Page 27 of Counting on a Countess
“I’m not worried,” Tamsyn replied automatically.
“’Course you aren’t,” Nessa said in a soothing voice. “You’re a brave lass. Come on, then,” Nessa said, stepping back. “Can’t have you climbing into bed wearing all your clothes.”
Tamsyn nodded. With brisk, businesslike movements, Nessa began divesting her of her gown.
“He’s a handsome one, so it won’t be a chore,” Nessa noted in a matter-of-fact tone.
“He pleases my eye,” Tamsyn agreed. “That much is certain.”
Nessa’s fingers stilled on the fastenings running down the back of Tamsyn’s dress. “How much do you know?” she asked. “About what goes on between a man and a woman?”
“I understand the process.” Tamsyn couldn’t stop the heat that washed through her. “What goes into what and so forth.”
“That’s good.” Nessa’s fingers, well trained in the fixing of fishing nets, made short work of the gown’s fastenings. Once the silver dress had been removed, Nessa put it in the clothespress. “I was afraid I’d have to draw you pictures, and I’ve no skill with a pencil.”
“It’s one thing to understand how bodies fit together,” Tamsyn admitted. Blast, but she hated this nervousness. It wasn’t like her at all. “Another thing entirely to know what sex is trulylike. What if I do something wrong? It’s supposed to hurt the first time.” It seemed like it had to, given what she’d seen of male parts. Like other girls of Newcombe, she’d spied on boys bathing in the sea—but Cornish waters were chilly, and, one girl said with confidence,that partshrank in the cold. It got bigger and harder when properly motivated.
“There’s some pain,” Nessa said plainly. She worked at Tamsyn’s stays. “Can’t be helped. But it’s not a forever pain. Remember when you fell off John Pricher’s wall and twisted your ankle?” When Tamsyn nodded, Nessa said, “That was far worse.”
“Ah,” Tamsyn said, struggling to quiet her anxiety.
Nessa patted Tamsyn’s cheek. “Oh, child, it’s not all pain. Tell me a time when something felt good.”
“There used to be a swing set my father put up in the big apple tree in the West Meadow,” Tamsyn recalled. “When I was small, I’d swing and swing, trying to get as high as I could. As though I could float away right up into the sky. I liked that an awful lot.”
“It’s better than that,” Nessa said decisively. She sighed wistfully. “I miss it, I do.”
Nessa had been married for a decade before her husband had drowned a few years back. But given the way village men circled around her after mass on Sundays, she didn’t have to be unmarried for long.
Perhaps it did feel good. Babes were born to unwed women all the time.
With her stays removed, she stood in her underthings and shoes. She kicked off her dainty slippers and helped Nessa pull off her shift.
“Ah, but you’re in an enviable place tonight, my girl. No need for fear.” Nessa clicked her tongue. “That husband of yours, he’s no stranger to bedsport.”
More heat suffused Tamsyn’s body. Men had the luxury of indulging their sexual appetites whenever they liked, without consequence. It wasn’t the same for women. Kit was relatively young, exceedingly handsome, and privileged. It stood to reason that he’d had his share of sexual experience. Even so, thinking about him bedding legions of women made her stomach feel strange and tight.
He’d said plainly that he had no intention of being faithful—and that he didn’t expect fidelity from her. Would she come to regret this agreement?
“Yes,” she said, fighting to sound sophisticated. “I know.”
“He’ll be an artist under the covers,” Nessa assured her. “Think he’d be so popular with ladies if he just stuck it in and spent without a by-your-leave? Not hardly.”
“I suppose not,” Tamsyn said. That wasn’t the most encouraging description of sex she had heard. She glanced at the bed, but it only seemed to have grown larger and more intimidating in the intervening minutes since she’d last looked at it. “A woman can lie with a man and keep her heart safe, I imagine.”
Nessa planted her hands on her hips and asked sternly, “What’s this talk, girl?”
Tamsyn considered prevaricating, but she could never withhold the truth from her friend. She said flatly, “He told me he won’t be faithful.”
“The devil he did!” Nessa looked outraged.
“In the park that day he offered marriage,” Tamsyn confirmed. “He said he wasn’t going to keep his vows of fidelity. But I was free to take a lover if I wanted—after I gave him an heir.”
Nessa’s cheeks darkened with fury and she balled her hands into fists. “I’ll give him a pummeling, I will. Earl or no, he can’t say things like that.”
“It’s not uncommon, though.” Tamsyn felt strangely obliged to defend him. “People of rank and fashion often have lovers.”
“They don’t say so when they’re courting!” Nessa fired back.
