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“There is no need to split hairs regarding the chaperones,” Manuela spluttered, while her friend eyed her with disapproval.
This was not working. She was completely mishandling this situation. Aurora would only dig her heels deeper if she tried to appeal to her nonexistent sense of adventure. But after twelve years she had some tricks up her sleeve, when it came to leading the Leonas astray.
“There will be many women of various trades there you could conduct your interviews with,” she suggested enticingly and was happy to see a minor thawing in the set of her friend’s shoulders. Since their arrival in Paris, Aurora had been going to working-class areas asking women what kind of medical services they needed. A room full of them was exactly the kind of lure that would have Aurora ready for action.
“I have not even had dinner yet, Manuela,” Aurora argued, her resolve weaker this time.
“Itisa brasserie. They have wonderful food. Cassandra, the friend of the duchess who invited me, said their leek soup and stuffed chicken are the best in Paris.” She still had one more weapon in her arsenal but was happy to see that the mere mention of nourishment was putting Aurora in a very receptive mood.
“Stuffed chicken? I’ve never had those.” Manuela made sure not to react to her friend’s greedy tone. Aurora was the most disciplined person Manuela knew. Her perseverance and tenacity were astonishing, but the woman could be led down to the pits of hell with the promise of a juicy roast. It was time for the coup de grâce.
“Oh!” She made a show of slapping her palm to her forehead, as though disgusted with her own absent-mindedness. “Do you know of Frederica Holtz-Carvajal?” Aurora’s eyebrows shot up at the mention of the name with obvious interest.
“Of course! She’s one the first two women in Peru to practice medicine.” Manuela decided her new royal blue dress with the peacock feathers would be perfect for her first outing in Montmartre. The she went in for the kill.
“She’ll be there tonight.”
“Frederica Holtz-Carvajal will be there?” Aurora shot her a suspicious look, but Manuela kept her expression impassive and patiently waited. She knew that the prospect of meeting a fellow physician—a prominent Peruvian one, at that—would be far too tempting to pass up.
“Her lover is hosting the party. They go everywhere together.” She didn’t know for a fact Frede would be there, but judging by how devoted they were to each other, she could only assume the woman would make an appearance.
“I know you enough to know that at least half of what you’ve just told me is a lie,” Aurora volleyed after long consideration, but her friend’s tone was far less forbidding now. Truly, they made it far too easy.
“But halfistrue. The stuffed chicken at least I am certain exists.”
“All right, I’ll get dressed,” Aurora laughed, completely unfazed by the fact she’d agreed to go to a party full of sapphists. “But you are making a habit of extorting people to get what you want, Manuela del Carmen.”
If Aurora only knew just how true that was, Manuela thought as she made her way to her bedchamber.
“Why are you pouting, Corazón?” Tia Osiris demanded while Cora glared at the lit fireplace.
“It’s nothing. I am just pondering some things.” The things in question all had to do with the heiress who had come into her life to steal her peace and plague her thoughts every waking moment of the day.
“Has that heiress finally grown tired of recitals and reptile lectures?” Tia Osiris sniffed and took another sip of her brandy.
“She has not.” Cora was not quite certain it was the truth. Manuela had been less enthusiastic during their last outing, and the way they’d parted this evening...she knew the little vixen was up to something. “Things are going wonderfully. Could not be better.” Even she could hear the doubt in her words. “Miss Caceres Galvan only needed a night to herself.”
Almost certainly to cause mischief.
As her carriage had driven away earlier that evening, she’d had to sit on her hands to keep from banging on the roof and asking her driver to go back to Place des Vosges. But she needed her own reprieve, if only to restore some of her senses when it came to Manuela.
“I’m surprised the poor girl has put up with it as long as she has.” Cora wouldn’t take her aunt’s bait. All she’d done was try to maintain some sort of decorum in a situation where she felt constantly out of control.
The woman was like an affliction. Cora wasn’t content if she was not near her, but it was torture to have her so close and not touch her. Every time they were together she spent every second negotiating what she would allow herself. A brush of a finger to an elbow. How many times she’d permit their knees to graze in the carriage before she forced herself to sit in the furthest corner of the conveyance. It was ridiculous. She was like a schoolgirl—worse than that. Because even as a schoolgirl Cora had never been this...this besotted.
She practically shook whenever she caught a glimpse of the curve of her neck, and the thought of seeing what shade of brown her nipples were robbed Cora of sleep. She was obsessed with the idea of licking up those shapely thighs, of spreading them and... Perhaps it was best to get some distance.
Except that the thought of Manuela out there in Paris getting into trouble on her own was enough to send her running into the streets. And it was not like she could go to Le Bureau and lose herself for an hour or two: that would lead nowhere. She didn’t want anyone else.
“She’s not a girl, she’s a woman, and I’ve been doing exactly what she asked. She’s met half of the lesbians in Paris.”
“The stodgy half,” her aunt countered, and Cora could not exactly refute that. “For someone considered to be a brilliant negotiator, you are certainly being a bit thick, querida. You are clearly intrigued by this woman. Why not give her what she’s asked for and enjoy yourself in the process?”
Cora was gnawing so violently on the inside of her cheek she was certain she’d drawn blood.
“Because I am not involved with Miss Caceres Galvan for enjoyment, aunt.” Cora almost cried out in frustration. “The last thing I need is for rumors getting around that I secured the land for the railroad by sleeping with her.”
“All the men you associate with do the same or worse,” Alfie offered from the other side of the room. It was too much to ask for him to not offer his opinion at some point.
