Christiana glanced at her in question. “What do you mean?”

“You have been Miss Bloody-Cheerful-and-Optimistic ever since talking to Richard upstairs before the men left,” she said with disgust.

“And you have been Miss Glum-and-Pessimistic just as long,” Christiana said wryly. Suzette had been surly and cross throughout the interviews.

“Aye, well I suspect that would be because I didn’t find the same satisfaction you obviously did before Richard came into the parlor and interrupted us.”

Christiana paused and whirled to gape at her. “By satisfaction you do not mean . . . ?”

Suzette rolled her eyes and urged her to keep moving toward the stairs. “Of course I do. Anyone could tell what the two of you had been up to. If the banging from upstairs hadn’t given it away, then your wrinkled skirts, the smile on Richard’s face, and your utterly replete relaxation and good cheer since would have.”

Christiana felt herself color with embarrassment and glanced anxiously down at her skirt, self-consciously brushing at the wrinkles she hadn’t noticed until now as they started down the steps.

“What was the banging by the way?” Suzette asked. “If it was your bed, you should have the servants shift it away from the wall , else no one will sleep tonight.”

Christiana stiffened at the taunt, but rather than answer, narrowed her eyes on Suzette and asked, “What do you mean by the satisfaction you didn’t find before Richard interrupted you?”

“Exactly what you think I mean,” she assured her. However, despite Suzette’s attempt to sound blasé about it, a pink flush stole up her cheeks.

Christiana gaped at her. “But you are—”

“An unmarried woman, pure and innocent and completely ignorant of what a man and woman do behind closed doors,” Suzette said dryly, urging her to continue down the stairs. “Heavens, Christiana, this is the nineteenth century. Women need not go to the marriage bed completely ignorant.”

“I did,” she muttered, half embarrassed and half annoyed.

“You never read any of those books Lisa constantly has her nose in.”

“And you did?” Christiana glanced at her with amazement as they stepped off the stairs and started along the hall . Suzette had never been much of a reader.

Suzette shrugged. “It gets a bit boring in the country now that you are not there. Lisa is always reading, and Robert has been in town the last year, while trying to discover what was going on with your marriage. There were days when I think I would have gone mad without something to read.”

“But surely those horrid novels Lisa reads do not—”

“Nay, not most of them, but—” Suzette paused to glance around and then ushered her into the nearest room, Richard’s office. She closed the door and urged Christiana over to the chairs by the fire before admitting, “Lisa received one recently that was about a young girl named Fanny who runs away to London and becomes a prostitute and it was . . . er . . . quite informative.”