Unusual.
It brought back a very unpleasant memory, one that he had buried deep within his mind, and which he tried very hard not to think of.
He had been at a demimonde ball a few years ago, not long after his former mistress, Fanny, had become Lady Killston.And he had found himself desirous of taking in the fresh air on the balcony.He had even walked down the steps to the garden—just to give himself a moment of peace from the revelry.
And then he had heard, up above him, Fanny’s voice.
“You are too bad, Gertie!You wouldn’t actually.”
“Iwould.Why should Hampton be the only one who samples the pleasures of London?And I’ve given him an heir, a spare, and a daughter.”That was the voice, brassy and loud, of Lady Hampton, whose husband was a known roué and many years her senior.The Hamptons had been thenouveau richesof two generations ago.Hampton’s grandfather had gotten his earldom for assisting Charles II in a delicate matter involving his wife, a bordaloue, and his very pregnant mistress.
“Well, then, perhaps itisonly fair,” said Fanny.“And who has caught your fancy?”
“I am glad you asked, my dear,” said Lady Hampton.“Because I wouldn’t want to have you cross with me.”
“I am flattered you admire Killston to such an extreme, but I assure you he is really a bother in the bedchamber!Once he begins, he never wants to end.”
“Oh, you!So naughty.You know that I mean no such thing.”
“Pray, whodoyou mean?”
“Lord Leith.He is just the sort of man I like.But I know that you were formerly acquainted.”
“Ah, yes, we were, indeed.But I assure you he is nothing to me now.”
Leith couldn’t love the blithe tone that Fanny took, but he supposed he could not blame her.She had only been his mistress for two weeks and was now married, very happily, it seemed.But even so, he did still have a bit of a soft spot for her.
“You would not mind if I bedded him?”
“La!Gertie, no.But you know that he only pursues courtesans.And besides I cannot say I recommend it.”
“What do you mean, Fanny?”
“Well, I shan’t say, it is not fair to him.And he was, in an indirect way, the means of my meeting Killston, so I won’t insult him.But I will say that he is a very strange man in the bedchamber.You would think, with his reputation, that he would be wild.But he is very dull.And he has a rather small—”
Fanny must have made some sort of gesture because Lady Hampton emitted a squawk of laughter.
“Oh, dear, that won’t do at all.Then perhaps I should direct my efforts at Lord Rawlins—oh, there he is, come, come with me—”
The women filtered off the balcony, leaving Leith burning with secret humiliation.
He told himself it was nothing, of course.It didn’t matter what Fanny thought about his skills in the bedchamber.And, while it pained him to hear her describe his cock in such a way, she wasn’t saying anything he didn’t already know.
He assured himself that he wasn’t in the business of caring about whether he satisfied the women he bedded.Their arrangement was abouthispleasure, not theirs, and that was what the money was for.
Still, at random intervals, he would hear Fanny’s words and Lady Hampton’s laugh and feel a desperate mortification.Most of the time, however, he succeeded in not thinking about her words at all.
Beatrice now brought all of that back.
And made it impossible for him to sleep.
Unfortunately for him, it was not as easy to dismiss Beatrice.
Fanny had already been many years in his past and the wife of another.
And while he had found her beautiful and charming, he ultimately hadn’t even tried to keep her longer than his usual two weeks.
With Beatrice, now, he felt a desperation to keep her at St.James’s, to bed her again, that he didn’t understand.
