Just Another Lady (Xcite Romance) Read Online Free PDF

Involuntarily, her hips bucked upwards at the touch, and she caught her breath. That was unexpected. She was not entirely sure whether it was wonderful or terrible; certainly it had brought a definite response from her body. How had she never known about this? How had she never thought to try this before? She thought back to the “old” Elinor of two weeks previously. Had marriage already changed her so much? She suspected it had; and she would not change back for the world.

    Soon, however, the honeymoon was over. Elinor visited her mother one last time before she and Lucius set off for London. Mrs Everton was pleased to see her, as always, and they chatted about everything under the sun – except Elinor’s marriage. Elinor’s mother had come to believe thoroughly that Elinor had married for love and love alone (just as Mrs Everton herself had done, so many years previously), and there was no chance that Elinor would disillusion her mother of that comfortable and comforting belief. Nevertheless, as Elinor made to leave, Mrs Everton stopped her, a pale hand on Elinor’s wrist.
    ‘I shall miss you, my darling,’ she said simply.
    Elinor bit her lip. For so long she and her mother had been all-in-all to each other. Even if Elinor’s marriage had indeed been all her mother imagined it, Elinor would have found it hard to be parted by so many miles from her mother. As it was, Elinor had a sick sense of dread about the prospective move to London for the Season. It was so long since her solitary début year there, and her life had changed beyond imagining during those missing years. She felt disconnected, uncertain whether the “society manners” which had once been so natural to her would return at will.
    ‘I will miss you too,’ she said finally, smiling down at the still wan face of her mother. ‘But I can go with my mind at ease to see you looking so much healthier.’
    Mrs Everton tapped the back of Elinor’s hand admonishingly. ‘I will manage quite nicely without you. You are not to spend your precious time with Lucius worrying about your silly old mother.’
    ‘No, mamma,’ Elinor said obediently, her eyes sparkling with mischief. ‘But I suppose I am allowed occasionally to think of my “silly old mother”, especially since I am peculiarly fond of her? And maybe even – since I am being daring – to address a letter to her, now and then?’
    Her mother laughed. ‘I think that might possibly be acceptable, you awful child.’
    Elinor leaned down and kissed her mother’s forehead affectionately. ‘You will look after yourself, and I shall look after myself, and we will neither of us worry about the other.’
    ‘I have no intention of worrying about you,’ Mrs Everton said serenely. ‘I will be imagining you having the time of your life with Lucius – just as you deserve.’
    Elinor said her farewells and left, determined that she would not cry. In which determination she was almost successful.

    To her surprise, Elinor enjoyed London. There was no reason, of course, why she should not have done so – but it had not crossed her mind that she should. Taken up with the thoughts of her mother’s delicate health and her own unexpected marriage, not to mention the massive changes which had happened to her entire life in the last few months, her predominant feeling had been a determination to make everything work for all the parties involved. Her own enjoyment had not been on the agenda.
    Lucius did not visit her room in London any more than he had done, after that first night, in the country, but Elinor was resigned to that now. If he had not needed to gain satisfaction in her arms in the country, he would hardly wish to do so in London where his alternative options were that much broader. Meanwhile, she continued her solitary explorations of her own body, and told herself that it was enough. Although Lucius did not want her, she had no intention of attempting to find solace with another man. Aside