Page 91 of The Lady Was Lying
Bonus Epilogue
Jane tucked the thin blue book she’d found at the back of Belinda’s wardrobe into the folds of her dressing gown, slipped out of her eldest sister’s room, and crept slowly down the lushly carpeted hallway.
When she’d packed Belinda’s things at the duke’s request, she had stumbled upon the book hidden under some slippers in Belinda’s wardrobe. At the time, she had only taken a quick glance at a single page, but she’d seen enough to know that it was not the sort of book unmarried ladies were supposed to have in their possession. She’d shoved it into the back of the wardrobe and bid herself to forget about it.
She hadn’t forgotten.
Not when James had kidnapped her sister.
Nor when she had told Sebastian what she’d witnessed.
Not even when her brother had returned from chasing after Belinda to inform them that Belinda was going to marry the duke.
It had taken a full fortnight for her to muster the courage to sneak back into her sister’s bedchamber. Her heart nearly pounded out of her chest as she slipped through the dark room to the partly empty wardrobe. She found the book exactly where she had left it and took it without opening it.
When she reached her door, she looked in both directions before slipping into her bedchamber and locking it behind her. Darting furtive glances around the chamber even though she knew she was alone, she shed her robe and crawled into bed. The flickering light of a candle cast shadows upon the cover as she set the narrow book onto her lap.
More than anything, she wanted to open it, but it took her a moment to gather her nerve. When she was finally ready, she bit her bottom lip and slowly flipped it open.
Her eyes snapped shut at the image on the page.
It was obscene. A woman, completely naked, with her legs sticking straight up the air over the top of the man’s shoulders as his enormous member poked the space between her legs.
Jane’s skin felt tight, and her breath stuttered as she shifted on the bed.
She was not ignorant. She’d seen countless statues of naked men, and she knew how coupling worked. Men inserted their member into a woman’s womb and left their seed inside. The concept made a certain amount of sense. The reality of the drawing she’d just viewed did not.
Cracking her eyelids open, she peeked at the image a second time.
It was no less shocking.
Determined to understand and refusing to let fear win, she forced her eyes the rest of the way open and studied the image as clinically as she could. The woman’s breasts were enormous, easily twice the size of any breasts Jane had seen. The nipples were proportional to the breasts, but that only meant they were equally huge. There was no possible way that a babe could suck one of those. Their little mouths were not nearly large enough.
If the breasts were exaggerated—and common sense said they were—surely the member was exaggerated as well. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how unlikely it was that a manhood could be so large. How would he fit that thing into his trousers?
Once she had firmly established in her mind that the proportions were wrong, the image was much less frightening. In fact, it was almost arousing to imagine that someday a kind-hearted gentleman would make love to her in such a manner.
Jane had never been kissed.
As a respectable girl, there was no doubt in her mind that she would go to her husband a virgin, and yet now that she had the book, she would not be unprepared for her wedding night.
A knock upon the door had her shoving the book under her pillow.
“Come in,” she called.
The handle rattled. “The door is barred.”
“Oh heavens. Sorry.” She scrambled out of bed and rushed across the room, unlocking the door and pulling it open to reveal Emmeline holding a candle aloft. “I can’t imagine why it was locked.”
“I just wanted to inform you that while we were out, word arrived from Belinda that the marriage transpired, and they have settled at Bramblewood.”
“Belinda is happy,” she murmured, mostly to herself.
She wasn’t sure exactly when her sister’s happiness had become paramount, but seeing Belinda with the duke during her debut ball and then watching them interact in the weeks afterward had convinced her that they could be happy together. She was ever so grateful they had finally realized it too.
“I believe so. She included a note for you.” Emmeline reached out and handed it to her.
“I’m happy for her.”
