Free Out of the Blue (A Regency Time Travel Romance) by Kasey Michaels Page B

the notion that women
of your time do not marry until much later in life, can we get back
to the discussion of those tablets hidden in your pocket? As an
unmarried woman and, as you assert, a woman not to be lumped with
the Harriette Wilsons of this world—why in blazes are you carrying
those tablets?”
    “You aren’t going to give up, are you,
Marcus?” Cassandra took another sip of the now tepid coffee, then
came to a decision. “All right. I’ll tell you the truth, even
though I know it will blow your mind. You said I wasn’t to talk
about anything but the pills, but I must tell you that we had a
different sort of war in the last twenty or thirty years—my years,
not yours. It was called the Sexual Revolution. Women figured out
that barefoot and pregnant wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. We
went to college, we went to work, we fought for equality, and—and
you’re really going to have to pay attention now, Marcus—we decided
that women can have sex without marriage just as you men have been
doing since the beginning of time. We know all about sex. We teach
it in school, as a matter of fact. So, no, Marcus, I am not a virgin. ‘Brad the Bod’ Renshaw took care of that little bit of my
education during my third year of college. And surprise, surprise,
it wasn’t all that great, so I gave it up. I take birth control
pills—those ‘tablets’—because I live and work in Manhattan, and a
girl could get raped living in Manhattan.”
    Her speech completed, and her entire body
shaking with nerves, Cassandra sat back in the chair and waited for
Marcus to explode and maybe order her out of his house before she
could contaminate the rest of the inhabitants, and to hell with his
intention of “experimenting” with her.
    But he surprised her.
    “I see,” Marcus said after a long, pregnant
pause. “I think I understand now, Cassandra. Women of your age—your time —have decided to be just like men. You go to university,
you fight wars, and you live alone and work in places so dangerous
that you must take preventative tablets for fear of being violated.
And the name you give to all of this is ‘equality’?”
    “Right.” Cassandra grimaced. “Only it doesn’t
sound quite as logical the way you say it. Um—did I mention that
we’ve gotten the right to vote in elections?”
    Marcus laid down his notebook, “No,
Cassandra, you have not mentioned that. My felicitations on yet
another feminine accomplishment. But I think I’ve heard enough for
this morning. Before I ask any more questions I will comprise a
list from which to draw on. For now, I think we must prepare to
introduce you to the rest of the family. You’ve already met
Peregrine Walton, my good friend who has been living with me since
his parents died, leaving him penniless. He is a good sort, but
rather simple, so that I wouldn’t want you to tax his mind with too
many stories of your time. I would ask the same consideration of my
aunt Cornelia—actually, she is not my aunt, but I call her ‘Aunt.’
She would doubtless have a strong attack of the vapors if you were
to apprise her of the truth of your circumstances.”
    “Of course,” Cassandra answered
automatically, watching as Marcus rose and began pacing the carpet,
his hands clasped behind his back. Did he have to be so very
handsome? Modern men could learn a lot from the way Marcus spoke
and carried himself—and the way his pantaloons, or whatever they
were called, clung to his shapely legs. “I won’t give myself away.
I’m to be Perry’s American cousin. Nothing more.”
    “Very good. It also goes without saying that
Perry and I are to be the only two people who know the truth about
you. It could be dangerous if the wrong sort of person were to
discover the true circumstances behind your appearance in London.
In order to be assured that you will not bring undue attention to
yourself, thus putting all of us at risk of being declared insane
and locked away in some asylum, you