Page 18 of How To Seduce A Wife

Nicholas headedfor the card room, his expression so forbidding that several of the other guests moved quickly out of his path. What the devil was the matter with his wife? It seemed that every time he advanced the smallest step in her affections, she immediately took three steps back. What kind of man did she think he was?

He stopped walking. The kind of man she was used to seeing in a society marriage, the kind his father had been. Damnation, she was right to be skeptical. Even he wouldn’t have believed himself capable of fidelity before he’d met and married her.

“Nick?” He looked up into the amused blue gaze of Captain David Gray. “Is everything all right?”

He attempted a shrug. “I’ll never understand women.”

“Then why try?” David offered him a glass of brandy. “Women do tend to complicate the simplest of matters with all that unnecessary emotion, don’t they?”

“Sarcasm doesn’t become you.” Nicholas cast David a blistering look as they settled into two upright chairs against the wall and pretended to watch the card players. “Perhaps I should be more specific. I’ll never understand my wife, and unfortunately, due to the potentially long-standing nature of our relationship, I have to bloody try.”

“That’s true.” David contemplated the scene in front of them. “She is quite young and inexperienced, Nick.”

“I know that.”

“And, perhaps if I might be so bold as to mention it, your sister isn’t.”

“What do my problems with Louisa have to do with my sister?”

David looked at him. “Because it’s obvious that April is your wife’s closest friend in Town. Perhaps the advice your wife is receiving is a little too sophisticated and worldly for her.”

Nicholas let out his breath. “I haven’t considered that. I was just pleased that they deal so well together.”

“I’m sure that was important to you. You’re very fond of April, aren’t you?”

“We survived my father together. We protected each other.” Nicholas sighed and took a long drink of his brandy. “April is eight years older than me. That makes her fourteen years older than Louisa.”

“Between April and a socially unacceptable mother, your wife’s perception of her place in society and your affections might be a little confused.”

Nicholas smiled. “She won’t be confused after tomorrow night. I’ll make damned sure that she understands exactly what I’d like from her.”

“And how do you intend to do that?”

Nicholas clinked his glass against David’s. “I’m taking her to Madame Helene’s for a spot of adventuring.”

CHAPTER SIX

“We are going out, again?”

Louisa looked up at Nicholas who had appeared in her bedchamber just after her solitary dinner. She hadn’t seen him all day, had imagined him languishing in the arms of his mistress while complaining bitterly about his terribly unsophisticated wife.

“Indeed we are.” Nicholas inclined his head an inch and pointed to the box he had deposited on the bed. “And I’d like you to wear these clothes. Ask Polly to help you put them on. I’ll see you downstairs in half an hour.”

Louisa bit her lip. He didn’t exactly sound delighted to be asking for her company, but at least he wasn’t ignoring her. She sighed and walked over to the bed, lifted the lid of the dress box. “Whatever does he want me to wear? It looks like something from my mother’s wardrobe.”

She took out the old-fashioned gold satin overgown and held it up against her. Beneath the dress lay a brown lace underskirt, a single petticoat, a thin shift, a plain set of stays, and a matching brown bodice.

“Ooh, my lady. Whatever is this? Are you going to a masquerade ball?” Polly breathed close to Louisa’s ear. “It looks like the dress in that portrait in the hall the earl’s grandmother is wearing.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Louisa allowed Polly to help her out of her thin high-waisted muslin dress and remove all her clothing but her stockings and garters. She shivered and drew closer to the heat of the fire. “I’m sure there should be more petticoats and some kind of frame or bustle to hold the skirt out.”

Polly dropped the new shift over Louisa’s head. It was made of such fine lawn that it barely made a difference to her comfort or her modesty. “That’s true, my lady. Do you want me to go and find some more petticoats? Maybe the modiste forgot to put them in.”

Conscious that Nicholas had told her to wear only what was in the box, Louisa shook her head. “No, thank you, Polly. I’m sure I’ll be fine. I wouldn’t want all those layers anyway. I don’t know how our ancestors managed with all those heavy petticoats on.”

“Neither do I, my lady.” Polly laced Louisa into the long stays, tied the petticoat, and then pinned the bodice to it. Lastly Louisa stepped into the underskirt and pinned that to the bodice. “At least the gown has long sleeves and some lovely gold lace on it. That should keep you warm enough.”

Louisa shrugged into the overdress and waited while Polly settled it around her shoulders and drew it closed at her waist with two small hooks. She looked in the mirror and saw how well the brown underskirt contrasted with the gold and how the stays pushed her bosom up to overflow the bodice of the gown. She flattened her hands over her chest, but there was no place for her breasts to go other than outward.

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