Page 15 of The Duke of Cups (The Highwaymen #3)

HYACINTH WAS SORE .

It wasn’t a bad soreness, which was really a strange thought, she thought, because she had never thought that there could really be a good kind of pain, but… it wasn’t really pain, exactly, and it was good.

The soreness felt like an imprint of him, of his prick inside her. When she rolled over in the bed, she could feel him, as if he were still there, stretching her, piercing her, all the way buried in there.

She lay there, in her bed, not dressed, and she thought about the way it had felt when he’d been thrusting into her. She thought of that agonized look on his face, she thought of the way he’d whispered things to her. You can take more of me. Such a good girl, are you not? I liked it, obviously.

All of it made her bite her lip and writhe, and she would have liked nothing better than to roll around here on her bed in her shift and stays and get lost in a reverie of all of it.

But then the maid came in—she was sharing the maid with Seraphine—and said they must hurry if she was to be ready for dinner, and she had to get up and give herself over to the woman’s ministrations.

“Your stays are loose,” tutted the maid, tightening them. “How did this happen?”

“I noticed,” Hyacinth said faintly. “They were sliding down while I was riding. Frightfully uncomfortable. ”

“Hmph,” said the maid. “Well, say something if I haven’t tightened them, ma’am. I can’t believe I left them this loose this morning.”

When she got down to dinner, it was only Seraphine, who complained about her husband’s absence for more than a quarter hour over the first course.

He was in an awful mood, and she was thinking that if he didn’t stop renting this house that Seraphine would go elsewhere, because she could not abide her husband in a bad mood.

Hyacinth nodded and made appropriate noises in the right places and wriggled her hips against the chair and felt the soreness and thought of the Duke of Dunrose’s hard muscled arms and the hair on his chest.

When did she see him again?

The ball, yes.

That was in four days.

Four days?

How was she to wait four days?

Of course, he had been strange with her afterwards, and she would be strange with him if she saw him. How would she even behave? Why, she’d look at him and remember his prick, remember the look of it and the feel of it, pulsing as she had it in her fist, remember the burn as he filled her up.

She drew in a shaky breath.

“Hyacinth?” said Seraphine. “Are you managing all right there?”

“Perfectly well, my lady,” said Hyacinth, nodding, trying to smile.

“You look lovesick,” pronounced Seraphine.

Hyacinth jerked at this. “What?”

“Where do you go in the afternoons, anyway? You say it’s for a horseback ride, but it’s still rather cold, and you have been gone, both of these last two times, for hours on end.”

“No, I haven’t,” said Hyacinth, becoming very interested in her plate.

“Oh, God in heaven, you’ve gotten yourself a lover, haven’t you?” Seraphine took a drink of wine.

Hyacinth shook her head .

Seraphine raised her voice. “Out,” she called to all the servants. “Leave us.” She lifted a finger. “Leave the wine bottle.”

A footman ushered the wine bottle to her and then all the servants left and the doors were shut.

Seraphine sighed. “Well, you’re nineteen, you’re old for it. Someone should have married you by now. It’s my fault for putting out that rumor of your dowry. I didn’t think that through. Tell me it’s not a servant, please.”

Hyacinth licked her lips. “I don’t have a lover.”

Seraphine arched an eyebrow, simply gazing at her.

Hyacinth looked away. “I don’t know if one can rightly count a man as a lover if it’s only once and he doesn’t seem interested in doing it again because he says it was ‘wrong.’”

“Oh, God,” said Seraphine, downing her entire glass of wine. “Is he married? Tell me he’s not married.”

“No,” said Hyacinth.

“And he’s not a servant.”

“No,” said Hyacinth. “He’s a duke, in fact.”

“An unmarried duke? Will he marry you?”

Hyacinth thought about it. “I don’t know. I don’t think he wants to, but he did say he would, if worst came to worst.”

“What? What sort of man says that?” Seraphine looked her over. “Tell me who it is.”

“I…” Hyacinth didn’t know what to say. “I shouldn’t have told you anything.”

“ Mon chaton, I am not angry, I promise. It’s a normal and natural thing. There aren’t that many unmarried dukes in this country. I’ll simply start guessing.” She poured herself another glass of wine. “Damnation, it isn’t him, is it?”

“Who?”

“ Dunrose. ”

Hyacinth sat back in her chair, horrified. “How can you have guessed that in one try?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” said Seraphine, downing that glass of wine as well. “Oh, that’s wretched. You poor thing. He’s simply terrible in bed. Thinks women should have orgasms in two seconds. He’s just pathetically awful. ”

Hyacinth’s heart squeezed practically in half. “You didn’t.”

“Oh, yes, mon chaton ,” said Seraphine with a sigh.

“Yes, indeed, I did. I took that man into my bed. He wore me down, truly. I tried to say no, and he just kept at me, and I finally gave in.” She sat back in her chair and groaned.

“I would have picked anyone else for your first time, you poor, sweet girl. Anyone in the world.”

“It wasn’t… bad,” said Hyacinth, though she was beginning to wonder if he was right and maybe she simply had nothing to compare it to.

“Have some wine, mon chaton, you need it,” said Seraphine, nodding at Hyacinth’s full glass.

Hyacinth picked up the glass, but she didn’t drink. “When?”

“When what?”

“When did you take him into your bed?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It was back during that business with Arthford, when he was taking up with the former Miss Adams, now the Duchess of Arthford.

I didn’t realize he was already moving on from me, and it wasn’t necessary.

I thought if I lay with one of his friends, he’d be angry with me.

He was. Livid. It was really dreadful, and it wasn’t even worth it, because Dunrose was so lacking in skill. ” She shuddered.

Hyacinth took a sip of wine, and then a gulp.

She knew, of course, that there had been a number of other women for Dunrose, that she was simply the latest in a long line of conquests.

She knew it, and she hadn’t thought it would bother her, but this was Seraphine, after all, and to think that she had been there first, it was difficult to bear.

Oh, and he’d said that thing. Let’s leave her out of this.

Because he knew. And he did it anyway, because of course he did.

Her lower lip started to tremble.

“Oh, mon chaton ,” said Seraphine.

Hyacinth shook herself, all over. She set the wine glass down. She must compose herself, after all. One did not cry at the dinner table, not even with only Seraphine present and all the servants dismissed. It simply wasn’t proper. She lifted her chin, taking deep, even breaths.

“Oh, no, don’t be so British about it,” said Seraphine, rolling her eyes.

“Why this entire country is so obsessed with being entirely repressed, I shall never understand. Truthfully, darling, this is awful for you, and I do apologize. Had I known, in the future, you’d ever dally with that man, I would not have…

” She reached across the table to touch Hyacinth’s hand. “I’m so sorry. I truly, truly am.”

“Well, it seems to me that it’s not your fault,” said Hyacinth, pulling her hand back. “And I’m not being British.”

“Of course you are. You’ve been raised here, by these stuffy and buttoned up idiots, and you have no notion of anything else.

You don’t know what it is to be passionate, to feel your true feelings, like a Frenchwoman should.

” Seraphine drained her wine glass again.

“For the sake of all that’s holy, mon chaton , have some wine. ”

“Yes.” Hyacinth tipped the glass into her mouth.

“Well, you can’t marry Dunrose,” said Seraphine, sneering as she pronounced the name. “I would not commit you to such misery. Really, we should find you someone else to lie with, I think. I have vetted a number of men, you know, and I could recommend—”

“I don’t wish to lie with anyone else you’ve lain with!” It sounded more agonized than Hyacinth would have liked.

Seraphine nodded once, curtly. “No, of course.”

It was quiet.

Hyacinth gulped at her wine. Her glass was not yet empty, but Seraphine filled it for her again.

“How did you even come to be in Dunrose’s company?” said Seraphine.

Oh, she couldn’t tell Seraphine about the scheme to kill Champeraigne.

Of course, if she wanted out of it, Seraphine could help her.

Did she want out of it ?

She licked her lips and told a half-truth. “He tried to rob me on the highway once, but I recognized him. He said that he could help me find a husband, and if so, I would not tell anyone about the fact he poses as a highwayman.”

“Oh,” said Seraphine, swallowing.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know about the scheme,” said Hyacinth. “I know you do. It’s to do with the comte, after all, and he has no secrets from you.”

“True,” said Seraphine. “Yes.” A pause. “Well, does he have any ideas for getting you a husband besides trampling on your virtue?”

“We have a list. There is a ball. He says he will make sure my dance card is full.”

“Oh, yes, that’s got to be quite a lot of fun for a man, giving over some girl who he’s already fucked. What a blackguard.”

“You think that’s why he did it?” said Hyacinth. “Because he said that he was jealous of all the men on the list, but that it was because they were going to have me first, and he wouldn’t be able to consider any of them unless he’d gotten me out of his head by doing away with my virtue.”

“That’s what he said?” said Seraphine. “Hmm.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t sound like him is all. I didn’t think he was capable of jealousy. To be jealous, you have to want something, and Dunrose treats women as if they are interchangeable.”

“Oh,” said Hyacinth, looking down at her plate.