Miss Merton's Last Hope by Heather Boyd

beginning.”
    “No man would want society to think he’d chosen so poorly. A supposedly barren wife would be an embarrassment to him.”
    “Then he would be a buffoon,” Walter insisted. He met her gaze. “There is no need to deny yourself the pleasure of intimacy. There are more ways and means for a husband to be with his wife without causing a babe to be made.”
    Melanie gasped. “There are?”
    He stared at her and his face turned very red. “Oh, yes.”
    She set her hand to her throat as embarrassment filled her. This was a side to Walter George that she’d never suspected. He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
    What he suggested bordered on the scandalous, and she should not listen to another word.
    She hurried ahead of him but when she reached the end of the lane, she slowed her steps. What exactly was she running from? He spoke of her taking a husband as if she had choices when she knew there were none.
    He caught up to her quickly. “Does that change your mind?”
    She considered what answer to give. She couldn’t say yes or even no with any certainty. She had only a little understanding of what went on between husbands and wives in the bedchamber. Where Walter had gotten his experience and knowledge of intimacy was a subject she didn’t want to contemplate. “I don’t know.”
    “That’s not a no.” His small smile grew and they continued on in silence a few more yards. “Perhaps practical experience of desire might help you decide whether to give up entirely on men.”
    She frowned at his suggestion. She had to assume he intended to be her teacher on the subject. She had enjoyed his kisses, but no self-respecting lady would agree with him. “I can’t.”
    “No expectations, no consequences. Be honest with me now, could you think of anything when we were kissing?”
    “I. Ah. No.” She met Mr. George’s gaze guiltily. That was what had set them at odds in the first place. Her lack of restraint. Her lack of caution around him. “I didn’t think of very much at all.”
    He grinned. “Tomorrow, after your brother and Julia head off to the shop, give your servants the day off. Tell them you want to read all day or something equally unexciting. When they are gone, I will come to you. Leave the front door unlocked so I can slip inside before anyone sees me.”
    She stared at him in horror. “Have you done this before with other women?”
    He grinned. “Does the idea of me with someone else make you uncomfortable?”
    “Yes,” she replied immediately. It made her seethe. “I thought you were a respectable gentlemen.”
    “There are degrees to everything, and I won’t pretend I don’t want you.”
    She blushed at his bold statement. To think she’d been so comfortable around a rogue and not known his true colors. “I couldn’t do what you ask.”
    He huffed out a breath. “Damn. I almost had you there for a moment.”
    When he laughed and threw his usual smile her way, she was confused. It was as if he’d become two very different men all of a sudden. She liked one of them. She wasn’t so certain about the other.
    They walked home in silence and he made no further advances. She was surprised he was taking her rejection so well.
    She stole a glance at him and he caught her looking. “If you ever change your mind, you know where to find me,” he whispered.
    They met Valentine at the end of Cavendish Place and her brother’s face was so pale, she gasped. “What’s wrong?”
    “What’s wrong,” Valentine hissed. “Where the devil have you been?”
    Astonished by his anger, she swallowed the lump in her throat. “I went to enquire after Mrs. Clemens’s situation and ended up helping her move into the new home Mr. George has provided for her.”
    “I will bid you both a good evening,” Walter said before abandoning her to her brother’s interrogation. She felt a pang of longing to follow him, but quickly quashed that idea.
    “Have you no care for your reputation anymore?”