She nodded, looked surprised that she'd nodded, then slipped her hand in his. Ryder felt a surge of lust that was wonderfully familiar, but he also felt a deep tenderness that made him frown. What he was doing was dishonest. He was taking advantage of her drunken state. Who cared?
He led her to the next exhibition, this one very nearly hidden behind a half-dozen yew bushes. Sophie gasped but she never looked away.
"You would prefer this way, Sophie? It's a bit difficult for a woman to find pleasure in this position, but I think I could manage it. Also, with a woman on her hands and knees, the man is very deep inside her. Ah, but his hands are free to roam, it's just that—" He broke off. "Let me show you."
She looked up at him, her eyes blurry, her voice sounding uncertain. "I don't think so, Ryder. I should like to see more. I would like to make my own selection, if you don't mind."
"No," he said, awed by his discovery of a very different wife, "I don't mind a bit."
He showed her all the other groupings. When they came to the one with the man between the woman's raised thighs, his head thrown back, his mouth yelling his release, she stopped cold and simply stared, saying nothing.
"You are a traditionalist then?"
She thought about that for a moment, then suddenly, she paled and swallowed convulsively. "Ryder," she said, "this isn't good." She pulled away from him, fell to her knees, and vomited.
"Well, hell," Ryder said.
Sophie wanted to die. Her mouth felt as if it were filled with foul-tasting cotton, her head pounded, and even the beating of her heart made her shudder.
Ryder had carried her back to the house and put her to bed. He met his brother in the upstairs corridor, and the two of them had laughed then sobered quickly.
"Is Alex in as bad shape as my wife?"
"Probably worse. I have the remedy. My only problem is getting Alex to drink it."
"We could trade wives if you liked just long enough to get the potion down their respective throats."
So it was that Ryder found Alex lying on her back, her arm over her eyes, not moving at all.
"Don't worry, Alex, it's just me, Ryder. Now, I'm going to raise your head and you're going to down every bit of this potion. You will feel like trouncing Douglas within the hour, I promise you."
Alex looked at her brother-in-law, so surprised that it wasn't her husband that she opened her mouth and drank.
It wasn't quite so simple for Douglas, but Sophie was very nearly beyond embarrassment with him, and thus only moaned once before drinking the vile potion.
The brothers met in the corridor. Douglas said, "Sophie's asleep now and will probably stay that way until tomorrow. Sorry, Ryder, you will just have to contain your lust tonight. Now, tell me how you're going to travel to Chadwyck House and what I can do to help you."
On a very foggy Friday morning, the Sherbrooke family was gathered outside the mansion to see off Ryder and Sophie. Ryder moved away from his wife when she held Jeremy against her.
"I will miss you, love," she said for the first time. "Be a good boy, won't you? Your pony is wonderful and you must remember to take good care of him."
"His name is George, Sophie." Jeremy suffered all her advice because she was his sister, and he loved her, but at the end of it, he was beginning to squirm. Ryder saved him by lifting him up and saying, "Cosh Sinjun over the head every once
in a while. She needs it. We will see you soon, Jeremy." He lowered the boy, shook his hand, and then assisted his wife into the carriage.
Three carriages bowled down the long drive. The second one held Tinker, Ryder's dour valet, and a young girl he'd insisted Sophie hire to train as her maid. She was painfully shy and her name was Cory.
The third carriage held mountains of luggage, most of it Ryder's.
"This is very difficult," Douglas said, staring after the carriages. He turned to smile at Jeremy, who had surreptitiously wiped a tear from his eye. "Ryder will take very good care of your sister, my boy. Don't worry. We'll all be together again soon."
As for Sophie, she didn't want Ryder near her, much less taking care of her. All she could think about were those utterly dreadful statues and staring at them and wanting Ryder to do all those things to her. It was beyond embarrassing and he knew exactly what she was thinking and how she was feeling.
"You're a bounder," she said aloud.
"And you are a traditionalist," he said, "despite everything you know about men. But you will want eventually to experiment with my poor man's body. You needn't worry that I'll forget any of the interesting positions of the statues in the garden."
"I wasn't thinking about those horrible statues. I hate it when you know what I'm thinking."