Chapter 14
Mary nearly choked on her own saliva as she fought to contain the shock of these women. She liked to think of herself as a relatively open individual, but these women were discussing things that were…well, vulgar. She knew for certain that no woman in polite society discussed such things, but aside from being shocked at their bold crudeness, Mary found the conversation almost amusing. Particularly due to their setting.
The group of nine ladies sat in a semi-circle facing a low-burning fireplace in an all pink, all floral drawing room. The walls were papered in the same floral print as the cushions and carpet. It was a highly feminine and overwhelmingly delicate setting for such a lewd discussion. And how odd that they would gather here; Mary thought that drawing rooms were reserved for greeting callers.
“I have never allowed a man to dothat,” a buxom brunette, whose name Mary had missed, said.
“Whyever not?” a thickset, handsome blonde woman asked, shock lining her features. “It is highly pleasurable.”
“But yourtits?” The brunette appeared unconvinced.
“Come now,” the Viscountess Kerr put in, “be adventurous! It is ever so enjoyable and it gives you a greatview.”
Lady Kellings pouted. “I think Lord Sheffield would kill me if we tried it.”
Mary tittered along with the other women. Mary despised tittering, but her grin was natural and wide.
Lady Kellings sat forward. “I am serious!”
The women laughed harder, Mary’s laugh becoming genuine.
“Not only is my bosom too small for his cock to fit in between, but the weight of his body would surely crush the life out of me.”
Roars of laughter echoed off the walls of the drawing room. Mary wiped a tear that had gathered at the corner of her eye, the awkward image the woman’s words provoked causing her to laugh harder, despite the crude nature of it.
As the laughter died down, Lady Marpol, Lord Kerr’s mistress, turned to the Viscountess Kerr. “Speaking of men’ssizes, your husband is rather small.”
Lady Kerr grunted, “I know. I’m surprised you put up with him at all.”
Lady Marpol shrugged. “I do not mind so much, but sometimes I wish I could find another,larger…”
“Oh yes, I know. My lover is larger—though not by much—but he has yet to arrive and I am in dire need of entertainment. Which brings me to the question I have been positivelyburstingto ask all evening…” She turned to Mary with a look of unnatural earnestness. “What is itpreciselythat enamoured Mr. Spencer to you?”
Something about Lady Kerr’s intensity struck Mary ill. As much as she wished to call Lady Kerr a traitor and have her taken into custody by the crown simply for her attraction to Gabe, she knew she couldn’t. But instinctively, Mary knew this was a baited question and much hung in the balance of her answer. Which brought her to another dilemma. Would the ladies see through her falsehood if she answered as her true self? Or would they believe the lie as truth?
“His prowess? His charm? His handsome appearance?” Lady Kerr continued.
Mary thought quickly. The answer was simple. She was not Mary Wright, spy. She was Miss Mary White, actress extraordinaire and great seducer of men, legendary for her ability to bring a man to fulfillment without a single touch, and mistress to Mr. Anthony Spencer, gambler and Lothario.
She must also be careful of how she presented herself among these women. They may be open to any manner of debauchery and often silly, but that did not mean that they were not capable of treason. Particularly Lady Kerr. If Mary wished to avoid suspicion herself, she must exude not only the erotically sophisticated actress, but a dimwitted one, as well.
So, the issue remained; what would Mary White say?
She thought quickly, the patter of rain upon the room’s windows the only sound breaking the fraction of a second of silence.
“La, what a question! Have you seen the man?” Mary winked. “Tony not only has the body of a Greek god, but,” she closed her eyes in apparent rapture, her face tilted up to the ceiling, “knowledge of a woman’s body, and stamina that is unrivalled by any other of my lovers. Superior in every sense.” She waived a hand through the air. “That, and straight, white teeth. I cannot abide a man with dirty, uneven teeth.”
The ladies tittered, but Mary noted the shrewd sharpness in Lady Kerr’s coldly laughing eyes. Mary’s suspicion heightened. Something was definitely not right about Lady Kerr.
“Oh, Lord, neither can I!” Mrs. McArthur exclaimed, a cringe on her lips
“I once had this lover that knew…”
Mary listened with half an ear as one of Mr. Jackson’s blonde mistresses began an open discussion about past lovers. Mary added in her own answers on occasion, and laughed and smiled where appropriate, but her thoughts were elsewhere.
She must find an opportunity to speak with Gabe about her suspicions of Lady Kerr. Now that she thought on it, she should also speak with him about the dark looks he had been giving her over supper. He needed to learn to control his facial expressions, if not his temper.
“The evening may now begin!”
