Well, it was best she not rethink it all in great detail right now. She’d be red as a beet when the housekeeper came in to speak to her, just as she’d been mortified when her breakfast tray was brought in.

Everyone in the house would know what had transpired. And likely, they all knew exactly how it was supposed to go. But her mother had said it would be unpleasant. That was the most confounding thing of all. Adelaide was not entirely sure how else the thing would go besides what had occurred, and she’d enjoyed it, in spite of her nerves.

She was not overly fond of her husband, and yet what had transpired seemed rather intimate. Nothing of that sort was ever mentioned, and the word consummation sounded a bit like some orderly ceremony of sorts. She was not sure what she expected, but what had happened had certainly never entered her mind.

Something so intimate with her husband, the very idea that she should enjoy it was laughable. But she had. She certainly did not need to look at her husband with any fondness because of it, and even the thought of seeing him this morning made her want to hide her face beneath her sheets, but it had been a curious experience.

Enjoyable and curious.

Odd, enjoyable, and curious.

And she wondered if there might be more.

More could very well make it unpleasant, she supposed, and it had not been that. But more could also make it better, and she would not mind finding the experience more than enjoyable.

If that was possible.

One did not discuss such things, and she was all but stranded here in Cornwall, so there were no great acquaintances she could ask, even if she did feel comfortable broaching the subject.

And that was how children were made? Remarkable. Would she now become with child herself? Was it instantaneous? She would never look at a woman with child in the same way again.

What had their experiences been?

So many questions, and none of them could be asked aloud. She highly doubted she should even be thinking them, but her ignorance had been lifted and her education had begun. Was there more to learn? Or was that all there was to the thing?

What she would not give to momentarily belong to another station and to another family with less restraint on their tongues.

But only momentarily.

She munched on her toast, frowning as she thought on the subject. If she could not ask the questions, then the only thing she could do to lessen her continuing ignorance would be to repeat the experience. But she did not wish to have more than one child at a time, and surely repeating the thing would produce more than one child.