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“You’re not your dad,” I said gently.
He inhaled and blew a cloud of smoke over his head.
It floated behind him, away from me, like he could even will smoke to go where he wished.
What he didn’t do was respond.
“Tell me about Joan,” I urged.
“Bored with Dorothy?”
“I sense that story is more about Virginia, and no. I’m not bored with it. But tonight, I want to hear about Joan. And Rose.”
“You only get one, love.”
“Then Joan,” I picked.
He launched right in.
“The beauty of the Season. The Exquisite. The Prized Jewel. She should have gone to a duke. Maybe even a prince. She stupidly fell in love with an earl.”
“I sense this story isn’t about her infidelity.”
He studied the burning tip of the cigarette, which was almost to the gold paper.
Then he leaned forward and snuffed it out.
After that, he got up and went to the drinks cabinet. “Fair warning, it’s scandalous.”
“I’m not easily scandalized.”
“Thomas liked to fuck and be fucked.”
Okay, maybe I was easily scandalized.
“He liked to fuck Joan and watch others fuck her too,” Ian carried on.
Definitely, I was easily scandalized.
“So he was bi?” I asked.
He came back with what appeared to be Cognac and resumed his seat.
“No, he was pan. Men. Women. Pain. Bondage. Giving and taking. He held orgies in this house. He had whores of all persuasions on his payroll. No maid was safe from his attentions. No footman safe from buggery. He was a sexual menace in a time while holding a class where that went entirely unchecked. He could do whatever, and whoever he wanted with impunity. Even if they didn’t want it.”
Awful.
Fiendish.
“And Joan was into this too?” I inquired.
Ian shook his head. “Not at all. She hated it. Enter poor Cuthbert.”
Poor Cuthbert.
“She fell in love,” I guessed.
Ian nodded, but said, “He was a favorite of Thomas’s. An actor. He lived in this house with them for years. The Owl Room. Reportedly, he was very handsome. Tall. Built. Dark.” He stared intently at me. “With eyes as blue as the sea.”
