“You are not half the prude you pretend to be,” she said, with a laugh.“I had a notion.Let us each select one thing, and we won’t show the other what it is.We can bring it out when we are prepared to use it.”
“Absolutely not.”
She rolled her eyes.“I am sure you can findonething that looks intriguing.”
“For you, I will endeavor to try.”
Beatrice began perusing the walls, trying very hard not to sneak any glimpses at Leith.Next to many items sat helpful drawings.These illustrations proved invaluable for figuring out what the various devices were for.
She didn’t want to pick anything too adventurous.She didn’t want to push him too far.
Beatrice surveyed all the options and, when she had made her determination, she rang the bell.
Leith was on the other side of a rather large central bookshelf—each book, she had observed, more sinful than the last—and so luckily could not see what she handed to the attendant.
“Turn around,” she heard him say from over the shelf.“You promised not to look.”
She laughed, honestly surprised that he had selected anything.
She obeyed him, turning towards a large display of phalluses, extremely curious about what he had selected but resolute in respecting their agreement.
When they walked back to the carriage with their purchases tucked under his arm, he turned to her.
“I suppose you see this little excursion as part of your courtesan education.”
“In fact,” she said, “I have not thought of that at all.My thoughts were only of you.”
He looked down at her, his gaze stormy.She wasn’t sure if she was merely seeing her own melancholy about the shortness of their time together on his face.
But, in that moment, even to Beatrice Salisbury’s jaundiced eye, the man looked quite…besotted.
Impossible, she told herself.
But she found she couldn’t stop smiling.
Chapter Twenty-Five
In the end,Beatrice needn’t have worried.When they entered the opulent townhome of the Duke of Edington, they were instantly shown into the drawing room, where they found the other two couples.They were all seated comfortably—Lady Tremberley, or Henrietta as Leith called her, was even on the floor, in her stocking feet, eating strawberries from a dish.
While the others weren’t quite sodishabille, they had an air of comfort that was unmistakable.Beatrice exhaled when she realized that Leith had not exaggerated.She was not going to be expected to observe the niceties of a society that she did not understand.
“Oh, wonderful, you’re here,” their hostess said, her kind blue-black eyes glimmering with excitement.“Miss Salisbury, we are so delighted to meet you.Come, sit with me and Henrietta and talk a while.Leith, leave us ladies be.”
Leith cast a wary eye at Henrietta.
“I will be listening,” Leith warned.“So you two must behave yourself.”
“Leith, have I ever wronged you?”
Beatrice reflected, that with her silvery-blond hair, dark eyes, and intelligent, sweet countenance, Lady Edington looked like a creature from a different world.She trusted her implicitly.
“It’s notyouI worry about, Catherine, as you well know.”
Catherine shook her head.“You have nothing to fear from any one here.Now go see John and Trem.”
“Scream if this coven of two become vicious,” Leith said to her, real concern lighting up his eyes.
She shook her head.“I am sure I will be very safe.”
