“You sound like Charlotte,” Allegra teased Sirena.
“Ohh, speaking of my sister-in-law,” Sirena said, “she is at last with child! Gussie is over the moon and nothing is too good for his darling girl. About time she produced for the line. Why Ocky and I were married in June, and I shall have my baby in March. Charlotte and Gussie have been married forever.”
“Tell me aboutit,” Allegra begged her cousin. “What is it like when your husband…makes love to you?”
“Haven’t you and the duke…,” Sirena began. “Well, I thought with your being at Hunter’s Lair all summer you might have…” Her voice trailed off. “Didn’t you even consider it?Not even once?Lord, Allegra, you must be a saint. He is so handsome!”
“Do you think so?” Allegra asked.
“Don’t you?”Sirena responded.
“We do kiss,” Allegra said.
“And?”Sirena demanded.
“I have let him touch my breasts,” Allegra admitted.
“Nothing more?”Sirena was disappointed. “You really are a backward child, I fear, cousin. Why before Imet Ocky I had been kissed and cuddled by half a dozen young men.” She sighed. “You do know what a manhood looks like, don’t you?”
“Of course!” Allegra said. “They are long and thin appendages that dangle between a man’s legs, though for the life of me I do not understand how they can enter a woman’s belly.”
Sirena giggled. “Women have an opening in the secret place,” she explained. “That’s where they put it.”
“How can that be, Sirena? That floppy thing?” Allegra was most disbelieving.
“It doesn’t stay floppy, or thin,” Sirena told her cousin. “They get hard and thick. It hurts the first time and you’ll bleed, but after that…” Sirena’s eyes grew dreamy.
“After what?”Allegra demanded impatiently.
“After the first time, it’s just wonderful! Sometimes I even think I’m flying among the stars,” Sirena admitted. “Of course now with the baby coming we must be very careful, and eventually Ocky and I will not be able to do it, but until then, it’s wonderful. Marvelous!”
“But how do you do it?”Allegra wanted to know.
“Oh, the duke will tell you,” Sirena said.
“No!You will tell me, Sirena. You cannot leave me in abject ignorance. I need to know what to expect,” Allegra said.
“Mama will kill me if she learns I have told you,” Sirena fretted.
“I will kill you if you don’t. Besides, Aunt Mama will not tell me what I need to know. She will make some pronouncement about yielding myself, despite my delicate sensibilities, to my husband’s wishes.”
Sirena giggled. “Yes,” she agreed, “that is exactly the kind of twaddle she will utter despite the fact that sheand your papa have been fucking like rabbits ever since they were wed.… ”
“Sirena!”Allegra half shrieked.
“Well they have, and you know it,” Sirena said. “Why do you think you have been so uncomfortable around them. It is horrifying to think of one’s parents behaving with such abandon, although now that I know what fun it is, I cannot say that I blame them.”
“Tell me what I have to do,” Allegra said.
“You’ll be on your back,” Sirena said. “The duke will lie atop you. He will want you to open your legs. Wait until he asks else you look like a wanton. Then he will put his manhood into your entry. That’s all there is to it.”
“There must be more,” Allegra determined.
“There is,” her cousin agreed, “but that is the part you must find out for yourself because, Ocky says, it is different with each partner. You will be in excellent hands. Ocky says the duke is considered an excellent lover. Men know about these things, as they certainly should.”
“Well,” Allegra said, “I suppose I must content myself with what you have told me. I hope I do not prove a perfect fool on my wedding night, Sirena. You know how I dislike being ignorant.”
“You are a virgin, Allegra,” Sirena said, suddenly sounding very wise. “Virgins are supposed to be unschooled and backward. Men like it that way. Ocky never knew, nor will he ever know of the boys I kissed and cuddled with before I came to London.” She giggled. “He thinks he was my very first kiss. I hope he never runs into Jeremy Carstairs.”
