He loved Millicent Wainwright. He loved her enough to let her go.
*
Millie listened tothe distant sound of voices below while staring at the ceiling in the spare room on the third floor of Harbury House. Cassie and Eliza stood at her bedside, in the middle of a disagreement over the necessity of additional bedcoverings.
While her sisters bickered, Millie could not make out the words spoken in the rooms below. She could hear enough to know the voices were deep, serious, and male. And even at this distance, she thought she could sense concern and resolve in the tones.
One voice occasionally rose above the others. One voice that had become, quite against Millie’s will, very comforting and dear. Imagination, perhaps.
Still, the sound soothed.
“Oh, taradiddle!” Cassie exclaimed to Eliza. “Istillthink Millie should be warm enough. However, since youinsist,I will go down and get another blanket from the linen closet.” She shook her head as she headed for the corridor. “You never realize how much you’ve come to rely on help around the house until you’ve given them leave.”
“Twaddle,” Eliza responded with a laugh. “Surely you are still capable of carrying a blanket, duchess.”
Cassie turned back from the doorway, leveling her twin with a so-dry-as-to-be-parched expression. Then, she left the room with an exaggerated huff.
As soon as Cassie closed the door, Eliza sat down at Millie’s side.
“I thought she would never leave,” Eliza whispered. “We don’t have much time. Adrian and I are leaving soon and, with Harbury feigning sickness, I’m not sure you and I will have another chance to be alone, and we need to talk about your wedding night.”
“But I’m not going to have a—”
“Sst.” Eliza placed her finger against Millie’s mouth. “You can bear with me now, or you can wait until you’ve decided to marry Neville. I believe you will, sooner or later. But after I leave, you will have only Cassie. And I warn you, her marital “talk” is sure to be full of vague, alarming references tohusband’s rightsandpossible discomfort.”
Despite her mortification, Millie giggled.
“Mind you,” Eliza continued, “I don’t care if you send Neville packing or not, but there are things you need to know, just in case.”
“If you think it best…” Millie’s voice trailed doubtfully.
“I do.” Eliza took a deep breath. “On the wedding night, you can expect a bedding.”
“Let me guess,” Millie teased. “Bedding means his husbandly rights ending in my possible discomfort?”
Eliza smiled. “Actually, if done properly, his hard cock ending in your earth-shattering pleasure.”
“Eliza!”
“Sst!We don’t have much time. Let me finish. A man’s male part, in other words, his cock, is soft until aroused. Which, if he’s like Adrian—”
Millie squeaked.
“Too much?” Eliza wrinkled her nose. “Allow me to rephrase. You’re not likely to have to worry about arousal, I’ve seen the way Neville looks at you.”
Heat vined wildly up Millie’s neck.
“Now, once your husband’s cock is hard enough, and your body is properly prepared—women make their own lubrication, you see—he’ll be able to push that part inside of you without any trouble at all. Although there might be discomfort that lasts, oh, about a few minutes the first time. Trivial, really.”
“Eliza! Of all the—” Millie winced. “Push?!”
“Thrust, more like,” Eliza clarified. “Oh, don’t look so horrified. I know it sounds unpleasant, and itwillfeel strange at first, but that feeling will pass. And you will find every subsequent joining will get better.” She clasped her hands in front of her chest. “Earth-shattering, I assure you.”
“Earth-shattering?”
Eliza grinned. “And there’s a more vivid word for joining, too. But I hear Cassie on the stairs, so I will leave that to your husband. Any quick questions?”
Millie shook her head, though she hadn’t understood the part about lubrication at all. Nor could she quite picture the thrusting. But the promise of pleasure left her more than a little heated. Hadn’t she sensed that possibility when they’d kissed?