Violet set down a bowl of fruit and reached a hand to help her sit. “I’m sure you’re tired,” she said sympathetically, settling beside her on the bed. “But we have a mission to accomplish.”
Even in her state, Lily couldn’t help but notice the faint circles under her oldest sister’s eyes. “You look rather tired yourself.”
“Two babies will do that to you,” Violet said with a tender smile. But it faded as she watched Lily lay a hand on her abdomen. “You’ll have children, too, Lily.”
“We just have to put our heads together and come up with a brilliant idea,” Rose said as she sat herself on Lily’s other side.
The three of them against all the injustice in the world.
“Why?” Lily couldn’t help asking Rose. “Why all of a sudden are you willing to help me wed Rand Nesbitt?”
“The Earl of Newcliffe,” Rose corrected her, but not unkindly. “And as to why…well…” Her cheeks reddened. “This afternoon, when I saw how miserable you were, and Rand, too—well, it made me realize I’d never loved him like that. I only wanted him because he’s so handsome.”
“And titled,” Violet reminded her, leaning across Lily to send their sister an arch look.
“Well, that, too. I do want someone of consequence, you know. But Lily and Rand—they belong together.”
“Thank you,” Lily whispered. How bittersweet it was to have her sister finally approve at the same time her betrothal was falling apart.
Seated at Lily’s dressing table with a platter of bread and cheese, Judith stopped eating long enough to release a languid sigh. “You and Rand are so romantic.”
Lily eyed her friend thoughtfully. “You look happy.”
“I am.” Judith’s pale blue eyes shone. “I’ve spent some time alone with Edmund—I mean, Lord Grenville—”
“You’d never been alone with him?” Rose interrupted.
Buttering bread, Judith blushed. “Well, it’s not exactly proper, I know, but Papa managed to talk Mama into allowing it. I was so very unhappy, not really knowing Edmund and thinking I might never come to love him.”
Lily began filling four goblets with wine. “So what happened?”
Judith looked up, her cheeks flushed with wonder. “He’s ever so marvelous. The sweetest man. I cannot imagine why I expected to fall in love at first sight. It takes getting to know someone, don’t you think? What a man looks like doesn’t matter as much as what he’s like inside.”
Rand, Lily thought, was wonderful both inside and out. She would never find another man so perfect.
She handed Judith a cup. “So what is Lord Grenville like inside?”
“Thoughtful. Kind. He answered all my questions and listened when I answered his. He loved his first wife dearly, but he was ever so sad that she couldn’t give him any children. More than anything, he wants children. And I…I want to give them to him.”
“Have you considered,” Rose asked, “that the failure to have children might be due to some lack on his part?” It was just like Rose to say out loud what other women would only wonder silently. “After all,” she added, “he’s thirty-five.” She said thirty-five as though the man were likely to topple over and die of old age at any moment.
“That’s not so ancient!” Judith burst out defensively. Lily’s sister blinked, clearly taken aback, but Judith went on. “Do you know, Rose, that someday you will be five-and-thirty, too? And for your sake, I hope by then—”
She broke off, leaving the rest of the sentence unspoken. But they all knew what she’d been about to say.
I hope by then you’ll have found a husband.
“Well,” Rose said stiffly. “I hope for your sake that Lord Grenville’s childlessness wasn’t due to his own shortcomings. I expect you may gain some enlightenment when you discover whether he’s skilled in the bedchamber.”
“I can assure you,” Judith said just as stiffly, “that his childlessness had nothing to do with his skills. He’s a very good kisser.” A hunk of cheese halfway to her mouth, she paused and glanced around as though waiting for them all to express shock. “Are you not scandalized,” she finally asked no one in particular, “that I allowed him to kiss me?”
Violet laughed. “No, we’re not scandalized. As a matter of fact, Mum always advised us to kiss a man before assenting to marriage. After all, it’s a lifetime commitment, so it’s a good idea to assure you’re compatible in that area.”
“Oh,” was all Judith said.
In fact, Lily thought she looked a mite disappointed they didn’t think her a fallen woman.
“I’m so glad you’re happy,” she told her. “I imagine that now you’re really looking forward to your wedding.”
“Oh, yes,” Judith breathed.
Lily wished she had her own wedding to look forward to instead of dreading Rand and Margery’s. Five days now. While she was thrilled for Judith, for some reason her friend’s newfound happiness made her own situation seem that much more miserable.
Judith handed her a nun’s biscuit. “Have you kissed Rand?”
Biting into the sweet almond and lemon treat, Lily nodded and left it at that.
“She’s done much more than kiss him,” Rose said, waggling her brows.
Feeling her face flood with color, Lily gasped. In Oxford, Rose had promised not to tell. She glared at her sister. “You have no reason to believe such a thing.”
Rose’s dark eyes widened as she got the message. “Gemini, I was only jesting.”
Lily brushed sugary crumbs off her skirts while she thought of a way to quickly change the subject. “Remember that song I was practicing for Rand? The one he’s always humming?”
“What of it?”
“It has naughty words. And he knows others, too. He has a whole book of them.”
“A book?” Rose licked her lips. “Did you read them all? Or play them?”
“Only a couple that Rand remembered. The book is in Oxford.”
Rose looked very disappointed.
“Could you mean An Antidote Against Melancholy?” Violet reached for a strawberry. “Ford has that book.”
“In your library?”
“No, upstairs, mixed in with all of his dusty science tomes and various books from when he attended university. I’ve looked
