Deceived

feel different about you than any other woman I have ever known, my darling. Perhaps it is love.'

It was rather flattering, she thought as their carriage made its way back to Hawkes Hill. He had never been in love before he met her. Cally didn't love the duke, nor did Valerian love her. I think I am very lucky, Aurora considered.

'A marvelous stone,' the dowager said for the fourth time since she had seen Aurora's ring. 'A bit showy, perhaps, but without a flaw. There isn't another diamond like it in all the world. It belonged to an Indian rajah, I am told, and has a name. The Virgin, it is called. I am so very pleased, my dear child,' the dowager continued. 'And I know that your family will be too.'

George Spencer-Kimberly was indeed delighted. 'When's the wedding?' he asked. His own nuptials were scheduled for the very end of October. 'Will you and St. John return to St. Timothy with us?'

'We are not being married until next spring,' Aurora told him. 'It has all been decided by the dowager and Mistress St. John. Oh, George, I do wish you could persuade Mama to leave the island and come to England to be with Cally and me. The duke has said Cally may go back to London after she births her child, and she is planning to do it. If Mama were here, perhaps she would not be so restless.'

'I will try,' he said, and then, 'Come on! I want to see Cally's face when she sees your betrothal ring. She'll be most envious. You know how she loves beautiful jewelry.'

'God help you' was Cally's blessing on her sister's news. She was sitting up in her bed, drinking tea and eating sweetmeats. 'Let me see the ring.' She took Aurora's slender hand and peered closely at it. 'He's generous,' she noted, 'but I've told you what he'll expect in return for his gifts. You would be wise to return the ring.'

Shaking his dark head, George departed the room. His sister grew stranger every day, and made no secret of the fact she hated any intimacy with her husband.

When the door had closed behind him, Aurora said, 'I am learning the pleasures of the flesh, little sister. St. John is quite passionate.'

'My God!' Cally exclaimed. 'You haven't been intimate with him and given away your virtue? Surely you aren't that foolish.'

'We play love games,' Aurora said, 'but that is all.'

'How can you bear it?' Cally said wearily.

'I like it,' Aurora said. 'I like his kisses, and I like his mouth on my skin, and I enjoy it when he fondles me, Cally.'

Calandra shuddered. 'You must be a wanton,' she said.

'Because a woman enjoys the physical attentions of a man does not necessarily mean she is a loose jade. Of course, I do not mean she should encourage just any man,' Aurora told her sister, 'but it can be no sin with a husband, or an affianced husband. Why should a woman not take her pleasure too? I can find no wrong in it.'

'Perhaps it is me,' Calandra admitted. 'I just don't enjoy being pawed and invaded by a man. Any man. It isn't just Valerian. While I was in London there were several gentlemen who approached me in a less than seemly fashion. I enjoy being admired and envied, but I will not be touched by a lustful man.'

'I am astounded, then, that you are with child,' Aurora spoke boldly to her sibling. She did not really expect an answer.

'My husband forced me,' Cally said, surprising her. 'He wanted an heir, and that I wasn't willing was of no importance to him.'

Aurora was thoughtful as she considered her sister's words. If Cally didn't want her husband, how could he be aroused by her enough to spill his seed? She must ask St. John about such behavior. Perhaps the duke enjoyed resistance. It was a distasteful and frightening thought that a woman's desires and wishes were not paramount to such intimacy.

Aurora had no opportunity to inform her brother-in-law of her impending marriage, for the dowager had already told him, as she discovered when she sat down to dinner. The old lady had been so delighted, she could not contain herself long enough to allow Aurora to announce her own good news. The duke took the news impassively.

'I wish you happiness,' he said.

'And you will give an intimate little dinner to announce Aurora's betrothal, Valerian,' his grandmother said. 'Just the immediate family and the Bowens, of course. Calandra is hardly even up to that, but we must do it for propriety's sake. Elsie Bowen will trumpet the news all about the county, I am certain. We will achieve our aim without incurring any vast expense in doing so,' she chuckled. Then she turned to Aurora. 'Of course, if your sister were not so fragile right now, we should have a very grand ball to announce your coming marriage, but we shall soothe everyone's feelings by inviting them all to the wedding. It will be the grandest occasion the county has seen in years. Valerian will, naturally, foot the expense, won't you, my dear boy?'

'Of course,' the duke said dryly but without enthusiasm.

'Are you not happy for me?' Aurora asked him pointedly.

'If you are happy, Aurora, then I must be happy for you even if I believe you could do better' was the reply.

'Better?' Her voice was sharp. 'With one of those London fops Cally was forever pressing upon me? I am astounded that you think so little of me, Valerian, to believe that I would be that shallow. St. John suits me quite well. He is a country gentleman, and I prefer being a country lady. And he is very passionate! His kisses set my heart afire! I am the luckiest girl in the world!' She glared at him, daring him to contradict her or criticize St. John.

'God deliver me from a romantic virgin in love for the first time,' he mocked her. 'I am assuming, of course, that you are still a virgin and have not been silly enough to let my cousin seduce you. He is quite a notorious rake, you know. Or perhaps you do not know. He has fathered at least three bastards to my knowledge.'

'Valerian!' His grandmother's handsome face was flushed with her annoyance. 'You are being deliberately provocative and most indelicate.'

'How nice to know St. John's seed is so potent,' Aurora said sweetly. 'I am very eager to begin a family. Does he throw sons or daughters the most, Valerian?' She smiled brightly.

Mary Rose Hawkesworth gasped at the girl's boldness as George Spencer-Kimberly stifled his laughter. The duke and his grandmother were going to find out that Aurora was a formidable opponent when irritated, aroused, or otherwise annoyed. No one had ever called his sister a biddable female. He would miss her when he returned to St. Timothy with his bride, but Besty Bowen was a more predictable female, like his mother, and he far preferred such a girl for his wife.

'Be careful, my dear Aurora,' the duke said coldly, 'else you be mistaken for a coarse strumpet.'

Standing suddenly, Aurora threw her wineglass at him and stormed from the dining room. The duke laughed, both amused and amazed by her actions. Then he nodded to Peters to see the disarray was cleaned up, and turned his attention back to his dinner plate.

'You are really quite impossible, Valerian,' his grandmother remarked. 'Frankly, I would have thrown the entire wine carafe at you. It was well within Aurora's grasp. She was rather restrained, I thought.'

George could no longer contain his mirth, and burst out laughing.

The tension broken, the trio continued their meal, while upstairs Aurora was sending Martha for a tray, for she was ravenous, her anger and her excitement both fueling her appetite. When George stopped by later on to bid her good night, Aurora was just finishing her meal.

'He laughed at you, you know,' George informed his sister.