—or her—with exposure, that was her true aphrodisiac. It was the latter that Richard and I were determined to counter.
“She is. It pleases her.”
“And you’re her willing slave?”
He snorted. “Hardly. Although she does have those too.”
I wondered if his indiscretions were deliberate. On the whole, I doubted it, but I couldn’t be sure. I was sure that Julia wouldn’t appreciate these nuggets of information that he gave me, not even through a third party. I could hardly resist him. I slowed my pace and out of courtesy, he had to slow down too. “Does Julia know you did this thing? Fathered a child?”
“No. And if you tell anyone, if it becomes generally known, I’ll deny it. I can do it with conviction too. But a certain noble title now has an heir.”
I hardly needed Thompson’s to work that out. After ten years of childlessness, the Duchess of Nevers had just given birth to a healthy son. Or maybe that was what Steven wanted me to think, and the rest was wishful thinking. Or an attempt to distract me. It was possible that Julia and Steven had their targets set on us once more, and they were trying to distract us into taking our attention away from something else. Or I was out-thinking myself. So many possibilities, I could only depend on my own reactions and instincts.
Steven appeared honest, and he found dissimulation more difficult than his wife. I began with a compliment that would seem bland in other circumstances. “You seem happy with Julia. I’m glad affairs worked out for you.”
He gave me a startled look. “You can say that after last year?”
“That had nothing to do with your wife.” I glanced at the door and my attention froze. “It was him.”
Steven uttered a low curse for which I forgave him, because I had just suppressed similar sentiments. “I’d heard he’d appeared. I thought it a rumour or twisted reality.”
“Twisted is the word.”
The young man entering the room could have been a younger Richard Kerre, except to my prejudiced eyes
“Why should I?”
“To open yourself to new experiences. Free yourself.”
“I’m free enough.”
He frowned. “I see that haunted expression when you think no one is looking. I see your occasional hesitations when he touches you. Rose, you can’t tell me truthfully that you’re entirely happy.”
I could, but I chose not to. I wanted to know what he’d say. “My life is better than it was. What more do I need?”
“You know there are men who love seeing the body of a woman in a certain condition.”
“Pregnant, you mean?”
He flushed along his cheekbones, dark slashes of colour. He meant himself. I continued, sensing a new piece of information coming my way, and I quelled a surge of triumph so I could maintain my attitude of interested doubt. Enough to encourage him to talk, not enough to make him think he’d won me over. “Yes, I do. You are in that condition, aren’t you, Rose?”
“I imagine that becomes more obvious every day.” I hadn’t tried to hide my pregnancy. He’d been studying my figure closer than I’d thought. That made me uncomfortable, so I tried to divert the subject from me. “I’m surprised that Julia hasn’t found herself in an interesting condition.”
He sighed. “I’m not sure she can. I know I’m capable of fathering a child.”
I stared at him in shock, and he gave me a melancholy smile. “A lady of my acquaintance wished to bear her husband a child and came to me for help. No, you can’t know her name, and you won’t discover it.”
Oh, but I would. Within a week or so of sharing the information with Alicia. Servants knew everything and for the right price, so would we. But I let none of my triumph show. “And Julia is very—active.” Presiding over the Cytherean Club must be hard work. Particularly since Julia, a cold fish, did it for power, not for pleasure. Whether it was the power over her partner in bed, or power later when they could threaten him—or her—with exposure, that was her true aphrodisiac. It was the latter that Richard and I were determined to counter.
“She is. It pleases her.”
“And you’re her willing slave?”
He snorted. “Hardly. Although she does have those too.”
I wondered if his indiscretions were deliberate. On the whole, I doubted it, but I couldn’t be sure. I was sure that Julia wouldn’t appreciate these nuggets of information that he gave me, not even through a third party. I could hardly resist him. I slowed my pace and out of courtesy, he had to slow down too. “Does Julia know you did this thing? Fathered a child?”
“No. And if you tell anyone, if it becomes generally known, I’ll deny it. I can do it with conviction too. But a certain noble title now has an heir.”
I hardly needed Thompson’s to work that out. After ten years of childlessness, the Duchess of Nevers had just given birth to a healthy son. Or maybe that was what Steven wanted me to think, and the rest was wishful thinking. Or an attempt to distract me. It was possible that Julia and Steven had their targets set on us once more, and they were trying to distract us into taking our attention away from something else. Or I was out-thinking myself. So many possibilities, I could only depend on my own reactions and instincts.
Steven appeared honest, and he found dissimulation more difficult than his wife. I began with a compliment that would seem bland in other circumstances. “You seem happy with Julia. I’m glad affairs worked out for you.”
He gave me a startled look. “You can say that after last year?”
“That had nothing to do with your wife.” I glanced at the door and my attention froze. “It was him.”
Steven uttered a low curse for which I forgave him, because I had just suppressed similar sentiments. “I’d heard he’d appeared. I thought it a rumour or twisted reality.”
“Twisted is the word.”
The young man entering the room could have been a younger Richard Kerre, except to my prejudiced eyes
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