one of her brothers weeks later for the answer.
“I haven’t had a cockstand in months,” he told her, conversationally. “No interest. Not in Lady Tallow or anyone else. But you, with the way you glare at me, and then bite your lower lip, you brought me back to life, or at least the part of me below my waist. You do have a delicious lower lip, Bess.”
She shuddered visibly. He saw it.
“All right, I told you what I meant by that comment about being healed. I did something wrong in our kiss,” he said. “You have to tell me, Bess.”
“Nothing was wrong,” she said stonily.
He felt a prickle of anger, so he stepped in front of her. “There were two of us in the room. We kissed, and now you’ve got a desperate look about you, as if I took you by force, or lured you into something indecent, and we both know that didn’t happen. So what in the hell is going on?”
His stomach clenched as he saw a tear running down one of her cheeks.
“It was just a kiss,” he said, about to reach for her and stopping himself.
She moved to put her back against the corridor wall. He backed up so he was against the opposite wall. He tried to make his voice as gentle as possible, which didn’t come easily to him. “Did something happen to you that Ophelia or Lady Knowe should know about? Or your father?”
Betsy frowned at him.
What on earth was he talking about?
Then she recoiled, her shoulders striking the stone wall behind her. “No. Thank goodness.”
His jaw eased.
“That was my first kiss,” she blurted out.
“Really? It wasn’t that bad.” Jeremy’s brow furrowed. “I could do better if you give me another chance but honestly, Bess, as kisses go, it wasn’t terrible. Not too much spit, our teeth didn’t clang together, and you have very good breath. Like roses, as a matter of fact. Delightful.”
“Yours too,” Betsy said mechanically, having been trained to return compliments. “You don’t understand.”
“I should have given you a slug of that whisky,” he said. “Who knew my kisses were so powerful? Would you like to sit down? You’re looking white as a sheet. I think I’d better fetch Lady Knowe.”
“No!” Betsy squeaked.
“In that case, I suggest we have another go at it.” Jeremy gazed at her, eyes somber. He meant it. “I can’t leave you with a terrible experience of kissing. Lord knows what it would do for your future marital life.”
Betsy pushed herself away from the wall and began walking again. “You’ve got the wrong end of the stick,” she said, over her shoulder. “I’m merely overtired. It’s been a long day, given the wedding and the ball.”
“And our kiss,” he said, catching up. “So you would rather I believe that you were overcome by the pure bliss of kissing me than acknowledge that I did a terrible job, and put you off men for life?”
“It was pure bliss,” Betsy said, wishing that he wasn’t so close to the truth. “Absolutely. No need for a repeat.”
The problem was just that: It had been blissful. For a moment she had been flooded with a kind of giddy pleasure that was poison to a woman like herself. Like a future drunkard after his first glass of stout.
“This is my bedchamber,” she said. Jeremy had terribly searching eyes. How did she ever imagine he was drunk?
No inebriate could see straight through the smiles that had charmed polite society, knitting his brow and looking as if he planned to have a word with Aunt Knowe. Or even worse, her stepmother, Ophelia.
She hesitated, hand on the door. “So when are we going to Wilmslow?”
“Are we still going?” He sounded startled.
“Of course we are.” She pushed open the door, then turned around and put into her voice every bit of command she’d learned in a lifetime of being the duke’s eldest daughter. “Surely you don’t think that one second-rate kiss would put me off a wager honestly won?”
“Second-rate is it now? I thought it was blissful.”
A gleam in his eye showed that he was thinking of trying again, but Betsy would never allow him to kiss her again. Or any other man.
“I’ll leave you,” Jeremy said, apparently reading her eyes as easily as she could read his.
“Yes, you do that,” she said. “We can discuss our plans tomorrow.”
“Those would be the plans involving you donning a pair of breeches?” He grinned. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“Hush!”
“It’s not as if you will be able