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“No,” she answered in a wavering tone.
“That didn’t sound terribly convincing. What happened?”
While they had been friends forever, and Mia had shared with Selina some of her experiences with Paul, yet something about talking about what she and Simon had done felt sordid. “It was nothing,” she lied. “Just a very heated kiss.”
“There is nothing wrong with that,” Selina said with a laugh. “Did it go further than a kiss?”
Before she knew it, Mia confessed all that had happened. Her cheeks burned from embarrassment. Surely, only whores and strumpets let a man do that to her.
“I remember the first time Colin did that with me,” Selina said with a dreamy look on her face. “It was the most incredible thing I have ever felt.”
“You and the duke have done that?”
“Of course, it’s perfectly natural.”
Mia leaned in. “But none of the other men I have been with ever did. And Simon and I haven’t even made love.”
Selina’s lips twitched. “Hmm, after what you just told me, you did. You just haven’t had intercourse. There are many ways to make love.” Selina proceeded to confide in Mia many of things she had done with her new husband.
By the time she finished, Mia didn’t think she would ever be able to look the duke in the eyes again. In a month of marriage, her friend had done more with her husband than Mia had done with three men. Perhaps she wasn’t the strumpet she’d thought. She also wondered what it would be like to do some of those erotic things with Simon. Would he be shocked if she asked him?
It mattered not. Until this issue of being with child was settled, she shouldn’t be with him again. No matter how much she wanted it.
Mia didn’t see Simon the rest of the day. Harris had told her the earl was busy with estate business, but when she went to his study Simon wasn’t there. At dinner, Harris said the earl went to visit a sick tenant. That excuse seemed far too weak because her mother would have told her if someone was sick. So what was Simon hiding from her that he wanted Harris to lie for him?
After a solitary meal, she retrieved one of the throwing knives and strapped it to her thigh. This time when she went to dig, she would at least have a weapon. She placed an open book on the table next to her favorite chair in the library and then escaped through the door.
As she made her way to Mrs. Perkins’s house, Mia prayed she would find more jewels or gold she could sell for Simon. The emerald she’d given Selina to sell wouldn’t come near to getting his finances back in order. There had to be more to find.
An hour of digging on such a warm night had made her feel gritty and dirty. She patted down the soil on the hole she’d just filled in when she heard a twig snap off to her right. Her heart started a staccato beat, but this time she breathed in deep and remembered the deer she saw last time. She stared into the woods but saw nothing.
Pushing aside her fear, she went back to digging. After another hour, she found noth
ing but bits of pottery and other items that would not bring in a farthing. Frustration rushed through her. There had to be something here.
“Looking for something?”
Terror overcame frustration as she slowly turned to face Allan. “What are you doing here, Allan?”
“I knew there was more here and at some point you would come looking for it.”
“You’ve been watching me?”
He took a step closer until he saw the knife Mia pulled out. “Put that away. You barely made a dent last time.” As if to prove that to her, he yanked his cotton shirt off his right shoulder.
Mia looked at it with a critical eye. He hadn’t even needed stitches. Now scab-covered, it did seem to be nothing more than a scratch. “I have been practicing. I am quite certain I could do a better job this time.”
“I noticed you and the earl have gotten quite cozy,” he sneered. “I suppose having an earl between your legs is better than someone like me.”
“Very much so,” she said with a smug grin. Allan didn’t need to know that only the earl’s mouth had gotten between her thighs.
“You bitch.” He moved so quickly Mia didn’t see it coming. The slap to her face knocked her to the ground. “Go back to that bastard. Now that I know where to dig, I don’t need you.”
He was letting her go? “I shall tell the earl you are here. He is looking for you.” What in God’s name possessed her to say that to him?
“Go ahead and do tell him. By the time he arrives, I will already have plucked some gems from the dirt and be on my way. And if not,” he pulled out a pistol from behind his back, “I will have to shoot him.” He bent over and sneered at her. “Or maybe I should take you with me. You weren’t the best I’ve ever had in bed but maybe with some more lessons, you could figure out how to satisfy a real man.”
Mia scrambled away from him before he could touch her. She clambered to her feet and ran off. The sound of his coarse laugher followed her. She raced the entire way back to the estate until her ribs felt like they were on fire. Not until she reached the terrace did she stop to see if he had chased her.
