Page 11

L ucy and Izzie arrived at Latimer House at teatime.

This was usually a good time for a private visit as Diana’s sister-in-law, Cecilia, her great-aunt, Griselda, and her nephew, Alaric, were all in their respective rooms, taking a nap.

Cecilia because she was heavily pregnant with the next member of the Latimer brood, Aunt Griselda because she was eighty-five years old, and Alaric because he was not yet two.

They gathered in the sitting room connected to Diana’s bedroom, which was decorated in rich shades of emerald green and gold. Ellery, their beloved family butler of more than twenty years, personally delivered the tea tray.

As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Izzie pounced. “What’s going on between you and Harrington?”

Diana accepted the cup of tea Lucy had poured for her.

“He had a particular question he wanted to ask me. William Windham has asked him to throw his support behind a pair of acts coming up for a vote, relating to soldiers’ pay and pensions.

Mr. Windham wants your brother to drum up some votes, and he asked for my advice about how best to go about it. ”

Lucy’s face fell. “Then… you don’t like him?”

Diana sipped from her cup, considering her answer. The conversation was a bit awkward, as Harrington was the twins’ brother.

But Izzie and Lucy were her best friends. Although Diana was very good at deflecting questions with an icy stare, she found that in this case, she didn’t want to.

“I do like him,” she admitted. She held up her hand as Lucy squealed, and a familiar arch look came into Izzie’s eyes.

“I don’t want to overstate the situation.

My acquaintance with him has been short.

But I would like to spend more time in his company, to see if there is potential for something more than friendship. ”

Lucy clapped her hands and bounced in her seat. “That’s wonderful , Diana!”

“It really is,” Izzie agreed. “I can’t recall you liking another man even this much.”

It was true. There were a great many men who wanted to marry her for some combination of her dowry and her status as the sister of a duke.

But Harrington seemed to regard the notion of marrying her as impossible. Which made a certain amount of sense, as her brother despised him.

But the point was, as far as Harrington Astley was concerned, her fortune was out of reach and any time he sought to spend in her company was because he wanted to. Because he actually enjoyed her acid wit and admired her intelligence.

A tantalizing prospect, indeed.

“So,” Diana said, plucking a madeleine from the plate, “tell me more about your brother.”

“Harrington is wonderful ,” Lucy said.

“He acts the part of the scapegrace.” Izzie waved her own madeleine. “And to a certain extent, he is. But he would do anything for the people he cares about.”

“He does have a reputation for being a bit wild,” Diana noted. “Do you think he will make a good husband when he finally settles down and marries?”

The twins exchanged a look. “I do,” Izzie said.

“I do as well,” Lucy added.

Izzie bit her lip. “In my opinion, the reason Harrington has pursued, shall we say, fleeting attachments, is not because he is incapable of being faithful. It’s because he believes deep down that no woman would want a permanent alliance with him .”

“That’s it exactly,” Lucy agreed.

Diana frowned. She had been pursued by any number of men with far fewer personal attractions than Harrington Astley. Most of them had a level of self-regard entirely disproportionate to their shortcomings. “Why would he feel that way?”

The twins exchanged another one of those speaking looks. “It’s largely because of Edward,” Lucy said at last.

“Edward?” Diana asked. “You mean, Lord Fauconbridge? I thought they were close.”

“They are,” Izzie hastened to reassure her. “Please, don’t mistake me. Edward has never been unkind.”

“That’s not in Edward’s nature,” Lucy added.

“But…” Izzie waved a hand, formulating her words. “Edward was so bright and so focused on doing well in school.”

“ Too focused on doing well in school,” Lucy added darkly.

“Harrington decided from an early age that he could never measure up,” Izzie explained. “And so, he chose a different path.”

“And didn’t try in school at all,” Lucy said sadly.

Izzie nodded. “This in turn caused him to conclude that he was an idiot, and worthless, and that no woman would want him, when really, none of those things are true.”

Diana leaned back in her chair, considering.

“That certainly tracks with what I’ve observed.

He could scarcely believe your father wanted him, rather than Edward, to stand for that seat in Parliament.

I was actually the one who first informed him that he had been elected, and his reaction was somewhat panicked. ”

The twins shared another pregnant glance. “I can’t say I’m surprised,” Lucy said.

“Well,” Diana said, setting down her cup, “this is certainly good information for me to have. Thank you for informing me.”

Izzie set her teacup aside. “Speaking of useful information to have, now that we have established that you will be marrying my brother?—”

“Izzie!” Diana laughed. “We have established no such thing.”

Izzie ignored Diana’s protestations, as Diana had known she would. “Are there any questions you wish to have answered prior to your wedding night?” Izzie paused dramatically, giving Diana a lurid look. “Questions of an intimate nature?”

Diana considered. There were decided benefits to having a married friend. Izzie had already explained, in detail, what went on between a man and a woman in the bedchamber. Whenever she did marry, Diana would be going into her wedding night with far more information than the typical bride.

And Izzie had done more than describe the basics of the marital act. Before she married Thorpe, she had commandeered a book of scandalous prints from its hiding place beneath Harrington’s mattress and presented it for Lucy and Diana’s perusal.

Diana had found the pictures shocking. Aunt Griselda bred her own hunting dogs, so Diana had already understood the basic mechanics of copulation.

But seeing those naked men and women tangling together had been a thousand times more startling than watching a pair of dogs rut.

Some of them showed a woman putting her mouth on a man’s most intimate parts, the mere thought of which made Diana blush.

And the notion that she might want a man to do the same to her was inconceivable.

As astonishing as the images were, Diana could not deny that they were also…

stirring. After Izzie’s wedding, she had encouraged Diana and Lucy to keep an open mind toward those images of the couples kissing one another between their legs, assuring them that the act was exquisitely pleasurable.

After a few years spent pondering the matter, Diana felt more curious than horrified.

Armed with her newfound knowledge about the workings of her own body, she had experimented late at night in her bed and found that caressing the areas shown in the prints did, indeed, bring about a delightful result.

She could now easily imagine that a man putting his mouth on that little spot between her legs might bring about the sort of bliss that radiated from the couples shown in the book.

She would go so far as to say that she was eager to try it. And since his return, when she lay in bed at night, touching herself, the man she liked to imagine she was engaging in those acts with was Harrington.

There were other pictures in that book for which the appeal was less clear, including the image Harrington had marked by folding down the corner of the page.

It depicted a man bent over while his lover spanked him with a birch. But far from finding the experience painful, the man had an expression of bliss on his face, and was reaching down to rub his own cock, which was fully erect!

It was possible that the corner had been folded down by accident, perhaps as Harrington hastily shut the book and shoved it back into its hiding place. But Diana could not help but notice that when the book was opened to this particular page, it lay flat very easily.

She didn’t know for sure. But she had to wonder—was this what he liked?

Being spanked? Diana could not fathom why someone might enjoy such a thing.

But this was likely due to her own ignorance.

It was also mortifying to picture a man placing his lips between her legs, yet Izzie had assured her she would enjoy that particular act very much.

She supposed it was one of those things you could not truly understand until you had experienced it for yourself, and she therefore tried to reserve her judgment.

She felt a pang of guilt that she knew anything about Harrington’s more intimate preferences. Her only goal in looking at the pictures had been to gain general information. She had not intended to invade his privacy, but that was precisely what she had done.

She was startled from her reverie by someone shaking her arm. She blinked and found Lucy smiling at her. “Diana? Are you even attending?”

Izzie looked amused. “And here I thought I was the one whose mind was always a thousand miles away. What were you thinking about?”

She could hardly answer, Your brother, with his head between my legs . “Nothing!”

Izzie gave Lucy a significant look. “She’s blushing.”

“She was definitely thinking about Harrington,” Lucy said. “And what were we discussing? Ah, yes—the marriage bed.”

Now Diana could feel her cheeks burning. “I wasn’t… I mean, I… er…”

“She’s usually such a good liar,” Izzie observed.

“She is,” Lucy agreed. “And I don’t think I’ve ever seen her blush before!”

“You’re the one who introduced the topic,” Diana grumbled.

“True,” Izzie said, unrepentant. “So, do you have any questions?”

“None at this time,” Diana said crisply. “I do believe you have already provided me with as much information as it is possible to absorb through mere description.”

“It sounds as if she’s eager to move on to hands-on practice,” Izzie observed, causing Diana’s cheeks to flame even hotter.

“We both want to be bridesmaids at the wedding!” Lucy added cheerfully.

Diana sighed. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Diana endured a few more minutes of teasing before the conversation blessedly moved on.

But she was distracted. As she couldn’t stop thinking about Harrington, she at least attempted to direct her thoughts toward more decent subjects.

She wondered how he was faring in his quest to sway the politicians on his list to his side.

By the time the twins departed, she was more anxious to speak to him than ever.