Page 53 of Miss Whittier Makes a List
Lady Spark would have none of it.“There is no harm in gentlemen companions to while away the hours here until Daniel returns.”
“I could never,”Hannah said, shocked.
Lady Spark laughed, a tinkling sound artificial and so obviously practiced that Hannah felt a chill down her spine.“You may sing a different song when your bed is cold.”
She could scarcely believe her ears.“Madam, he is yourson!”she protested.“How can you speak so?”
Lady Spark only raised her high arched eyebrows higher and tittered again.“My dear, this is our society. I can see that I have my work cut out to make you fit into it. Daniel was wise to bring you here.”
She left the room then, murmuring something about Madame LeTournier arriving after luncheon for another ballgown fitting. Nauseated to her soul, Hannah went to the salon, wishing herself on board theElizabeth Young,arguing with Adam and pulling farther and farther fromEngland. She drew her legs up to her chin and thought of Mama, who would no more flirt with another man than smoke a pipe or spit tobacco. And neither would I. What am I doing here? she thought to herself.
She wanted to askSpark that question when he returned from his daily visit to the Admiralty House. He came into the salon, letters in hand from the basket by the front door, and sat down beside her. He kissed her cheek and then set the letters aside when he took a good look.
“I see mutiny on that lovely face,”he said, his voice mild. He tried to take her hand, but she pulled away from him.“Dear, dear, I fear that since I left the house this morning, the wind has quite blown my sails in chains.”
She said nothing, too shy to speak of what his mother had so artlessly exclaimed, because she had never been raised to talk so casually of infidelity. He moved closer and took her hand.
“Hannah, has my mother been speaking out ofturn?”
She turned wide eyes upon him and the words rumbled out of her,even as her face reddened.“Daniel, she is already encouraging me to take a lover when we aremarriedand thee is at sea!”
“My God,”he exclaimed softly.“I would prefer that you did not,of course.”
“How can thee joke about such things!”she shouted,leaping from the davenport and crossing to the window, where she hugged herself and stared at the driving rain.“And it does nothing but pour inLondon! I am weary of small talk and ratafia makes me gag!”
He was at her side in a moment, pulling her into his amts, letting her sob out her misery against the cold comfort of his medals and buttons.Shepulled away and he removed his coat, tossing it onto the floor, then drew her close again to rest against the softness of his linenshirt.
Her arms went around him finally.“I think I like thee better this way,”she said and then stood back in his arms to look at his face so close to her own.“Suddenly there are too many medals and buttons, and ideas and modes of doing things. It’s all getting in the way of what I feel.”
He tugged her close to him again, his hand on her hair and then his forefinger running idly inside her ear.“My mother is from a generation that raised infidelity to a fine art.”
She wanted him to continue his careless examination of her ear and then her face,but he was too distracting. She freed herself from his embrace.“It is more than that, Daniel,”she said,wishing that she did not feel so breathless when he touched her.<“The younger ladies are so ... so vapid! I do not suppose one of them has ever cooked a meal, or washed a dog.”
He laughed out loud, opening his arms for her again.“I am sure you are right, Hannah! Oh, come here! That’s better. And they’ve never dressed grisly wounds, or even made coffee for a grumpy sea captain.”
She let him kiss her then, and even raised her arms to encircle his neck as he picked her up off her feet.“I would wish at times that you were taller,”he murmured and thenkissed her again.“Perhaps you will grow yet,”he said, his voice unsteady as he set her down.
She was at the window again, staring out at the everlasting drizzle. He came up behind her and circled her in his arms. She leaned against him, secure in his arms, but still gnawed by a vague unease.
“See here, sir,”she began and stepped away.
He kissed the back of her neck as she retreated.“I am coming to dread those pronouncements that begin,‘See here, sir,’”hemurmured.
She turned around and then pushed him off at arm’s length.“I must tell thee, Daniel, that when I am in yourarms, everything is fine.”
“Better and better. I like that, too,”he said and smiled.
She took a deep breath and plunged ahead.“I also do not doubt that if you wanted my body this minute, I would give my virginity to you right here in your mother’s salon and not care a snap what anyone thought.”
“Iknow that,”he replied softly, but made no move to touch her.“It’s fairly obvious to me.”
“I thank thee, then, for being more in control than I am,”she continued relentlessly, pressing her hands to her blushing face.“There have been so many times I would gladly have let you make love to me.”
“I know that, too. What’s the matter, my heart? Won’t my love, when it finally comes, be enough?”
“Suppose your mother is right,”she began, pausing to choose her words carefully.
“She is not. I know that much about you,”Spark said.
