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Alice laughed at that and shook her head as they continued to walk down the gallery at a leisurely pace.

“Did Mama ever get around to telling you what to expect on your wedding night?” she asked with a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

“She did,” Phoebe admitted, recalling that particular event with a pained smile. “Although I do wish she had gone about it in a better way. There was simply not much to be understoodfrom the stuttering and the comparison of various parts of my anatomy to, ah…food.”

“Food?” Alice choked out.

“To a peach,” Phoebe declared in a hushed, horrified whisper. “With a hole in it!”

Her sister burst into peals of laughter, and for the first time since she woke up that day, Phoebe felt herself relax a little bit.

“Dear God, I would have given everything to sit through that.” Alice giggled. “It was much better than the hemming and hawing and the stuttering Mama did with me.”

“Yes, but I do not think you would have appreciated it as much when she brought out the cucumber.” Phoebe shuddered. “It was horrifying, let me tell you. I was of the mind to tell her that I would much rather have some book, some instruction pamphlet of some sort.”

Alice looked at her with a twinkle in her eyes. “A good thing she did not bring out an aubergine.”

“She could not find one at that moment, I’m afraid. We had to make do with the cucumber.”

At that point, Phoebe had to help her sister into a chair as they both dissolved into fits of giggles and snorts that were beginning to attract the attention of a few art enthusiasts around them.

“All things considered, youarehappy with your husband, are you not, dearest?” Alice asked her.

Phoebe sighed and managed a smile for her sister’s sake.

Alice’s marriage had been the talk of the entire Season because it had been rather romantic—the reclusive Duke of Blackthorn coming out of his self-imposed seclusion to propose marriage to the young daughter of a marquess he had seen but once in passing.

It was the stuff of novels and fantasy.

Her courtship also garnered a lot of attention, but hardly for a good reason.

Phoebe grimaced inwardly, thinking of how she had disrupted Ethan’sfirstwedding.

“I am happy,” she said carefully. “Well, as happy as one can be, given the circumstances.”

Alice frowned. “What circumstances?”

They were currently in an isolated area of the gallery, reserved for guests like the Duchess of Blackthorn, who could not remain standing and moving about for very long.

“Oh, you know how it is,” Phoebe sighed as she sat down beside her sister. “You do remember that we were essentially forced into this union.”

“It took a lot more to convince you, as I recall,” Alice pointed out with a soft smile. “Your husband, not so much.”

“Well, he would never have proposed if I had wisely kept my nose out of trouble as I always have,” Phoebe muttered. “But now…”

I did that because I wanted you—only you—even then!

His words shattered the beliefs her heart had held onto for more than a month.

He claimed he wanted her, but did he trulyloveher?

Most importantly, now that she had given him what he had been aspiring to since the start of their marriage, would his interest in her continue, or would it wane?

Alice laughed softly and patted her hands. “Dearest Phoebe, this I can tell you—as fickle as he might look, no one can force Ethan to do what he does not want to.”

“What about Miss Delaney?” Phoebe asked.

Alice wrinkled her nose in distaste. “She intended totraphim in marriage with her condition,” she scoffed. “She might have been able to bring him to the altar, but rest assured, he would not have treated her as well as he treats you now.”