Page 30 of Sir Durham’s Disarming Asset

“Do you need help with your finances, Zephora?” Gus was intrigued, her green eyes bright with curiosity.

“I do. I need to learn what my father did with the funds in his Paris accounts. But I also need to find out if I inherited his British assets. If I own our plantation, too.”

“When he died”—Amber sat forward, alarm in her eyes—“did no one notify you of his will or how he had assigned the assets and lands?”

“No. I lived with Countess Nugent when word came by courier from the United States embassy in Paris of his passing in London, but no one had any specifics about my father’s dictates.”

“France and Britain were at war. No wonder you had no information. But your inheritance, I assume, would be considerable,” Amber added. “Your father’s Virginia plantation and the shipping company would reap many profits.”

Gus gazed at Zeph with steady purpose. “But we are assembled here with one major purpose, Zeph. Banking and inheritance rules are topics we can and will discuss and offer you help with, but we wish to help you recover from your experience in the Conciergerie.”

Zeph crossed her arms and drew into herself. “I do not wish to talk about that.”

“Horrible, we know, it must have been,” Amber said.

“I nearly died…perhaps not from their…their attacks, but from their cruelty to me in other ways. No food. No water. Insults.” Zeph shuddered.

She knew how a man entered a woman, much like animals copulated. She had lived on her father’s estate, a working farm with horses, cows, dogs, and cats. She knew how a man and woman created a child. She had hoped, like any young girl, that the man who invaded her body would be tender, loving, too.

What she had learned in the Conciergerie was that men could be cruel, indifferent to the woman beneath them. The two who had assaulted her were brutal and mercifully brief. Thankfully, they did not return. But they cut her rations. Zeph had lost weight and fallen to starvation levels, so hungry, so weak, she knew not where she was or why.

Days or weeks later, she knew not when, the man in the next cell pleaded with them to let him tend her. She wanted no one. Preferring to die from their brutality and her own shame, she had curled into herself to welcome her own end.

The man who took her from her despair, she did not know. It turned out to be her good fortune that the man who had barred the guards from her was the brother of Inès. Luc Bechard.

Then, with him, Rafe, Halsey, and Inès had pulled Zeph from certain death.

“Zeph?”

“Zeph!”

“I’m sorry. What?” But she shook herself from her reverie to see that the women were concerned about her. “I was lost in…”

“The prison of your mind,” Amber said, and took her arm. “We will not allow you to remain there. We must discuss this problem. From the look on your face, ma petite, I see we have a few things to teach you.”

Zeph sank back into the squabs, suddenly queasy. “Who else knows?” She curled her fingernails into her palms. She had to be ready for the slurs and derision that surely would come her way.

“Only we know this,” Liesel said. “It will stay with us.”

“So we will help you.” Amber took her hand. “We will tell you, all of us, Gus and Inès too, that intimacy between a man and woman can be glorious and satisfying.”

“I…I do not recall much. I was so horrified.”

“Understandable,” Amber said. “But true love between a man and woman includes not merely tenderness but desire. It can and should thrill you to your bones.”

Zeph felt a smile dawn. This was what she had felt for Rafe lately—not merely gratitude but a certain need to have him see her as a woman, treat her as his woman. She no longer saw him as her rescuer. Nor was he her father in absentia. Her friend, yes, still. But why would she want his hands on her, in the way a lover touches his beloved, if she did not think of him in that thrilling way? She did. She wanted him that way. So all of what these women had to teach her, she would learn. Keep. Use.

“Now, know this,” Amber continued. “You will come to me tomorrow. We women discussed this before you arrived at Inès’s house. I have called a midwife to call at my house at two o’clock. I like her personally and she has attended me for my children. She is professional and discreet. I hope you will agree to see her and let her examine you and give us a prediction of your health. I think this is necessary for you to learn. But also important for you to have some comfort in your daily life. Yes?”

Zeph checked the questions on the other ladies’ faces. “Yes. I was going to ask Rafe to find one for me.” But she had been embarrassed to ask for his help searching for one.

“You will tell him we did this for you.” Amber was adamant.

Zeph nodded. “I will. He is the very reason I sit before you. I was half dead when he found me and carried me from that place.”

“A good man.” Amber squeezed her hand. “I want you to know you must ask us questions about the female anatomy. You must understand what happened to you and what you must do, despite it, to recover a positive outlook on men, life, and love.”

“I will. I promise.” All her days, Zeph had yearned for a happy home life, for reasonable, honorable people to be her friends, to love and be loved. “I want that more than you know.”