Prologue: Cornwall—May 1819
Twenty-five-year-old Mary Lovelock Vaughan, the Viscountess Tregaron, leaned over and picked up a flat stone from the shingle.
“You may have seen something startling today at the inn,” she said and tried to skip the stone across the water, but the waves were too rough.
Arabella said nothing.
“You know, don’t you, Arabella, that men and women lie down together?” Mary’s voice was light in tone but her face was serious. She continued walking down the beach and Arabella followed her.
“Yes.”
“Do you know why they do that?”
“To have children, Mary?”
“Not entirely. In fact, that is just a very small part of it. David and I haven’t had any children yet and still we lie together.”
“You weren’t lying down today!” Arabella burst out.
“No, he was standing. And I was kneeling, wasn’t I? You weren’t meant to see that, of course.”
“No.”
“As your sister, I’d like to talk to you about what you saw, but I also don’t want to force you to talk about it.”
“I want ... I want to talk about it.” Arabella stooped and picked up a pink shell.
“You’re seventeen, aren’t you? I am trying to remember what I wanted then. I remember thinking that kissing would be very enjoyable. And guess what, Arabella?”
“What?”
“It is.” Mary smiled just a little. “And I thought I would like to press my body up against a man and have him hold me. And that turns out to be very enjoyable, as well. And I thought I might like to do the same thing but wear no clothes. And that is ...”
“Enjoyable too?” Arabella felt rather like squirming while talking to her half sister about this, but she also wanted to understand.
“Not enjoyable. Ecstasy.”
Arabella looked up at Mary’s face. Calm, willowy Mary, married to the very controlled and elegant David Vaughan, the Viscount Tregaron. Mary’s dark eyes were far away now, pointed toward the sea, her mouth open slightly, her skin flushed, her dark-brown curls pushed off her face by the offshore wind.
Then she came back to herself.
“With certain things, it is true that there is some pain the first time but it goes away quickly. And most things have no pain, only pleasure.”
“So why do the things that cause pain at all?”
Mary laughed. “Well, as luck would have it, the painful thing is the one that produces children, and it’s nothing to be frightened of, even the first time, if you are with a good man. And it is the thing that makes me feel the closest to David.”
“So David is a good man?” Arabella pushed her own windswept golden tendrils off her face and looked up at the much taller Mary.
“David is the best man. For me. You will find your own best man.”
They walked farther along the shore, Arabella holding her shell in her hand, running her thumb over the ridges.
“I didn’t think much of the men I met last Season in London, Mary.”
“No.”
“And here with you ... I mean I am enjoying the trip, but I don’t think I am going to have any Season at all this year. Do you know why Mama sent me away from London?”
