A Scandalous Wife by Ava Stone

Author:Ava Stone
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Second Wind Publishing, LLC
Published: 2012-03-21T00:00:00+00:00

~ 13 ~

Every morning for the last fortnight, Lydia awoke to find herself yet again alone in their bed. Her nights were spent in passionate pleasure, wrapped in her husband’s embrace, but her mornings were spent in lonely solitude. It had been so comforting to wake in Robert’s arms while they were traveling the countryside together, and she missed that closeness with him.

When they were together, she could fool herself into believing her husband loved her. He could be so sweet and tender, and she found that pretending was easy to do. What was the harm in hoping for such a thing? He did want her to live with him and to raise their children together. Did it really matter if he only liked her? Was love absolutely necessary? It wouldn’t be as if Lydia was missing something she’d ever had. And yet part of her yearned for more. She wanted his heart as well as his home.

With thoughts of her marriage flooding her mind, Lydia climbed from bed. She rang for her maid Betsy, and began to unbraid her hair. Betsy had been a godsend, and Lydia felt very lucky to have her. The young, plucky, brunette maid was always full of advice, unsolicited or otherwise—but she and Lydia had formed a bond almost instantly as if they’d always known each other.

When the maid entered the room, her brows rose in surprise. “Well, well, well. Looks like you had a busy night in here, my lady.” She gestured to the tousled bedclothes that had nearly been ripped off the night before.

Lydia flushed a bright red. “Betsy, watch yourself. What would Lord Masten say if he heard you say such a thing?”

Betsy smiled broadly. “Well, since his lordship is always out and about at the crack of dawn, I don’t think there’s much chance he’ll hear me say such a thing.”

“You are insolent.” Lydia laughed.

“Yes, and that’s why you love me. Now, Dunsley says you’ve received a letter from that crusty old vicar, Mr. Lovelace.”

Lydia nodded. “He must be responding to my invitation to dinner.”

“A dinner can only be so much fun with that old stick and his harpy wife.”

“Betsy!”

“You’ve yet to meet him, my lady. And you can mark my words, they’ll be a drain on that party you’re havin’. Now, into the tub with you.”

After Betsy bathed her and dressed her hair, Lydia made her way back down through the maze of passageways to the dining hall. Dunsley awaited her presence. “His lordship has gone out to the tenant farms today.” Then he sat her at the massive table and offered her an envelope on a silver salver.

Lydia smiled in response and opened the letter. The vicar, Mr. Edward Lovelace, and his wife had happily accepted her invitation to dinner. That made four couples she was to host—Mr. and Mrs. Lovelace; Sir Philip Cressley, the local magistrate, and his wife; Lord and Lady Edgecroft, whose property bordered Robert’s to the west; and Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan, neighbors that Caroline had apparently been close to at one time.

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