Free Bridal Favors - Engaged in Wickedness by Jade Lee

him believe in the madness. She wanted him to take her. And if he had any doubt, the way she began to unbutton his shirt told him that she was in earnest.
    He grabbed her hands, stilling them, though God help him, he couldn't pull his body off of hers. "Gwen," he said, his voice a low rasp. "Gwen, you don't mean it."
    "I do," she said, her voice breathless. "I want to become a fallen woman."
    "What? Gwen!"
    "No, listen! I will be disgraced. No more balls and parties, no more afternoon callers. I will have to leave the house and find rooms of my own. Robert will give me my dowry, so I won't starve. Don't you see? It's perfect!"
    She renewed her efforts at his shirt. Even though he held her hands, she was able to get most of it unbuttoned. She was tugging at his cravat before he could force himself to speak.
    "Gwen, stop! What are you thinking?" She wasn't of course. Neither was he, but he had to be strong here.
    She abandoned his cravat to stroke his face. Her expression was pleading as she spoke in a clear, certain tone.
    "I'm saying I want you to deflower me. Take my virginity, Edward. Ruin me, please!"
    He closed his eyes. Never had he imagined such a conversation, but somehow with Gwen he wasn't surprised. The wildness in her was boiling over tonight.
    "Then we would have to marry, Gwen. Is that what you want? Will you marry me?"
    She released a nervous laugh, the pitch high and too manic. "Didn't you hear me? I'm trying to get ruined!"
    "I heard," he said, the pain in his heart doing a great deal to cool his hunger. And that gave him enough strength to slowly peel himself off of her. But he kept her trapped against the wall, their bodies a bare inch apart. "What has happened?"
    She tried to draw him back. She tried to reach for him, but he remained firm and in the end she closed her eyes and dropped her head back against the wall. The leg that she had raised to pull him tight fell to the floor with a dull thud.
    "Gwen, please," he rasped. "What has happened?"
    "What always happens," she answered. "Can't you hear it?"
    She meant the sobbing in the other room. It was quieter now, and he felt a stab of guilt that he hadn't cared about it. Not after he'd realized it wasn't Gwen. He'd meant to ask, but she had distracted him. "Is that your mother?"
    She nodded. "She managed a bit longer this time. Last year she broke barely two weeks into the Season. Robert believes it is the stress of all the people visiting that sets her off. But really," she said, her voice turning angry, "what stress is there? She sits in a chair and makes polite conversation. It is hardly taxing. She only attended one ball this year. And yet the fit has come."
    She gestured with an impatient wave to the other room. To him the sound was heartbreaking. No longer wails of madness, the sound was just sad. And lost. So very lost.
    "She does this every Season?"
    "And every holiday. We have not attended Easter services as a family in a decade."
    He sorted through the information, trying to understand what could be done to help. "What does your father say?"
    "That it is a good thing she already gave him an heir and a spare because he cannot stand the thought of mounting her again."
    Edward winced. The relationship between his own parents had never been smooth, but they had never been cruel to one another. "And your brothers?"
    Gwen shrugged. "Robert sighs and does his part, but he does not understand it any more than I do. And since there is so much work to be done with the Earldom, he is gone half the time. And Jack went from school straight to the Continent."
    "So you manage the house. And your mother."
    "Since I was ten."
    He sighed and stroked her cheek with his thumb. "So young."
    She pressed her cheek fully into his palm. "She was not always like this. Robert remembers a time when we went outdoors on walks. I can remember when Mama arranged flowers about the house and helped Cook make us treats. But that was never here. Never in London."
    "So she does better