Page 54 of Sacrificing the Untamed Lady Henrietta

“Nonsense,” she replied. “I understand from theGazette‘tis just as cold in July.”

“You are quite the avid reader, are you not, Henrietta? You move with ease between Dr. Bostock’sThe Gelatine of the Bloodto the papers of the common folk. What will I catch you reading next?Tom Jones?

“Certainly not! Why would I bother with such drivel when I can freely read about an artificial dilatation of the female urethra?”

“Please. I beg you not to delve into further explanation of that,” he said dryly, sampling some cheese from the basket.

They ate their picnic in relative silence, the conversation lagging but not awkwardly so. They were content in the quiet, almost as if old friends. Henrietta broke the reverie at last. It was not all she sought to break.

“I should like to break a rule, my Lord.”

“Oh dear,” he sighed. “I thought you were staunchly against the breaking of rules.”

“No, no.” She held up her index finger to indicate this to be a point of correction. “If you will recall, my Lord, I actually said that I doagreewith you that some rules –some– beg to be broken.”

He chuckled, shaking his handsome head. “You did not say that.”

“Yes!” she countered earnestly. “Yes, I most certainly did!”

“My Lady has a faulty recollection.”

She threw a nut at him in protest, hitting him in the chest.

“We will agree to disagree then,” he offered in truce. “What is the rule you wish to break?”

“It is your rule, my Lord.”

“Which? I made two.”

“I wish to invoke one while I break the other.”

He grinned at her, obviously amused. He popped the nut she had thrown at him in his mouth.

“Clever. Break and invoke as you please, my Lady.”

“At great risk of spoiling your winsome mood, I wish to speak of your first wife.” She held her breath, trying to gauge his response. His smile faded, but his eyes did not darken dangerously as they had when she had called him a hypocrite. She proceeded with caution.

“I wish only to comment, not to pry.”

“And which is the rule you wish to invoke?”

“That I may always speak to you in freedom.”

“To express thoughts that may very much seem like opinions?”

She did not want him to think her disrespectful. Her voice dropped low when she said, “Something like that, my Lord.”

He sat up from his reclined position and seemed to brace himself in preparation.

“Very well. What is your comment?”

“I very recently learned that I bear a resemblance,” she wavered, searching for the courage to continue, “some similarities to –” That was a far as she went.

“To Patricia.”

“Yes,” she breathed. “And so, now that I have been made aware of this most unusual development, I just wanted you to know that I understand you would feel shock upon seeing me for the first time. And ‘tis only your shock that is to blame for anything said that was, perhaps, unkind. It might have felt like you had seen a ghost or something.”

“Hmmmm, something,” he concurred between pursed lips. “Is that all?”