Edith Layton by To Tempt a Bride

Author:To Tempt a Bride
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Oh,” was all Camille could say, because she certainly wasn’t going to tell Nell what her sister-in-law had told her about marital relations. They’d been speaking of Camille’s future one soft summer evening when they’d been alone together. Belle hadn’t said anything graphic, of course, and all she did say about the act of love was couched in terms of suns and exploding stars, to be sure. But she hadn’t had to give details, because Camille had raised horses. And the look in Belle’s eyes as she’d spoken had told Camille even more and made lovemaking sound like the most rapturous experience a woman could have.

“But what about children?” Camille persisted. “I am a country girl, and sure as check, I know one thing follows another.”

“With cows maybe. There are ways people can stop it from happening. That much, trust me, I know. And those that take up the trade don’t have children often,” Nell mused. “That’s strange, but that is so.”

“And you’d pass up the chance for love entirely?” Camille asked.

“No,” Nell said. “Who knows what may come along in time? But for now? Why should I be some fellow’s unpaid bedmate, servant, and whipping girl? I want more for myself. I want more fun and money than any one man can give me. Even if I were to marry a rich man, I wouldn’t get his money, you know. If he died—and all men do in time, especially the older ones who have the most money—all his property, even jewels he might have given me that came from his own mother, would be taken from me to go to his sons, if he had any. And if he didn’t, it would all go to his nearest male nephew or cousin or such, whether he liked the lucky fellow or had even met him.”

Nell’s expression grew cold. “Then I’d have to count on the charity of a stranger. A woman’s a fool to count on any man’s charity. It depends on how she looks when she needs it, and you can’t be young forever. Do you think even a noble fellow like Lieutenant Ford would have fought for me that night I was shoved at him if I’d been a scrawny old besom?

“And not only men,” she said when Camille opened her mouth to defend Eric’s honor. “Would you have offered houseroom to an old woman that night? You’re a nice girl, Camille, but I can’t see you offering your time and company to an old crone. Even if you had, your brother and sister-in-law would have thought you’d run mad—madder than they did when you invited me into your home,” she corrected herself with a twisted smile.

“No, even if I married the Golden Ball, by the time he died and his fortune went to his next of male kin, I could be too old to find a better arrangement for myself. And then where would I be?”

Camille sat still. What could she say? That much was true, and it wasn’t fair.

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