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Isidore shuddered. “I hated that place.”
“Then why were you there?”
She took a deep breath. “To force you to return home, of course.”
“That’s what my mother said.”
“She was right. I had reached the point at which I thought either you came home or—”
“Or?”
Isidore suddenly saw exactly how to get back at him for offering to show her his equipment. She leaned forward and patted his hand. “Jemma told me once that it is a wife’s duty to provide an heir if a husband is incapable. Since you showed little signs of returning from Africa, I decided I should begin to explore the possibilities.”
All traces of amusement were gone from his face.
“You were going to produce an heir for me?”
She shrugged. “And Cosway, if things are not entirely successful on our wedding night, should we decide to stay together, I wouldn’t want you to worry. I can always—”
“You will never substitute another man for me! I don’t know where you got the damned idea that I might be incapable!”
“Neither one of us can know the truth to that,” she pointed out. She was dancing on the edge of jeopardy and it felt wonderful.
His mouth opened like that of a fish out of water.
She leaned forward and patted his knee this time. “A virgin at your age…well. I would never tell a soul.” And she beamed at him.
It was a beautiful moment. It almost made up for the way he was planning to annul their marriage due to her unsuitability as a wife.
He surprised her.
After staring at her for a moment, he collapsed into a howling fit of laughter.
She sat silently for a moment, but Cosway had the kind of laughter that made you want to join in, and she couldn’t keep herself from smiling.
“You think that because I haven’t tried out the equipment on a woman, it doesn’t work at all?”
“It’s a reasonable—”
He started howling with laughter again, and finally straightened up.
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” she said with reasonable dignity.
“It’s you. I suppose it’s due to being a lady. One can only assume from your idea about my equipment that you yourself have never—” He raised an eyebrow suggestively.
“What?” she asked, completely confused.
“You’ve never pleasured yourself.”
She stared at him. “What?”
“Bloody hell, you haven’t.”
She felt herself turning pink. “I see no need to engage in coarse language.”
“Shit and dam—”
“Don’t!”
