Page 91 of To Pleasure a Prince
A distinctly sirenish smile touched her lips. “You know very well that it was amazing, you self-satisfied oaf.”
“You were rather amazing yourself.”
She eyed him askance. “You mean I’m a shameless wanton.”
“Thoroughly shameless, thank God.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Having a wife who takes pleasure in sharing my bed? Great God, no. Why would I mind?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not just saying that to save yourself a fortune in jewels, are you?”
He blinked. “Pardon?”
“My friends said the only advantage to marital relations is that their husbands buy them jewels afterward.”
“Did you want jewels?”
“Not if it means giving up what we just did.”
A smile tugged at his lips. “It doesn’t. But I’m afraid it didn’t occur to me to buy you any.”
She laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t. You’re not the jewel-buying sort.”
“I bought you a harp,” he pointed out.
“Yes, and it’s lovely.”
“Even if you can’t read the inscription.”
She went still, all her exuberance fading, and he cursed himself for mentioning it. But now that their second lovemaking had finally taken the edge off his lust, he wanted to know how she’d come to such a pass. “You really can’t read at all?”
With a shake of her head, she turned away from him onto her side.
He shifted to lie at her back, draping his arm over her waist. “It doesn’t matter to me, dearling. But I do want to know how a duke’s daughter could be—”
“Stupid?” she said bitterly. “An idiot?”
“Illiterate,” he corrected her. Drawing her back against his chest, he nuzzled her neck. “You’re not stupid at all. That’s my point. How have you managed not to learn to read?”
She turned her head to stare up at him. “You don’t think I tried? Hundreds of times, thousands of times? I did. I tried hard. But it never worked.” Her lower lip trembled. “I told you, my brain doesn’t function as it should.”
“How do you know?”
She sighed. “When Cicely began my lessons—”
“Cicely? I thought she was your lady’s companion.”
“She is. But she’s more than that. She was my governess from early on.”
He arched an eyebrow. “The duke couldn’t afford a governess for you?”
“Of course he could. Thankfully, Cicely talked him out of hiring one.” She shifted to face him. “You see, Cicely, my father’s first cousin, came to live with us shortly after I was born. Her father had just died. She was a plain woman with a poor family, so she was rapidly on her way to becoming a spinster even then. That’s probably why she was so fond of me. She was the one who first noticed my problems with reading. Knowing my mother’s stringent expectations for her children, she maneuvered it so that she became my governess before anyone could find out about my problems.”
“Your parents didn’t know?”
She shook her head. “Mother would have died of mortification. And Father rarely dealt with any of us. He spent most of his time in the usual gentlemanly pursuits and very little around his children. Even Simon doesn’t know.”
