The petite and lushly curved princess hadn’t batted one of her perfect lashes when she had heard the explanation for Kitty’s visit. Ophelia had left, granting them privacy, but thankfully the princess hadn’t launched into lessons right away, perhaps sensing Kitty’s nerves. For the last hour, they sat and spoke of the amusing trivialities of the ton. The tension that had held Kitty rigid had passed, and she found herself relaxing and even laughing gaily at Cosima’s—as she insisted on being called—amusing recollections of court life in Prussia and how that life compared with England’s ton. Though many supposed her to be indecent and lascivious, she and her father, a grand duke, were invited to most drawing rooms.
We could be friends, she realized with a sense of shock, and she fancied Cosima had the same thought at the warm smile they shared.
“I am so very pleased Ophelia has introduced us,” said Cosima. “Often she has spoken of her other friends, and I admit my heart has been hungry for more friendship so far away from home.”
“I am very glad we could meet as well,” Kitty said with a smile. “I’ve enjoyed our talk.” And it saddened her that should society know of this visit, they would seek to cast Kitty and her sisters in a scandalous light, and possibly they would be cut by the very people who had been recently embracing them.
Pushing a strand of her vibrant dark red hair behind her ear, she asked, “Are you ready to tell me what you want to know about making love with a man?”
“That was rather blunt,” Kitty said faintly, blushing.
“Seduction often is,” the princess murmured. “Though it is the nature of the man that determines how forward we should be. Some men like…even hunger for us ladies to be the seducer…then for others we must be the tasty morsel they entice with kisses and barely-there touches.”
In her eyes, there was no judgment, only compassion…and an odd glint of wickedness. Kitty realized Cosima was quite comfortable with her sensuality and perhaps reveled in her rebellious nature.
“You must tell me of this man so I might advise you,” she said in her purring accent.
“Not just any man,” Kitty murmured, her belly fluttering with anxiety and anticipation. “He is…” And she stopped, lacking the words to describe the complexities of Alexander Masters.
“The Duke of Thornton, society’s most enigmatic recluse,” Cosima filled in. “The newssheets speculate frequently on his life, and there is no one to help society separate the truth from the lies. I do not have enough information to inform you of how to approach him.”
Of course the princess would correctly assume it was the duke. With a heavy sigh, Kitty leaned against the padded back of the comfortable sofa and tipped her head to the ceiling. “He had a terrible accident years ago.”
“What manner of accident?”
“I’ll not divulge it,” Kitty said, quite aware society was not entirely certain what caused Alexander his greatest pain. “But it has made him believe he…he cannot give me the pleasure a man would give his woman.”
There was a speculative pause in which she shifted her head to stare at the princess, who was observing her rather keenly.
“And you believe otherwise? A man in charge of his faculties would know more than anyone else if he can achieve a cockstand.”
Kitty’s eyes widened. “A cockstand.”
The princess seemed to consider just how improper she could be, then answered, “When that part of him that is in his trousers becomes hard…very hard. It is called a cockstand or an erection. And from your terrible blushes, I will guess that you are familiar with the duke’s manhood.”
Kitty bit back a groan and bravely said, “To an extent.”
“And was it hard?”
Searing heat burned through her veins when she recalled the thick hardness she had clasped in the conservatory.
“I can see that it was,” the princess said with an airy laugh.
“It was not for long,” she confessed. “And…and I was not entirely sure about the details of what should have happened between us. One moment I felt such pleasure I believed I would die, and the next my arms were empty and a most awful, unfulfilled ache lingered in my belly. He got hurt and…and our moment was interrupted; I fear we may never get it back.”
The princess nodded. “I will impart all that I know…but in good conscience, I must confess I have never been intimate with a man myself. Shocking, I know,” she murmured, her eyes twinkling. “At a young age, one of my father’s paramours befriended me, and over the years my views have been scandalously enlightened. I am pleased to share all I have heard and seen. But I would be a poor friend to promise it would allow you to achieve what you want from the duke.”
She leaned forward and clasped her hands between hers. “Thank you, Cosima. I believe a chance is all I need.”
…
Three days after meeting with Cosima, and with the gleeful aid of Lady Darling, Kitty crossed the border into the lowlands, toward Alexander and the possibility of an even greater heartache.
Early that morning, as she and her lady’s maid had left the inn where they had stayed overnight, the day had seemed bright, clear, and without threat of rain. Now the sky was painted in shades of gray, and thunder rumbled quite ominously in the distance. Possibly a portent of how the day would unfold.
Alexander hadn’t indicated he was willing to fight for a life together, and here she was traveling once more to his home, without an invitation…
To seduce him.