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Temperance stood silent for several moments. then sighed. “It is just that you are such a ninny hammer sometimes. You are afraid of pain…and blood and—”
Prue shot to her feet staring at her sister in horror, but stumbled back to sit on the stone bench, fearing her shaking legs would not hold her upright. “It will bebloody? My God! What does he plan to do to me?”
“It is not at all dire as you are making it to be,” Temperance said, coming over to her. “Pray do not let your imagination run wild.”
“Then why the secrecy and grave warnings?” Prue thrust a loose tendril behind her ear. “You are a married lady, Temperance. Please tell me in full what tonight will entail.”
Her sister’s cheeks colored brightly, and the sight riveted Prue. Her sister was very self-assured and unflappable, yet she blushed and could hardly meet Prue’s eyes.
“I have said enough,” Temp muttered.
“I daresay you have not! You have left me with more anxieties than mama!” Prue had an accident many years before when she had been a child of six years. She had tumbled from her startled pony. There had been so much blood from a terrible gash along her arm, the pain agonizing. Since then, the mere sight of blood would send her into a swoon, and she found even the slightest pain intolerable.
“Prue—”
“Please, Temperance,” she whispered.
“Close your eyes.”
“Good God, it cannot be that awful. Every married woman does it, and they are walking around very much alive.”
“I merely do not want you to see my face and the infernal blushes!”
Prue actually smiled and ceded, letting her lashes flutter closed.
“Tonight, you must consummate your vows to be really married. If it is not consummated, you are not…you are not married in truth.”
Prue bit into her bottom lip. “I see. And what does this consummation involve?”
Temperance cleared her throat. “The earl will come to your bedchamber, or you go to his. This is after you have taken a bath and brushed your hair out. He will place you on the bed and push the nightgown to your waist.”
Prue’s heart lurched in mortified shock.
“He will join your bodies together.”
“What does that mean?How?”
“Upon my word, this is insufferable,” Temperance muttered. “I cannot explain that part in much detail, but when he does it, there will be pain.”
Prue gripped the edges of the stone bench until her knuckles hurt. “And blood?”
“Yes, but not a lot.”
“How long does it last for?”
She braced herself for the answer.
“I…the first time, it was only a few minutes.”
Prue’s eyes flew open. “The first time?”
Her sister seemed like she would eat bugs before continuing this conversation. “It depends on how often your husband…takes you to his bed for marital relations. I promise, Prue, that it becomes very pleasant after that first time, and that is how children are made.”
Oh!She did not believe her sister that this marriage relation would eventually become pleasant. Still, Prue did not want the earl to see her as naïve or foolish. She would do her duty, and she would damn well do it satisfactorily. There would be no hysterics on her part. “Thank you for letting me know,” she said, leaning over to hug her sister.
“You are welcome; now promise me you will not faint at the sight of blood.”
Swallowing down the sick feeling rising inside, she said, “Of course I won’t. I am the Countess of Wycliffe, not a child.”
