Chapter Ten

T he carriage pulled to a stop in the driveway before the sprawling Welwyn Manor house, but Augusta paid it no attention, was scarcely able to nod to Lord Boxted as he helped her down the steps. She kept her attention on smiling, on making certain Lord Boxted did not have an inkling of her distress when she spoke pleasantly to him as he escorted her into the house. "Thank you again my lord for the most thrilling morning of my life. I can't begin to tell you what it has meant to me."

If only she could tell him what she felt, what she wanted more than anything in the world. But she couldn't because he had not proposed to her. Far from it. He'd told her that he'd be going back to London with his mother in the next day or so as she wished to introduce several young ladies to him who would have their come outs in the spring.

Lord Boxted escorted her to the staircase. "I am so glad you enjoyed our adventure, Lady Augusta. I shall treasure it always."

"As will I, my lord. I shall never forget it." Her voice caught, and rather than have him hear her sob, she fled up the stairs.

She made it to the first landing before the tears began to trickle down her cheeks. What was she going to do? Blindly, she headed toward her chamber, but the thought of having to explain her current state to her maid was too much. Reversing her course, she started toward the opposite wing, making for the one person who might be able to help her.

Knocking loudly, she didn't wait for the "Come in" before pushing the door open to discover Emma lying in the large poster bed, her breakfast tray pushed to the side, sipping coffee. She bolted up off the pillows, the coffee sloshing over the rim and onto the coverlet. "Augusta! Don't you know better than to barge into a bedchamber without leave." Emma set the cup on the bedside table. "What would you have done had Alex been—My dear!" At last, her friend registered the tears that were streaming down her face. "What has happened?"

"Oh, Emma." Augusta flung herself down on the bed beside her friend. "I've lost him. I've truly lost him."

"Lost who, Augusta? Here, my dear, take this handkerchief before you drown." Emma snatched up the linen square from the table and handed it to her.

Augusta wiped her face, uncaring how blotched and red it might look. Nothing mattered now. "Lord Boxted."

"Lord Boxted?" Emma sounded terribly confused. "My dear, what has happened?" She leaned toward Augusta, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Are you well? You look an absolute fright."

"I feel a fright as well. Oh, Emma." Augusta held the fresh linen to her face. "I've lost him. He doesn't want to marry me any longer."

"But I thought you didn't want to marry him." Her friend paused. "You refused him already, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

Augusta hung her head. "You know why. I was intent on marrying Mr. Burton. And I didn't want to marry a gentleman with a title."

"But now you've had a change of heart toward him?" Emma peered into her face. "That's all right, Augusta. You are allowed to change your mind about a gentleman." She withdrew her hand and Augusta sat up. "Can you tell me why you now wish to marry Lord Boxted?"

Tearing at the handkerchief, Augusta launched into the tale. "I wrote to you about the sleigh ride Lord Boxted took me on at the Kastner's party, didn't I?"

Emma nodded.

"What I didn't tell you is what happened after he saved us." Augusta started with that searing kiss, told her friend about Lord Boxted's aloof behavior toward her, and finished up with today's magnificent gesture and the aftermath on the carriage ride home. "His mother is going to matchmake him with some young lady who's not even out yet and there's nothing I can do about it." Tears began to trickle down her cheeks again. She'd thought she'd already spent them all. "What am I going to do, Emma?"

"What do you want to do, Augusta?" Her friend stared intently at her.

"I want to make him propose to me again." Only she had no idea how to do that.

Emma knit her brows together. "Are you willing to take drastic measures to convince him?"

"What do you mean by ‘drastic'?" Augusta had to ask. Emma had married a man she'd known only four days. Her ideas about drastic might be too extreme even for Augusta. Of course, a lady could always arrange to get herself compromised as a path to the altar, but she'd never entertained such thoughts until now.

"What if instead of waiting for a proposal, you seduced him instead?"

Oh, yes, that was drastic all right. "I'd actually thought of doing that to encourage Mr. Burton, but I never got the chance."

"Well, you have that chance with Lord Boxted. Show him how you feel about him. Use your feminine wiles to make him desire you as much as you desire him." Her friend sat upright, an avid look on her face as she started to warm to her subject. "Most gentlemen would wish to see what kind of wife he will be taking to his bed on his wedding night." She shot Augusta a sly look. "A little preview of your delights may well tip the scales in your favor."

"Emma, for goodness' sake." Augusta's cheeks were hot. Even though she'd thought about seducing Mr. Burton, she had no knowledge whatsoever about what that would entail. Apparently, her friend could supply that lack.

She'd never known married ladies to speak this freely to an unmarried woman. Of course, all the married ladies she knew were her mother's age. She'd had few real friends growing up and she hadn't taken to her brother's wife when he married. Only Emma had gotten along well with her, likely because they were similar in many ways, yet different in others. So if her friend said she could help Augusta get Lord Boxted to marry her, she'd certainly listen to it. Even if it sounded mighty scandalous. "Is that what you did to get Alex to propose to you?"

"Not exactly." Her friend smiled a very knowing smile. "Alex and I were eager to marry for very different reasons. He, because of that family wager." Emma stopped abruptly. "You do know about the wager, don't you?"

"Oh, yes. I heard of it first when you did, after your wedding."

"And I wished for the security of his Regimentals." She stared steadily at Augusta. "You remember about my ordeal in India?"

Augusta nodded. "You told me when you married the captain, it was more for security than for love. I remember that." She glanced at Emma askance. "But you do love him now, don't you?"

"Terribly!" That smile was back, and broader than before. She blushed. "I think I fall more deeply in love with him each day."

"So you didn't have to seduce him." Augusta wished for another option as well. Being seductive wasn't something her governess had taught her in the schoolroom.

"No, but as soon as he proposed, we spent some very intimate moments on Lord Caxton's bower swing." Emma's cheeks deepened from delicate pink to fiery red. "With the result that the swing broke."

"Emma! That is not what you told me and Lady Caxton." Such antics were not anything Augusta felt herself capable of doing, not even to secure Lord Boxted as her husband. "Do I really need to do something like that?"

"Do you wish to marry Lord Boxted?" Emma's cool stare and pursed mouth spoke volumes.

"Yes."

"Then you need to do it." Emma shrugged her shoulders and stretched her arms. "It's not as though you won't enjoy it as well."

"Emma!" She wasn't so sure about that. She wasn't sure about any of this.

"Settle down and listen carefully." Emma leaned toward her. "If you want Lord Boxted to compromise you, the first thing you need to do is get him alone."

Fixing her mind on getting what she wanted, Augusta nodded. "How do I do that?"

"I'm certain you can arrange something." Emma waved her hand dismissively. "Gardens are ideal places for assignations, but as it's January, it's too cold out." She shook her head, her face filled with regret. "You won't get a rise out of him at all in this kind of weather."

"A rise?" Augusta was mystified.

"Don't worry about that. If you stay indoors, it should be fine." She sat back, thinking. "Libraries are good too. They usually have a key in the door, so you can lock yourself in with him. That way he can't bolt, and no one else can interrupt you. If I were you, I'd try for the library." Her friend peered at her. "You can do that?"

Determined, Augusta nodded. Emma seemed to have this seduction well in hand.

"Good. Get him in the library, lock the door, and hide the key."

"Where?"

Emma shrugged. "Some place Lord Boxted can't get it." She raised one delicate eyebrow. "I'm certain you'll think of somewhere. Then, once you've gotten him alone, you need to kiss him."

"We did that already." Augusta could still recall the warmth of that kiss down to her toes. "But it didn't lead to another proposal."

Emma grasped her hands and held them tightly. "Do you want to marry him, Augusta?"

"Oh, yes. Absolutely."

"Good, because if kissing him didn't bring him to his knees in a proposal, you may actually have to seduce him into your bed." Emma's gaze didn't falter as she spoke those scandalous words.

Any other lady of Augusta's acquaintance would certainly have swooned. She merely gulped and nodded. "Then what must I do?"

"Well, once you have him in the library, kiss him again. Long and slow." Her friend settled back against the pillows, as though she was about to give a lecture. "If you're lucky, he will take over the kiss. Then matters will progress naturally enough. If he tries to deepen the kiss, open your lips at once, to allow him in." She smiled knowingly. "It's actually quite nice when you get used to it."

"Yes, it was." She'd have enjoyed the kiss more had she not been so shaken by the runaway sleigh ride.

"Oh, so he's done that already? Then he should take the lead again." Emma shook her head. "Men are never totally predictable, however. So if he doesn't take over the kiss, you must."

The whole business smacked of the more lurid romance novels the cook used to read in the kitchen. Augusta had purloined one and read it late at night, under the bed with a candle. She'd been thoroughly shocked but also thrilled by some of the things the ladies and gentlemen managed to do. "I won't know what to do!"

"Kissing is a good start." Emma patted her hand. "You liked it when you kissed him, didn't you?"

"Oh, yes. I did. Quite a lot."

"Good. Then you should put your arms around his neck and pull him to you."

"I did that." Augusta sat up eagerly, an idea occurring to her. "Perhaps I know more than I think I do."

"Some ladies know how to seduce gentlemen naturally."

Augusta hoped against hope she was one of those ladies.

"You can also tug on his earlobe with your teeth, like this." She demonstrated using her thumb and forefinger to pull gently on her earlobe. "I must say," she said, grinning broadly and giving her a saucy look, "that drives Alex absolutely wild."

Augusta's cheeks felt hotter than the kitchen stove. "I don't think you should be telling me all these things, Emma. It's not decent."

"Someone will have to tell you for your wedding night, if nothing else." Her friend looked at her skeptically. "Do you think your mother will give you all these details?"

"Never in a thousand years." Her mother still likely didn't know some of the things Emma was telling her.

"I didn't think so. Believe me, it's so much better to be prepared for…well, everything that happens on your wedding night. Although it may happen beforehand if you do a good job of seducing him." Emma leaned forward. "Do you want to know all about it?"

Even the little she'd done while kissing Lord Boxted had given Augusta stunning memories of the heat and strange flutterings that had flooded her body. If there was more of that to come, she wanted to know it. Surprises were very overrated. "Yes. Tell me all of it."

The next half an hour proved to be more of an education to Augusta than any information her governess had ever imparted to her about anything . Once her face had attained the heat of a small sun that could get no hotter, she settled down and forgot to be embarrassed. Emma had a way of explaining things so the actions and positions seemed natural, like learning which fork to use or which course came before another. By the time the clock on the mantle struck noon, Augusta had gained a wealth of knowledge about bed pleasures, as Emma called them. In a sense, she felt as though she'd already experienced more than many young brides did on their wedding nights.

"I'm amazed, Emma. Utterly amazed at this entire world unmarried ladies have no idea about." Augusta didn't quite know why older ladies kept this knowledge from the younger ones.

"At least you will not be ignorant on your wedding night, my dear." Emma giggled. "Or even on your next trip to a library."

"Let us hope the one will lead directly to the other." Augusta stretched, then slowly slid off the bed and onto the floor. "I don't know how to thank you. Goodness, I must fly. Luncheon will begin soon. Will you dress and join me downstairs?"

Emma lay back on her pillows, a dreamy look in her eyes. "No, I rather think I shall send a note to Alex to come here immediately. I am in need of his assistance."

"Are you ill?" Her friend didn't look indisposed at all.

"Not in the least." Emma's cheeks grew red for the first time. "My instructions to you have produced a powerful desire in me." She winked at Augusta. "Now it is my turn to try to get a rise out of my husband."