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“Good heavens no!” he laughed. “The family name must be preserved, after all. I’m merely saying that I would never wish to marry a complete innocent.”
“Every man wishes to be the first,” she argued.
“My dear, I have been a willing participant in more affaires than I care to count, and they have taught me much. I can say with confidence that wives who cuckold their husbands most often came into their marriages completely ignorant. By contrast, the women I’ve found most frustratingly loyal to their vows are those who married after having sampled passion’s delights.”
Sabrina stared at him, incredulous. It was unconscionable that he should speak so candidly to a young lady. She should by all rights be appalled, but she simply couldn’t find it within herself to be such a hypocrite. She rapped him on the arm with her fan, taking a playful approach to relieve the tension. “You, sir, are trying to corrupt me!”
“I? Corrupt you?”
She nodded her head emphatically. “Everyone knows that a female light in the skirt before her wedding is only likely to remain so afterward.”
“I see. Everyone knows this?”
“Everyone who matters.”
“Ah, yes. Society,” he supplied with a curl of his lip. “And whom do you believe? The blackguard who speaks from many years of happy experience—or some shriveled-up old matron who’s never known a moment of passion in her life?”
“Then what would you advise? Ought I to kiss every gentleman I meet before I dance my way down the aisle?”
“Certainly not!” he said with horror. “A woman should only kiss those truly skilled in the art. Otherwise, she’ll learn nothing.”
Though she couldn’t say it, she knew exactly what he meant. Kissing Chadwick had been like kissing an awkward scarecrow, and meeting Fairford’s lips was a lesson in overcoming repulsion. But kissing Henry…
Her skin began to heat.
“Then I should only kiss rakes?” she said, pushing away the thought.
Percy turned and answered in a velvety voice: “Only the ones you trust implicitly. Tell me, whom do you trust?”
She favored him with a gimlet stare, knowing full well that its effect was ruined by the twitching of her lips. “None that I have met thus far.”
She laughed with delight as he clutched his chest in a comic pantomime of having been shot. She’d handled him just right.
Henry chuckled as his friend flopped into the chair opposite him. “The look on your face…Well? What did you think of her?”
Percy’s grin was easy. “I have indeed met the formidable Lady Sabrina. Sherry,” he murmured to the servant who’d come to attend him. “I can certainly understand why Chadwick was so eager to put on the leg irons.”
Henry nearly dropped his drink. “I beg your pardon?” Such a comment from the man was unprecedented.
“A fascinating specimen, is she not?”
“My God, don’t tell me she’s rooked you?”
The other man looked at him over the rim of his goblet with merry eyes. “Me? Rooked? Nonsense! There isn’t an unwed female alive who isn’t out to bag me. I saw what she was on about the moment she pretended not to know me.”
Henry relaxed.
“She’s shopping for another suitor,” continued Percy. “If I’m to succeed in this little deception, Henry, I’m afraid I shall have no choice but to put myself on the market.”
“You’re not serious?” Henry wasn’t sure he liked the direction this was headed. Sabrina was as safe with Percy as she was with her own mother, but…
Percy shrugged. “You asked me to help you watch her and keep her safe from Fairford—well, here is the perfect opportunity. Well? What say you? Shall I cast my lot in?”
Though his face remained impassive, Henry’s heart burned. “I suppose, if it is the only way,” he said reluctantly.
His friend leaned forward, eyes alight with curiosity. “And what if through this ruse of yours I should actually succeed in persuading her to marry me? Ought I go through with it, do you think? I know my parents would be delighted to strengthen ties between our families.”
“She’s not your kind of woman,” Henry answered sharply. He calmed his tone. “Your standards are far more sophisticated. Sabrina is an innocent.”
