AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER1
“Give me a man’s name then. If we are to play this game, then let us begin now,” Rachel declared, the center of their little group.
Sophia didn’t bother to hide her laugh behind her wine glass, as she would have done in the old days. Now, she indulged in that laugh. Since Rachel had introduced her to the events attended only by women, Sophia felt she was becoming a new person. So much so, that even tonight at Almack’s Assembly Rooms, where gentlemen and ladies gathered together, she felt free to laugh.
“Well, let’s see who there is here tonight…” Another lady tapped her chin beside them. This was Lady Harrington, not a widow, but with a husband who preferred his valet’s company to hers; he neither took note of her presence nor cared where she went. The eldest of their little group, she turned her head back and forth, unashamedly letting her eyes wander over some of the gentlemen present. “What of Sir Arnold?”
“Who is that?” Sophia asked, to which both Lady Harrington and Rachel pointed out this particular gentleman. He was young indeed, and so striking in appearance that they were hardly the only women in the room looking at him. “Oh my.”
“Quite so!” Rachel laughed heartily at Sophia’s reaction. “Having spent a night with Sir Arnold, though, I am not inclined to repeat it. He was good for one night, but not for another.”
Sophia jerked her head back round to face Rachel. As the shorter of the two, she had this habit of lifting her chin up toward Rachel, her mouth agog each time she was amazed.
“You take the lover by the night?” she whispered in amazement.
“Good Lord, you’d think I had committed some sin!” Rachel laughed, to which Lady Harrington raised her eyebrows.
“It may be a sin in some men’s eyes, but it certainly doesn’t feel like a sin when you’re in the arms of a man,” Lady Harrington whispered behind her fluttering fan. The two laughed once again, but this time, Sophia didn’t join in.
She lifted her wine glass to her lips and indulged in the bubbles, looking down at the glass in deep thought.
They talk of sex as if it is the greatest enjoyment in the world.
She could not think why. The nights she had spent with her husband before he had passed were awkward and fumbled in the darkness. It had been more of a chore she had to complete, something that had to be done to produce a child and heir, yet that child never came.
“I see our young friend has gone quiet again.” Lady Harrington moved to Sophia’s side with a carafe of wine in her hand and topped up Sophia’s glass.
“I can tell you why that is.” Rachel stepped close to Sophia’s other side with her words, eyeing her closely. “You have not yet taken a lover. It is high time that you did.”
“Am I not enjoying the freedoms a woman in my position has to offer?” Sophia asked with a smile. “I gamble, I talk politics, in fact, I talk of anything these days, without fear or restraint.”
“True.” Rachel nodded approvingly.
“I have even tried smoking, though I do not think I will repeat that again.” She shuddered at the memory of the one puff she had taken on a pipe.
“You have indeed embraced your freedoms, but to the full extent? Well, there is certainly something you are missing.” Rachel linked her arm with Sophia and used it to steer her to look round the room. “Trust me when I say there is a part of life you are missing out on, my friend. It can be…” She paused, searching for the right word.
“Scintillating,” Lady Harrington offered.
“Just so. Thrilling, exciting, breathtaking. All of it!” Rachel added eagerly.
“Had my husband heard that I even thought of taking a –” Sophia got no further, for Lady Harrington topped up her wine glass to the rim and Rachel tugged on Sophia’s other arm.
“No husband to rule you now, remember?” Rachel whispered in her ear. “All you need is one man for one night, to show you all that you have missed in this area.”
“Now, this is the game we should be playing.” Lady Harrington turned to lower the carafe to the drinks table behind them, then she turned her tall frame toward the dancers, looking across the gentlemen there. “We should be searching for a gentleman for Sophia.”
“Just so.” Rachel disentangled her arm from Sophia and clasped her hands together, moving to Lady Harrington’s side as they surveyed the dancers.
Sophia laughed as she watched the two of them together. With their eyes narrowed, and the feathers stuck in their hair twitching back and forth with their movement, they could have been birds on a branch, watching the world go by.
“You seem to be judging the gentlemen as a man would judge horses at Ascot,” Sophia murmured, earning wry smiles from the two women beside her.
“Maybe we are,” Lady Harrington said with humor, pulling a deep laugh from Rachel. “A good lover must be well groomed and athletic after all.” At her words, Sophia nearly choked on her wine with laughter.
“Ah! Now, I see a gentleman who could be perfect.” Rachel fluttered a hand in the direction of the dancers, gesturing to two gentleman that were walking alongside the violinists. “You know him well, do you not, Sophia?”
Sophia paused, as she understood which of the two gentlemen her friend was referring to. The taller of the two, with a shock of dark brown hair on his head, and such blue eyes that they stood out against the high cheek bones in his face, made her breath hitch as she stared at him.
