The School for Heiresses Series by Sabrina Jeffries

Author:Sabrina Jeffries
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books

Chapter Seventeen

Dear Cousin,

Passion is all well and good, but better that a man give a woman love. I have had passion—it does not last. For Louisa’s sake, I hope that the duke’s passion comes from something deeper than the needs of his body.

Your cousin,

Charlotte

Louisa was still giggling in her new bedchamber when she spotted Raji’s wooden canary beneath a writing table. Apparently that was where he had hidden to spy on them.

Poor Raji. She would have to find him a female monkey, because Simon’s obvious affection for the scamp was clearly no longer enough to satisfy him.

With a sigh, she retrieved the toy, then wondered what she should do with it. She didn’t want Raji to do without the one companion he did have. Bad enough he was banished to the study for the night.

After pulling on a dressing gown, she hurried out the bedroom door. Simon must have taken the stairs at a run, for he was already nowhere to be seen. But she’d been to Foxmoor House many a time with Regina while Simon was away, so she knew exactly where the study was.

She hummed to herself as she strolled down the stairs. What a silly goose she was. Despite her initial misgivings about marrying Simon, she hadn’t been able to stop smiling for the past four days.

His reaction to seeing her nightdress certainly helped. Perhaps this was not such a mistake. Simon had agreed to her terms, so she needn’t fear for the London Ladies. And she had her sponges—one was lodged inside her at this very moment. The shopkeeper in Spitalfields had said that they didn’t always work, but it was better than nothing, wasn’t it?

And the truth was, she did want to share Simon’s bed. How could she not, when he didn’t even bother to disguise how fiercely he desired her? The way he’d looked at her a few minutes ago…good heavens, it was enough to turn even a Puritan into a wanton, and she was no Puritan. Not with him.

She quickened her steps, eager to have her husband back in her bedchamber. But as she approached Simon’s study, she heard voices. Simon and a servant? Surely Simon could have no visitors on this, of all nights.

Then she recognized the other voice. The king. Her father.

“I swear, I will talk to him when the time is right,” the king was saying. “I promise I will uphold my part of the bargain.”

Bargain? What bargain?

“And that is why you are skulking about my study on my wedding night?” Simon snapped. “Of course not. You knew I would be occupied elsewhere, so you sneaked in here to steal our agreement. Then I could not use it against you when you trotted in tomorrow to announce that you had reneged.”

The blood pounded in Louisa’s ears. What bargain had he reneged on? And what agreement?

“I did not renege,” the king protested. “It is just that the marriage happened so quickly I didn’t have time to arrange—”

“You said that already,” Simon remarked.

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