Page 5 of A Gentleman's Wager
“Bella, why would he not?”
“A rake. I should think he’s come to Yorkshire to escape the marriage mart?”
Louisa clasped her gown to herself as if she meant to dance. “Not simply to attend his affairs.” She stepped and turned, then stepped and turned again, ending by the closet, where she stowed the latest dress. After a moment or two she returned and slid onto the bed beside her friend. “Bella? What is it? What aren’t you saying? I can’t believe you’re not enraptured by the prospect of having a viscount as a neighbour. The reopening of Lauwine has to be the most exciting thing to have happened in these parts for many a year, and you’ve always loved Lauwine. Now, surely, you’ll get the opportunity to see it.”
Bella shrugged and gave a sniff. She was excited to see Lauwine’s interior, though she was also still mourning the loss of the hayfield lawn, and the willow cave, and all the other secret places that had been hers and hers alone for as long as she’d had the legs to carry her across the fields to the abandoned hall. “I just… I just don’t think I ought to set my hopes on such things.”
“Because—”
“Because… Because, I expect the viscount has already formed a rather ill opinion of me.”
Louisa clasped their hands. “Ah, so you have met him—”
“Not exactly,” Bella hedged, while staring at where their fingers were entwined. “Stumbled across him, you might say.”
Her friend rested her head on Bella’s shoulder. “Stumbled across him where?”
This was the problematic part. Louisa was something of a prude and had always been frightfully missish, even before her aunt took over her tutelage.
“I saw him at Lauwine. In the river. Naked as a needle.” The admission spilled out of her all in a tumble. “I rather suppose he thought he was alone.”
“You’ve seen him in the buff,” Louisa screeched, her eyes growing round and wide. She leapt from the bed and hurried across the chamber to push the door to and thus ensure they weren’t overheard. “Bella!” She clasped her hands to her mouth.
Bella hid her face in the bed curtains, feeling the warmth rising through her skin. Seeing him stark naked would have been bad enough, but she hadn’t simply seen him nude. She’d witnessed a whole lot more than that, and for all that she was frantic with worry over the dinner tomorrow, she would make the same choices all over again.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Louisa let her arms fall and set her back to the door. “That’s why you didn’t want to speak of him until we were alone. What did you do? I think you had better tell me.”
“Do? I… Louisa, I didn’t do anything.” She’d only observed. Though, what a sight he had made. Tingles traversed her body as she recalled the shadow play over his skin, and how the water beaded over his musculature. The beauty of his member as he pistoned his fist back and forth along his length.
“Then, what did he do? Saw you, I suppose.”
That was the tricky part. She simply wasn’t sure. “I don’t know… Perhaps. I mean, I fell only a yard or so away from him, so it’s possible. But I didn’t linger, as it didn’t seem the moment for introductions, given that he was unrobed, and—” She mimicked the motion of his hand. “—and I had just fallen from a tree.”
Louisa squinted at her. “What is that?” She copied the motion.
“You know…”
“That’s just it, I don’t.”
Bella sat herself more squarely. “He was milking himself,” she hissed sotto voce.
Her friend crossed to the bed again and sat primly, hands folded in her lap. Her brow furrowed, and her lips became pinched. “Bella,” she began, only for her words to falter. She licked around the inside of her mouth, then turned her head sideways. “Do you mean to say he was touching himself down there.” She pointed. “Intimately?”
Bella nodded.
Louisa gulped. “And you… you watched.” She clasped her hands over her mouth again. “But that’s…” She spoke through her fingers. “It’s sinful. Shameful… He’ll go to hell for doing that. Why would he do that? Why would you watch? Bella you ought not to have watched. Whatever were you thinking?”
It seemed to Bella that the wisest course at this juncture—given her thoughts at the time, and the many rather sordid ones she’d entertained about how she would have liked things to have played out with Viscount Marlinscar—was to say nothing at all. Certainly, Louisa did not seem inclined to titter over the matter, or even discuss it seriously. Only to chastise.
Yes, it was true that young ladies were not supposed to be knowledgeable about such things. They were supposed to be serene, empty-headed vessels without desires or wants beyond those of domesticity and a husband. Nor were gentlemen supposed to fondle themselves into spending, but she was possessed of imagination, and saintliness was dull. “What I did hardly matters. I’m afeared he might recognise me, and then whatever shall I do? Everyone would ask so many questions. Nor would an apology seem appropriate. I’m so sorry I trespassed on your property Lord Marlinscar, but I’ve been doing so for years and didn’t imagine I’d stumble across you in the bushes having a lark.”
“You had better not say that to him.” Louisa rose to her feet once more. “If you do, I should think Joshua will find you a chaperone far stricter than my aunt. You know she barely allows me to wander from her side, and I’m quite unable to talk to any gentlemen without her eavesdropping on the conversation. It’s horrid to be so mistrusted, Bella. You’re lucky. Joshua gives you so much freedom. No companion, no chaperones, no meddling aunt—”
“I don’t know that we have an aunt he could employ in such capacity.”
“—but… but, maybe he should, for look what trouble you’ve enmeshed yourself in without one to steer you right.”
“It can hardly be considered my fault if a man decides to wander about naked.” Also, she thought Joshua had been rather relieved when he’d no longer had to employ a governess for her given the number she’d seen off.
