Free Sinful in Satin by Madeline Hunter Page B

noticed the exciting energy in that chamber during their brief conversation. Celia had assumed it came from herself, and from the gentle thrill created when she saw Jonathan standing there, his forearms bare beneath his rolled sleeves and the general form of his body emphasized by the waistcoat and snug pantaloons he wore.
    Verity hooked her arm through Celia’s and encouraged her to stroll. “You really must bring an older woman into the house.”
    “I intend to. However, it is not my fault that I inherited property with a male tenant already in residence.”
    “No, it is not. However, you must take more care than most women who make such a discovery.”
    Celia thought about the altercation in the street outside her house the day before. “I am beginning to wonder if any care will be enough, and therefore unnecessary. You were good enough not to make assumptions about him immediately, and he was good enough not to comment on how you came to the garden door and not the front one, but the reason for both the assumptions and your entry is not to be avoided. I think there will be little difference in my reputation whether I repudiate Alessandra’s biggest legacy or not.”
    Verity’s face flushed. Her blue eyes moistened. “I did not assume he was your lover, Celia. Not ever. I was only teasing you. As for my discreet entry, I am sorry. I truly am. I will tell Hawkeswell that I intend to greet you in the park and have you call like any other friend. It is not fair that—”
    “I will not have it. I do not blame you or your husband. Please believe that. I always knew how it would be. I am not angry with you about that, or at all insulted. Sometimes I get discouraged when I realize that I gain little with my virtue, and it vexes me. That is all I am saying. I have lost just as much of my good reputation as if I had indeed agreed to accept my first protector at seventeen.”
    She regretted her impulsive honesty immediately. It surprised her, then, when Verity did not express any dismay, but merely strolled on.
    They returned to the shrubbery, near the well. Celia thought about the bucket of water outside her door. It had been very kind of Mr. Albrighton to do that when he realized she had not yet risen from bed. Kinder than she had been with him. Probably he felt sorry for her, after those boys had spoken of her as a whore.
    Verity finally gave the flower bed in front of the shrubbery her attention. “This spring, after we see what comes up, we can decide which new varieties to add.”
    “ Now you finally speak of bulbs, Verity? Have you nothing to say about the topic I indiscreetly broached?”
    “I am still accommodating my discovery of your history, Celia. It is still news to me.”
    “I only informed Daphne. If anyone else learned the truth, it was by accident.”
    “I am not upbraiding you for not confiding. I am the last person to have any right to do that, considering the secrets I kept from all of you.”
    Verity referred to their time together, living at The Rarest Blooms. There was a rule in that household that one did not pry into the histories of the others. Daphne said that women sometimes have good reason to leave the past behind, and that had been true of all of them, to one degree or another.
    Verity, however, had been the most thorough in keeping her own counsel, to the point of assuming a new identity.
    It had been a shock to all of them to discover last summer that the most quiet and circumspect among them had affected the most daring break with the past. It had also been a relief when, after that past found her, Verity had not only reconciled to it, but found glorious happiness.
    “I am trying to explain how, since it is so new, I am still adjusting my own prospect, so to speak,” Verity continued earnestly. “I do not see you differently, dear friend. I do, however, see you in a different place from before. And—” She bit her lower lip, shrugged, and forged on. “And I find that your