Temptations of Anna Jacobs by Robyn DeHart Page B

try to deny it to him, but despite the irrationality of the situation, she wanted him to kiss her. Thoroughly. He’d come so close and she’d thought she would die from the impatience and sense of anticipation. She put her fingers to her lips. If only she had someone to speak to about the matter, but her mother would never understand, nor would her sister, Elizabeth. She supposed she could speak with Angela, but Anna doubted the girl would have any helpful advice in such matters, and they really only saw one another in school.
    Anna arrived back at home in time to rest for a while before the ball she had promised her mother she’d attend that evening. Her maid, Risa, met her in her bedchamber.
    “Would you like to take a bath, my lady?” Risa asked.
    “Yes, very much.” That would be precisely what she needed. It would soothe her muscles and clear her head. Remove all those unwanted thoughts about Drew and his promise of kisses.
    Risa assisted Anna out of her dress and undergarments and then into the warm orange-and-clove-scented water. Anna exhaled slowly, lowering herself until the water covered her shoulders.
    “Risa, do you know anything about men?”
    Anna hadn’t really meant to ask that aloud, but it was done now. There were worse people to discuss such matters with. Risa had been her maid for the last five years, and she was very much like an older sister.
    “Beg your pardon?”
    “Men—they’re such confounding creatures, wouldn’t you agree?” Anna wiggled her toes to the surface of the bath water. “Confusing and perplexing and everything in between.”
    Risa chuckled. “I cannot speak of all men, especially gentlemen, Lady Annabelle. I know that my own husband can be downright exasperating, but I’ve not found him confusing.”
    Anna knew her maid would not further inquire to her personal situation. If Anna wanted to discuss matters she’d have to keep talking. “There is a particular gentleman.” She sat up in the water and Risa ran a soaped sponge down Anna’s back. “He has not expressed any romantic inclinations toward me, but he has kissed me. And he told me quite precisely that he intends to do it again.”
    Risa clicked her tongue. “I see now why you are confused. But it is not this man who perplexes you so, but rather the differences between men and women. There is a reason why women are often referred to as hens: we talk, we gossip, we express ourselves with our words. Men, though, they speak with their bodies. They fight when they are angry, and when they desire, they pursue that which has caught their attention.”
    Desire. Pursue. Attention—perhaps Risa was right about that with most men. But men did not desire or pursue Anna. There was no reason to believe that Drew would be any different in that capacity.
    “How do you feel toward said gentleman?” Risa asked. “Are his kisses wanted?”
    “Risa, I am supposed to be a lady of good breeding—”
    Risa tossed back her head and laughed. “My dear Lady Annabelle, you are a lady with feelings and desires, just as any woman.” She poured the scented water over Anna’s head, rinsing her hair. “It is quite clear to me that the feelings are mutual between you and this gent.”
    “Regardless, I should not allow him to take such liberties,” Anna said. Her inexplicable draw to him notwithstanding. There was nothing wrong with him, of course; he was a perfectly acceptable man, but he was crass, and he’d been in prison, for heaven’s sake. It mattered not that he’d been innocent.
    “Quite true,” Risa said. “But I do know that your mama has been quite distraught about you not having any suitors.”
    Anna smiled. “She has been rather insistent about that lately.” But she couldn’t help wondering why it was that she never had any suitors. Well, there had been that one, two years before, but he’d been twice her age—and even her mother would not have subjected Anna to such a union.
    Still, something must be