“Now wouldn’t that be something! I haven’t heard any particulars, other than the name is well earned, but I can’t wait to find out. Can you imagine what type of show she must put on?”
Envisioning the possibilities, Daniel’s loins started to grow heavy—but only for half a heartbeat. How could he expose Thea to something so tawdry? In truth, his own interest wasn’t nearly as keen as it would have been a fortnight ago.
He might want to do tawdry things with his pretty mistress, but that didn’t mean he wanted others knowing about them. Didn’t mean he wanted to debauch her in public.
It was one thing if he showed her carnal pleasures beyond the norm; quite another if she learnt them elsewhere. But how to bow out gracefully?
As if he didn’t already have enough weighing on him, the memorized lines in front of him, the lack of Thea tonight, the—
That was it!
Daniel shook his head with feigned regret. “Cannot. Thea’s not available tonight.”
“Not available?” Penry looked incredulous. “Don’t let that stop you! She’s your mistress, man, put her in her place. As to that, Sarah’s off visiting her sister and you can be assured I’ll still be there.”
“To watch?”
When Cy nudged his knee, Penry pushed him away. “Or participate if Fräulein Wunderbar looks as wonderful as her namesake.”
Participate? Daniel frowned. “What of Sarah?”
A snort came from Penry’s direction. “What of her? She’s comely and accommodating and I’ve rewarded her well for it. But it’s not as if she’s my wife. Furnishing that new house of hers set me back a coin or two, I tell you, so she’s got nothing to complain about.”
Cy whined at the loss of his playmate. Daniel snapped his fingers, calling the dog to him.
“I’ve been with her for going on four years now. The old prick’s getting peevish…” Penry rubbed his hands together like a lecher. Not an image that sat well with Daniel. “I’ve got to get my turn on the comely fräulein. Just the thought of taking a ride on those splendid thighs…”
Penry kept talking, and with every word, Daniel’s inner disquiet grew. It’s not as if she’s my wife.
Penry’s wife. A woman he cheated on to be with Sarah…
Sarah, who’d introduced Daniel to Thea.
Daniel sank his fingers in Cy’s slathered-upon jowls, scratched for all he was worth. Loyalty. Shouldn’t it be rewarded?
Loyalty. Faithfulness.
Never would he consider attending such a debauched event on his own – without Thea. To watch, much less participate.
So he declined. Suffered through Penry’s vocal objections and declined again.
Bother it. Penry refused to listen, had some chaw bacon idea that Daniel had to attend or ’twould all be for naught.
“Will. Halt,” Daniel thundered, finally gaining the other man’s silence with his rarely used given name. “G-go. Enjoy. B-but ’twill be without me.”
“Fine,” Penry huffed, heading toward the door with a disparaging shake of his head. “’Tis your loss.”
Damn. This visit might have begun with Penry announcing his displeasure with Daniel, but it was ending the opposite—with Daniel regarding his longtime friend with new eyes.
Had Penry always been this callous toward the women in his life?
Or was Daniel’s relationship with Thea causing him to see things differently?
Though Buttons hadn’t known exactly where Lord Harrison stashed his ladybird, he had known who to ask, and so it was a mere forty minutes later that the two women were shown to a sunny little parlor bedecked with flowers and lemon tarts and an effusively smiling Susan.
Anna was out with Lord Harrison, leaving Susan in place as “Mistress of the Manor” she told them with a laugh as they gingerly took seats on the brocade couch she indicated and just as gingerly divulged the purpose of their visit.
“Really now? You two ladies want me to teach you how to be a mistress?” Thea noticed her H’s were flowing much more smoothly. “If that don’t beat a rug! I was just thinking the other day about writing a pamphlet on that very topic.”
As she spoke, Susan very carefully poured tea for all three of them (Thea was still marveling at being called a lady and being lumped in the same category with Lady Elizabeth, however erroneous).
“’Course, it would help a heap if I knew my letters and could write.” Susan laughed a tad self-consciously. She settled herself upon the remaining chair, with tea in hand and little finger daintily extended.
“I’ll teach you,” Lady Elizabeth promised quickly. “Or pen the pamphlet for you under your direction if you prefer, only please, tell me everything you can about how to be a mistress, a good one. And quickly. I don’t know how much longer his patience will hold out.”
“’E’s not treating you rough, is ’e?” Susan dropped her effort at gentility and did a remarkable impression of a gnarler, barking and alarm. “I don’t ’old with no man treating ’is mistress bad.”
“No! Nay!” Thea’s companion practically shouted in her determination to defend her mate (a good sign, Thea thought). “Nothing such as that, I promise. Losing patience with me…sexually”—Lady Elizabeth whispered the word as though she did penance before a nun—“not physically. ’Tis simply that I don’t want him turning elsewhere for carnal companionship, not if I can help it.”
Reassured, Susan gulped her tea down to porcelain. With a clack, she returned her cup to its saucer; a clatter and the saucer met the tray. “Can’t make no guarantees you understand, men will be men, but I believe I can help you out much as anyone could.”
“Thank heavens.” Lady Elizabeth placed her untouched tea silently on the tray. “Please, share whatever you will.”
“To keep him from wanting to stray, you must convince him how much you like havin’ carnal relations with him.” Susan latched on to the phrase with a twinkle. “Now some gents are going to ply their plow in multiple pastures no matter how hard you try to lock the gate, but if yours asked you to be his mistress, why ’tis obvious
