Page 49 of More or Less a Countess
Violet looked down at the pouches again, trying to envision how that might work. “But how does it stay on?”
Lord Dare muttered something under his breath aboutbloody bluestockings. “See the red ribbons on the end of it? He ties them.”
“To what? I don’t see how—”
She didn’t get any further, because Lord Dare grabbed her arm, and without another word he hurried her away from the case, past the collection of preserved animal parts floating in their glass jars, past the skeletons in the long main hallway, and out the front door of the museum.
“Lord Dare! Wait—”
“Quiet, Miss Somerset.”
He bundled her into the carriage and hardly gave her a chance to sit down before he slammed his fist on the ceiling to signal the driver to go. Violet clutched her sketchbook on her knees and stared across the carriage at Lord Dare, who’d thrown himself into his seat and was now gazing at her, his arms crossed over his chest and a pained expression on his face.
An awkward silence fell between them. Violet’s gaze dropped to her lap as regret washed over her. She wasn’t ashamed of her curiosity, but they’d been having such a nice time, and he’d been so kind to bring her, and then she’d gone and spoiled everything.
“I beg your pardon, Lord Dare,” she said at last. “I shouldn’t have teased you about it. I just…well, I’m curious, and I don’t have anyone to ask about such things, and I thought perhaps you…”
Violet trailed off when he didn’t reply, and she returned her gaze to her lap, quite miserable. Oh, why could she never hold her tongue?
He let out a long, low sigh. “Come here, Miss Somerset.”
Violet raised her eyes to his. He patted the seat, and she didn’t hesitate, but slid into the space beside him.
He held out his hand. “Give me your sketchbook and a pencil.”
Violet did as he asked. He flipped through the book until he came to a blank page, and then he began to sketch. “I’m not the accomplished artist you are, but I’ll do my best. This is a gentleman’s torso, and the tops of his legs.” He nudged the book toward her so she could see it, and drew a few more rough lines on the page. “Do you see?”
Violet herself would have made an interesting exhibit for the Hunterian’s collection at that moment, because her eyes nearly fell out of her skull. Was he…goodness, was Lord Dare actually going to explain the pouches to her? It seemed incredible, but he continued with his sketch as she stared at the page, dumbfounded.
“This is his, uh…appendage, and the rest of his anatomy.” He drew a few more lines until he’d drawn a shape that resembled the pouches in the case3, then sketched in two circular shapes at the base of it. “The condom—that’s the proper name for it, and I beg youneverto use the term ‘English riding coat’ again—goes over him like this, then ties under here, like this. Do you understand?”
Violet cocked her head to the side to study the sketch, then nodded. “I—yes, I see how it would work, but it looks as if…couldn’t it slip off the end, even with the tie?”
“It can happen, yes, but it’s unlikely if it’s tied properly, especially when the gentleman’s appendage is, ah…well, like this.”
He moved to a blank space on the page and drew two more appendages, one of them limp and dangling down between the torso’s legs, and the other…
Violet caught her breath. The other was standing upright, and all at once it became clear to her just how everything worked. Not just the condom, but all the gentlemanly…apparatus.
“When a gentleman is aroused, that is, when he’s ready to have coitus, his appendage is like this.” He tapped the pencil next to the second sketch. “So you see, when he’s, ah…well, when he’s firm, the condom is far less likely to slip off, because it can be tied more securely.”
Without realizing she was doing it, Violet reached out and traced her fingers over the second sketch, and when she did, Lord Dare let out a faint moan.
“How does it—the condom, I mean—how does it prevent disease?”
He didn’t speak at once, but she was pressed close enough against him she could feel it when he took a long, deep breath. “When a gentleman, ah…when he’s at the height of his pleasure…” He looked down at her, his gray eyes dark. “Do you know what that means?”
Oh, she knew. She’d never witnessed such a thing herself, but she’dhearda man reach the heights of pleasure, and not just any man, butthisone, that evening in Lord Derrick’s library. “I, ah…I have a vague idea, yes.”
“When he’s at the height of his pleasure, he, um…he releases an effluvium, and the lady…well, there are various, ah…fluids that occur during coitus that can spread disease. The condom prevents that, and it also prevents conception.”
He fell silent, and after a moment he closed the sketchbook and handed it back to her. It occurred to Violet she should move away from him and go back to her seat on the other side of the carriage, but she didn’t. “I, ah…no one’s ever explained this to me before.”
Certainly not her grandmother, and even her married sisters, who surely must understand the mechanics of the thing, had only offered vague information when pressed. Iris had been willing to go into more explicit detail until she’d discovered Violet intended to use the information in her book, then she’d clapped her mouth closed tighter than a whalebone corset.
He let out a short laugh. “I can’t say I’m surprised at that.”
“Why didyouexplain it?”
