Chapter 1110

• Seduction of a virgin
• It was the night of the grand Ball: the Baroness had claimed this as a triumph, all of the local nobility had arrived, the drive to the House was full of carriages, and the cream of society was currently enjoying the very best food and wine that could be provided.
• Victoria was enjoying herself. She was the belle of the Ball, squired by the most handsome young men that the county had to offer, her dance card full, young men vying for her attention. But she only had eyes for one man. Thomas, the sea-captain who had been staying with the family for a few weeks, had pleaded lack of dancing ability and had excused himself from the Ball, talking with the older folk in the sitting room away from the ballroom. She longed to take a seat with him; she had grown accustomed to his attentions over the last few weeks and decided that her initial impression of him as a rogue was completely unfounded: he had been nothing but a gentleman. Sometimes, in her room, she had tried to imagine what it would be like to kiss him, but her memory could only provide her with images of the brief brush of her father's lips against her cheek as a child, and the tickle of his moustache, or the cold lips of her mother barely touching her face. She had no understanding of what went on between a man and a woman: there had been some discussion amongst her friends, some of the older girls had whispered, but Victoria discounted it, it was too shocking to be true, and her mother certainly would never have stooped to that. She would have to be careful: her governess had told her that she shouldn't wish for a baby in the presence of a man or she would surely get pregnant, and that would be a disgrace to the family.