Fascinated

'I cannot help it if I am a man who needs to give love, darling,' he told her. 'Besides, you always get my best, Caro. You know, this is what Lucinda needs.'

'Love?' his wife replied.

'No, a good stiff cock up her cunt,' he answered.

Caroline giggled. 'Ohh, George, you are really so naughty for a clergyman. Now get off me, and let us get into bed. I'm freezing. Tell me, did you ever… well, you know, with your sisters?'

He laughed. 'Willy and I had a bit of a go with Laetitia and Charlotte before he went off to India. After he was gone they wouldn't, and we never fucked them. It was just kissing, and sucking, and fondling.' He chuckled with the memory. 'Their husbands got their cherries, or so I presume. Neither Willy nor I ever did.'

Her nightgown now on, and her person comfortably ensconced in their bed, the bishop's wife said, 'What are you going to do with Lucinda, George?'

'Well, she is still young, and certainly a beauty. Her pedigree is respectable. She's rich. We'll have a husband for her in no time at all, m'dear. I guarantee it!' the bishop reassured his wife.

A year passed, and Lady Harrington remained domiciled in her brother's house. It had become a battle of wills between the two siblings. Lucinda wanted her own home in London, but the bishop would not allow her bankers to release the necessary funds for such an extravagant purchase. George wanted his sister to remarry, but there wasn't a gentleman who came to call who suited Lucinda at all; and woe to those who engaged her attention for a time and then had the temerity to propose marriage. A second year passed. George Worth decided that a trip to London was absolutely in order if they were ever to rid themselves of his youngest sister.

At twenty-five Lucinda was considered an incredible beauty. The virginal debutantes in that London season of seventeen hundred and fifty paled before her presence. As there were no great heiresses that year, Lucinda, with her comfortable income, became the most sought after female in society, despite her age. The younger of the fortune-hunting lordlings amused her, and she was tolerant and kind to them. The rakes and roues were quickly dismissed with a sharp word and a toss of her chestnut curls. Lucinda had no time for fools, or men who thought all women gullible before their manly presence.

The field surrounding Lucinda finally narrowed itself into the three most eligible men in London. Richard Rhodes, the Duke of Rexford, was tall with naturally blond hair and silver-gray eyes. He was so proud of his hair color that all of his wigs, but the formal ones he must wear to court, were the exact same color as his hair. He was a great horseman, and his home in Kent, Rexford Court, was considered one of the finest houses in the country.

Hamlet Hackett, Marquess of Hargrave, was his best friend. A portly young man of medium height, he was prematurely balding with a fringe of nut brown hair growing around the pink back of his pate. His eyes were a deceptively mild blue. Even with the finest wigs made, he still had the look of a well-fed monk; although it was known in certain circles that Hamlet Hackett had the libido of an amorous alley cat. Not a maid at his home, Hargrave Manor, was safe from his naughty ways. He eyed Lucinda as though she were an especially tasty pastry and dreamed of making love to her. He did not, however, share his thoughts with Richard Rhodes, who he suspected had similar notions.

Lucinda's third suitor was Lord Benjamin Bertram of Bancroft Hall, near Oxford. This gentleman was outrageously wealthy and had been the target of ambitious mamas for the past five seasons. He was a very tall and thin man whose hair and eyes both were a nondescript brown. His face was lean, almost severe. Lucinda Harrington was the first woman he had considered worthy to bear his name, and his heir, for he could trace his antecedents back to the long-ago time of Alfred the Great.

George Frederick Worth was delighted by all three suitors for his sister's hand. Whoever she chose, it would be a triumph, and add sheen to his family's escutcheon. Heeding his wife's advice, he did not champion any of the trio as a favorite.

If the truth had been known, he didn't care which one Lucinda picked, for all three were eminently suitable.

The season was drawing to a close. They would soon be returning to the manse. The bishop was growing more nervous by the day. 'Has she said nothing to you, Caroline?' he finally asked his wife. Often women talked to other women before speaking to the men in their family.

Caroline Worth looked uncomfortable. She attempted to avoid her husband's gaze. At last she said, 'Lucinda says she has found the perfect house for herself on Traleigh Square, near the park.'

'What?' The bishop struggled not to shout, but his temples were beginning to throb. He swallowed hard, and drew in several deep breaths to calm himself. Then he demanded of his wife, 'Has not one of them declared? God only knows they have monopolized her time enough.'

'She has refused all three,' Caroline murmured in a tiny voice. 'She will have her own home again, George. I do not believe she will remarry until she gets her way. Unless you want her living with us forever, I beg you to give in to her in this matter.' Then Caroline Worth burst into tears. 'I want my home back, George! I am to have another baby, and I want my home back again! The manse is not that big. Clarissa is too old to be in the nursery any longer, and I need the bedroom your sister inhabits for her.'

'She has refused all three?' The bishop's face was purple with his outrage. 'And you did not tell me?'

'It only happened in the last week.' His wife wept nervously. 'You cannot make her marry if she doesn't want to, George. This is not the middle ages.'

'She must be made to reconsider,' the bishop said firmly.

'She has publicly insulted them,' Caroline told him. 'It is quite the giggle of the Ton, George. I am surprised you have not heard the gossip. I doubt they will reconsider asking her again after what she has said about them.'

'What has she said?' the bishop demanded of his spouse.

'She said the duke has a face like one of his own horses and not one of particularly good blood lines. And Hargrave reminds her of the elephant at the tower zoo; and Lord Bertram is a stork in too colorful feathers.'

George Frederick Worth was almost apoplectic in his outrage. 'Damn her for a high-flying filly!' he swore. 'By God, she needs a good lesson in manners. It's obvious Robert Harrington had no idea what he was doing when he left her his fortune. Or he spoiled her rotten. Either way I have the problem to contend with, and I must solve it.'

'Let her have the house,' his wife pleaded tearfully.

'No, damnit, Caroline! I will bring my sister to heel if it's the last thing on this earth that I ever do. She will remarry, and she will remarry well. She will not bring shame upon this family, or her sisters' families, by her outrageous and willful behavior,' the bishop declared angrily. Then seeing his wife's stricken face, he put his arms about her. 'Another baby, eh? That will be nice, m'dear.' He gave her a small hug, then released her. 'I am going to the club now, Caroline, to see if I can repair the damage Lucinda has caused. It is not necessary to hold dinner for me, or to wait up for me. I will probably be some time. You must take care of yourself now, my darling. And in a few weeks' time we shall return to the manse. When is the baby due, Caroline?'

'October,' she told him. 'Oh, I hope it is a little boy. We already have one for the army and one for the church. We need but an admiral now.' She gave him a small smile.

'I should not mind another girl,' the bishop declared.

'But what if she's like Lucinda?' his wife asked.

'No daughter of ours will ever be like Lucinda,' George Worth said firmly. 'We will not permit it, m'dear.' Then he gave his wife a loving kiss and departed for his club.

At White's he quickly spotted his sister's three suitors huddled together conversing. He hurried over to greet them. 'I must apologize for Lucinda,' he began. 'Caroline was so shocked by my sister's behavior she has only just confided in me. We're expecting another child, y'know, and it doesn't do for her to be upset.'

Then to the bishop's surprise, the Duke of Rexford said admiringly, 'I have never met such an arrogant wench as Lucinda. By God, she has spirit! Just the kind of woman one wants to sire heirs upon.'

'Aye,' the Marquess of Hargrave agreed with his best friend. 'No namby-pamby virgin for me either. It's your sister, or I shall remain a bachelor.'

'She needs, however, to be taught a lesson in the proper deportment of a lady toward a gentleman,' Lord Bertram said quietly. He looked meaningfully at the bishop. 'She is very beautiful, and her bloodlines are excellent; but she is far too independent. She must be instructed in how to be subservient to her husband. Does not St. Paul