The Handmaiden's Necklace

“Then you’re suggesting an evening of pleasure.”

“There’s a place in the city I enjoy on occasion. I think you might find it entertaining.”

“And you would accompany me?”

He smiled. “I have a lady friend there…a very talented lady friend. We’re quite well acquainted.”

“You’re getting married in less than two weeks.”

Richard just smiled. “Getting married hardly precludes a man from taking his pleasure. I don’t imagine it is any different in your country.”

Rafe couldn’t argue with that. In fact, had he wed Mary Rose, he would surely have turned to the company of other women. “A number of married men keep mistresses or pay an occasional visit to a brothel such as the one you mentioned.”

But it wouldn’t have been so with Dani, and the thought of her new husband intending to live such a life made his stomach start to churn.

“Your fiancée,” he said, “seems to be a very lovely young woman. Perhaps her attentions will be enough.”

Richard just laughed. “I’m definitely looking forward to the marriage bed, but with my factory in Easton, I’m gone from the city quite often. I keep a mistress in the country. I don’t intend for that to change.”

Rafe said nothing more. He had vowed to see Danielle happy. She would never be happy with a man who planned from the start to be unfaithful.

“Look there!” Richard pointed toward a ditch running along the side of the field. “The dogs have flushed up a covey of quail!”

Richard and the other men swung their guns into position. Rafe slammed the stock of his flintlock against his shoulder and pulled the trigger. A pair of birds went down. If the rest of the day went as well, they would be having quail for supper.

Unfortunately, Rafe’s mind was no longer on the hunt. He was thinking of Danielle. He had the answers he had been seeking, but he couldn’t break a confidence and tell her.