“I don’t mean it was scandalous; I mean it was … unfulfilling.”
That was like a dull kick to the chest.
“Unfulfilling?” Alexander growled, trying hard to keep himself in check.
“Oh dear, is this about your ego again?”
“I have never had a kiss described as ‘unfulfilling’ before.”
“I believe you,” she offered, like a governess to a lad of four or five. “Although, let us keep at the forefront of our minds that manyof the kisses you’ve given have gone to women whom you’ve also been plying with jewels and town houses, have they not?”
“I’m quite certain I have left very, very many ladies quite fulfilled.”
“Yes, but you see, that’s part of the problem. You’ve gone around giving such kisses to everyone. Your kiss is rather devalued in the marketplace of such intimacies, is it not?” She reached out then and patted his knee. “But a nice kiss, nevertheless. Your expertise is appreciated. It was quite educational.”
“Educational?” he repeated flatly.
She nodded kindly.She meant it!
“As I said, I don’t intend to seek out intercourse. However, I cannot promise I’ll turn down an opportunity for a proper kiss from someone. Someone whomeansit.”
Alexander had absolutelymeant it. He would gladly demonstrate just how much he’d bloody meant it.
Harriet was fidgeting. Alexander was coming to understand that she hated silence.
“Shall we be friends then?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“It’s just that I’d been wondering what this marriage might look like after we return to London. I know we’re to recommence our previous lives, but we’ll be expected to interact on occasion. You haven’t been entirely intolerable company, thus it occurred to me just now that you might become a friend.”
“I don’t believe I’ve ever had a female friend before.” Alexander was bewildered. He was drifting, spinning, floating far above himself.
“What abject poverty you live in!” Harriet replied.
“And you? Do you have many friends of the opposite sex?” he challenged.
“Naturally! Our neighbor Mr. Hammons has poor eyesight, and I read to him on Thursdays. He’s the nicest man one could imagine, and uncommonly droll. And Garrett, his stable boy, I’ve been teaching him his letters, even though he’s almost sixteen. He’s most eager to learn.”
“I’m quite sure he is,” Alexander rejoined. Harriet paused then and studied his face.
“Noteverythingis about intercourse, you know.”
“When you’re a sixteen-year-old boy it is.”
Harriet rolled her eyes, although a quite becoming blush spread down from her cheeks to her neck. Alexander blinked as she continued. “The Thompson boys down the road, although they’re closer in age to Caroline and Frances. And, of course, Mr. Dawkins.”
“Yes, our inimitable Mr. Dawkins, how can we forget him?” Alexander grumbled. He knew he was being surly, but really. He’d just kissed the woman, and she was listing other men.
“Oh! Giuliana! There—you have a female friend!” She looked delighted for some reason.
“I do not view Giuliana in that capacity.”
“Do you enjoy her company?”
“In ways you can’t imagine,” he gritted out.
“Do you attend to one another?”
