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Oh, this is the worst. How had she gotten herself in such a mess?
Oh, but it had been lovely.
Thank goodness the silk sheets on Thomas’s bed were dyed brown. Her virgin’s blood would not stain them.
Still, she could see it, slightly darker than the pigment of the sheets.
She rose and walked, still naked, to the earl’s bath chamber. It was decadent, and she filled a basin with water, wiped off her face, and cleansed her private parts.
Once she was finished, she walked back into the bedchamber and put on her pantaloons and chemise. For her corset, she would need help.
Then she waited.
Five minutes passed, and then another five minutes.
When twenty minutes had passed, and she was almost sure no one would come to her aid, a knock finally sounded on the door.
“My lady?” It was Longbottom’s voice.
“Yes?”
“I have the duchess with me. Shall I let her in?”
“Yes, please.”
Lily, clad in an afternoon dress of lively light pink, entered.
She clapped her hands to either side of her face. “Dear Tricia, what on earth has happened?” She eyed the rumpled bedding. “As if I need to ask. I should pummel my brother for this.”
“Thank you, Lily. I knew you’d come.” A rush of warmth hit Tricia’s cheeks. “And…I don’t want you to think any less of your brother.”
“Thomas? He certainly hasn’t lived as a monk. No young gentleman of the peerage ever does, unless he plans to actually become a monk. But I shall have his head for doing this to you.”
Tricia shook her head quickly. “Oh, Lily, no. I wanted this.”
She expected Lily’s jaw to drop, but it didn’t. Lily simply chuckled. “You are so like me at your age. But I’m speaking more of his leaving you here with no one to help you dress.”
“He said he had business to?—”
“Pish posh. Business could have waited.”
“Perhaps he planned to come back and was waylaid.”
Lily smiled. “You’re a gem to defend him, given what he’s put you through. If you want my brother to marry you, I shall see that he does.”
“If I wanted that, I would go blabbing to Cameron about it. He would force Thomas into marriage in a minute. But I don’t want a marriage out of obligation, Lily.”
Lily looked Tricia in the eyes. “But do you want a marriage to Thomas?”
Tricia’s cheeks warmed. “I’ve loved him from afar since I first laid eyes on him. I always wanted to be with him. But I want him to love me, damn it.”
“Oh, you sound so much like me. When Daniel forced me into marriage—or tried to—I was convinced he was doing it out of obligation too. It turned out he loved me all along. I know my brother. He would not soil a lady if he did not have feelings for her.”
Tricia wrinkled her nose. She didn’t feel soiled. If anything, she felt as though she had taken a step into the holy realm of true womanhood.
But perhaps Lily did not mean it in such a negative way.
“I don’t think he has any feelings for me.” Tricia crossed her arms. “I think we have something physical between us. That’s all.”
