Love Cares Not by Carolyn Faulkner

Author:Carolyn Faulkner [Faulkner, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blushing Books Publications
Published: 2021-10-02T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 6

"I hope you'll forgive me, my lady, for bursting in on you and his lordship," were the first words out of Finch's mouth once she'd rung for her the next morning.

"Of course." Cecilia stood while her maid dressed her in a seafoam green brocade dress with darker green velvet accents, then she took her place at her vanity while she did her hair.

Cecilia was looking at her reflection much more than she usually did because she wanted to see if she could detect any difference in herself that last night might have wrought, but there wasn't any. She looked exactly the same, sullied or unsullied, which was somehow disappointing. All of those warnings about never being alone with a man, about being careful of her reputation, and there was no way that anyone could have known whether she'd been with a man or not.

All of these years, she'd thought it was women—mothers, in particular, since that was who was constantly nattering at her about remaining untouched—who prized purity in young women so highly, but now she realized that it was men, instead, because otherwise, how could they tell whether their wife had had one man or fifty?

She'd always thought that it wasn't at all fair that no one held men to that standard, and that made a lot of sense once one realized that they were the ones who made the rules, then convinced women that they were the ones who wanted it that way. Not that there was anything she could do about it. The world was run by men, not women, so that kind of thing was probably inevitable. Still, the injustice stuck in her craw, for some reason.

Breakfast was a much more subdued affair. Robin appeared much more hungover than the amount he'd drunk at dinner would account for, but that didn't mean anything. He could have had someone bring him a bottle and stayed up all night drinking. Come to think of it, he looked as if that was likely exactly what had happened.

When she was finished, Cecilia asked, "We are still riding out this afternoon, right?"

Robin frowned. "I'm not sure that's a good idea, my lady."

"Because you don't want to make my husband any more jealous than he already is."

An eyebrow went up. He briefly debated the merits of lying to her but decided against it. "Yes, that's correct."

"And yet he brought you here to entertain me, didn't he? Has he asked you to go?"

"No, but I would bet that he'd prefer it."

Cecilia toyed with her napkin. "Is there anything you know of that I could do to help my husband feel more comfortable with me, do you think?"

Robin nearly choked on his tea at that question. "I don't think so, my lady."

"Are you going to leave, Robin?"

He gave her a considering look. "I would like to stay, my lady—"

"Cecilia."

Robin smiled, bowing his head to her. "Cecilia, but it was really not my intention to rouse Asher's anger and jealousy."

"Then why do you?"

Another radiant, unrepentant smile.

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