The Marquis would have to marry sometime, but that need not preclude his having discreet flirtations, if that was the right word for it, as did all the members of their particular set, without anyone thinking that there was anything wrong about it.
The example set by the Prince of Wales had been followed by the majority of his friends and acquaintances and Lucy was perhaps the only one of their set who had not taken a lover after being married to George for so long.
The reason was that she had not been interested in men except as admirers of her beauty, who paid her compliments as they laid their hearts at her feet.
As she had said so often and so truthfully, she had not wanted them to touch her.
But with the Marquis it was different and she knew with a repressed fury that, if George h
