Free Deceived by Bertrice Small Page B

won’t be with me when I marry.”
    â€œBut you are not departing for England for several months,” Oralia replied. “We will speak then, Aurora.”
    â€œI would rather hear it all with Cally, Mama.”
    â€œOh, please let her stay,” Cally begged prettily.
    Oralia shrugged. She was uncomfortable enough as it was. It was actually a very practical idea to get this little speech all over and done with just once. “Very well,” she acquiesced. “Marriage has many aspects to it,” she began. “A good wife respects her husband. She keeps his house, and if he so desires, she may even offer him her counsel. But a woman’s chief duty, my girls, is to give her husband children. In order to do this, she must cojoin her body to his and receive his seed into her womb. For some women this is a pleasant duty, and she may even enjoy her husband’s passion.”
    â€œDid you?” Aurora asked frankly.
    Oralia blushed. “I did with your father,” she said low.
    â€œBut not with mine?” Cally asked.
    Oralia bit her lip, but then said candidly, “Your father was not as gentle a man as was Robert Kimberly. While all men are basically alike in their forms, each is different in the manner in which he makes love to his wife. You must be prepared for this, both of you. Cally, I believe your duke will be kind and patient. Permit him the freedom of your body, for it is his right. You must not deny him.”
    â€œWhat will he do?” Cally asked curiously.
    â€œEach man has an . . . um . . . um . . . an . . .”
    â€œAppendage?” Aurora suggested.
    â€œHow on earth did you know that?” her mother gasped.
    â€œI remember seeing George had one when we swam together as children,” Aurora said calmly. “It was a bit small, however.”
    â€œThey grow as the male grows,” Oralia told them weakly, thinking this was probably the worst thing she had ever had to do in her life. “This appendage is the means by which a man joins his body with his wife.”
    â€œHow?” Cally said.
    â€œThere is an opening in a female’s body,” her mother said. “It can be found between your legs. As a man’s desire grows, this appendage will thicken, and grow. It is then ready to enter your body, which your husband, if he is thoughtful, will prepare for his entry.”
    â€œHow?” Cally again.
    â€œHe will stroke you,” Oralia said.
    â€œLike a cat?” Cally sounded disbelieving.
    â€œYou know what you need to know,” Oralia said. “Valerian will answer any other questions you have, Calandra.”
    â€œHow does a baby get into my body?” Cally persisted.
    â€œYour husband will deliver his seed into your womb by means of his appendage. This seed will grow if you are fertile at the time it enters your body, for you will not always be fertile to his seed, and the seed evolves into a baby. It generally takes about nine months for a child to come to full term. At that point it will push itself from your body through the same opening by which it entered it.”
    â€œWill it be a son or daughter?” Cally was not yet satisfied.
    â€œYou will not know until the child is born,” her mother said. “Now, Calandra, Aurora, I think you have more than enough information. It is time for you to go to sleep. Tomorrow is a very important day for you, Calandra. You will marry, and you will leave St. Timothy as the Duchess of Farminster. You must get your rest.”
    â€œLet Aurora stay for a while,” Cally asked her mother. “It is the last night we will have each other’s company for a long time, and when we meet again, everything will be different.”
    Oralia nodded, understanding, and then, standing up, she left the room. She and Robert had been so fortunate in their marriage and in their children. She wanted that for both of the girls.
    When she had gone, Cally said, “I