A Priceless Gift: A Regency Romance by May Burnett

talked to them for a few minutes before their departure. They were angling for an invitation to stay, but I made it very clear that it was outside my authority to issue it.”
    “Ah. What was your impression of them?”
    Mattie unfolded her napkin and arranged it on her lap. “Not the kind of people you or I would easily be friends with. Lady Micklesham was determined to find fault with everything, and I can only commend your good sense not to receive them personally. But I must say that one of the men—he was introduced as Sir Rudiger Mills—was the kind that might show a woman a good time. He would have liked to flirt with me but was cut short by their departure.”
    “Would you have flirted back?” Amanda was surprised at her staid cousin’s reaction to what sounded like a libertine. “You know nothing of him, after all.”
    “A handsome man paying me compliments is not such a frequent occurrence that I would have quickly rebuffed him, you may be sure. Of course, it is unlikely the matter would have gone much further, even had they stayed. Mrs. Rillingham looked quite jealous. But a lady can dream, can’t she? I do so miss having a warm body against mine in the night.”
    Amanda choked on the spoonful of soup she was about to swallow. “You do?” A quick glance reassured her that no servants were within hearing distance.
    “Don’t you, Amanda? With a husband reputed to be a famous lover, I would imagine that you feel lonely for him. At least you know he’ll be back in a few more months, while my poor Luke is cold under the ground. He can never again make me feel the bliss in his arms that I remember every single night.”
    “Bliss?” Amanda stared. “Are you not exaggerating in your memory what it was like?”
    Now Mattie began to frown. “Oh, Amanda, don’t tell me you are one of those poor females who dislike intimacy even with a skilled and careful lover? You look so wholesome and robust . . . please forgive me if this subject makes you uncomfortable. I assumed that, as a wife with an absent husband, you would share my own frustration and loneliness, but I see from your face that it is different. If there is anything I can do—any advice you might need, to find greater enjoyment, don’t hesitate to apply to me! Or that midwife, I imagine she would also be a fount of knowledge. Though, with your husband’s experience, it really should not be necessary at all.”
    Amanda bit her lips in vexation. She was curious how such ‘bliss’ was to be achieved, but to ask any questions would expose her ignorance and lead to unwanted inferences and suspicions. Already, she had given away too much. Besides, what light did her ignorance cast on her husband? Lucian hardly deserved to be considered inept when everyone agreed he could write books on the subject of sensuality.
    “You mistake; I am in no need of advice or tutoring,” she said a little stiffly, forcing herself to frown. “It merely startled me that you would raise such an unsuitable subject at the dinner table. If my mother heard you, this would cause her palpitations.”
    Mattie looked repentant and a little guilty, but that was better than additional probing into the dangerous subject. “I do beg your pardon, Amanda. I had not realised that you shared your mother’s dislike of warm talk, but it is only natural, I suppose. I shall not bring it up again.”
    Amanda smiled to show that there were no hard feelings after her cousin’s lapse. “Let us rather discuss names. I have almost decided upon Marcus if I should have a boy, after Father, but I am less certain about a girl.”
    “ Marcus Rackington, Lord Bernay ,” Mattie said. “I like it, except perhaps an additional first name or even two?”
    “Bernay is the heir’s courtesy title? I had not known,” Amanda confessed.
    Mattie’s eyes opened wide. “You must be the only woman in England who would reach the fifth month of her pregnancy and not know what title her son will bear once