Free Confessions From an Arranged Marriage by Miranda Neville Page B

just ducal formality. Since Blake is to marry into our family, I suppose we’d better get him used to the Montroses. I shall give a dinner.”
    â€œRather a small dinner since it’s too far for Rufus and Henry, and Mama and Papa aren’t coming to London for the wedding.” Minerva’s parents hated to travel. They’d written that they’d see Blake and Minerva in Shropshire, when they returned from Paris and came up to Mandeville House for the summer.
    â€œWill’s only a few miles from London and we’ll send for Stephen from Harrow. Four Montroses can make enough of a racket to let Blake know what he’s in for.”
    Minerva tried to imagine Blakeney fitting into a gathering of her noisy, opinionated family and failed. Not that her fiancé was a man of excessive formality, but conversation among the Montroses raged fast and furious, quite unlike Blake’s rather dégagé attitude. His stance in company tended toward semi-inattention, punctuated by the occasional cynical comment.
    He had hinted at a more serious side during their walk home from dinner at Vanderlin House, then belied the impression with his kiss in the middle of Berkeley Square. She shook her head in bafflement and blushed at the recollection.
    Diana regarded her with interest and drew the right conclusion. “Has he kissed you?”
    She nodded.
    â€œHow was it?”
    â€œIt was pleasant.” Min didn’t want to admit how much, even to Diana. As for the odd physical sensations she sometimes got in Blakeney’s presence, it was merely her body’s reactions to a good-looking man. True, she’d met plenty of good-looking men without getting so much as a quiver of desire in her chest, let alone her belly, but Blakeney was probably the handsomest man she knew. It was natural and quite involuntary, like a sneeze in a dusty room.
    â€œIt’s good you find him attractive. You’ll enjoy bedding him, and if you enjoy it he’ll enjoy it. Bed isn’t everything, but mutual satisfaction there can help smooth over differences in other areas of life. I always said I’d tell you all about marital intercourse once you were engaged, and it may as well be now.”
    â€œAs a matter of fact I know quite a bit.”
    â€œWhy am I not surprised? I had a feeling Celia and you had a few interesting chats.”
    â€œI read a book too.” At the time, Minerva had found the outlandish games played by men and women in The Genuine and Remarkable Amours of the Celebrated Peter Aretin cause for mirth. Two years later she wasn’t so sure.
    â€œBooks are all very well, but you can’t ask them questions when you don’t understand something. I’m going to be frank with you. I believe Blake to be a man of sophisticated tastes when it comes to women.”
    â€œDid you . . . ?”
    â€œAbsolutely not. We never exchanged more than a kiss or two.”
    Min nodded in considerable relief. Her forthcoming nuptials were complicated enough already.
    â€œGentlemen expect their brides to be virtuous,” Diana continued. “Some men like them to be ignorant too. They enjoy playing the tutor in the bedroom. My first husband was like that. I do not believe Blakeney is one of those. The more you know, the happier you’ll both be.” She smiled. “You can get a man to do just about anything after a good bout of lovemaking.”
    Minerva felt less confidence than she had on any subject in years. The kiss she’d shared with Blakeney had affected him much less than it had her.
    She thought about parliamentary and criminal reform. She thought about children working long hours at dangerous tasks for pitiful wages. She thought about the number of parliamentary seats controlled by the Duke of Hampton and his influence in the country. Influence that would one day be wielded by Lord Blakeney. She thought about influencing Lord Blakeney.
    Never one to shrink