Jaxon chuckled. He loved the way she had to say exactly what was on her mind. Most women would have been retrospect and quiet after making love the first time, but Charlie couldn’t contain herself.
“I can’t believe you were expecting it to be horrible and yet, you didn’t want to wait.”
“I wanted to do it for you. I wanted you to have pleasure. I didn’t know I would, too.”
Jaxon felt like a first-class fool. He had assumed because she had been raised in the company of men, she knew everything there was to know about sex. But they would have spoken coarsely about rutting and conquests from a fraternal, and no doubt, crude perspective. Charlie had no mother or other married woman in her life to talk about the marriage bed. He should have asked his sister Imelia to talk with her to ease her fears. He wondered if anyone had warned her about her menses.
“When you told me your doctor caught you looking at his books and he thought it was because you were interested in medicine, it was because you had started to bleed, wasn’t it?”
“Aye,” she whispered. “I had heard the men speak of it before and I thought they were making up stories to scare the young crewmen, but I didn’t think it was true until it happened.”
“You didn’t tell the doctor or your father?”
“Dr. Kirk eventually figured it out when I kept stealing the material he used for bandages. It was a hard thing to hide on a ship. And frankly, the doctor was nearly useless except in supplying me with rags.”
Jaxon wrapped his arms tightly around her. “Charlie, never be embarrassed to tell me or ask me anything. If I don’t know, I will find out for you or you can ask my mother or my sisters.”
Charlie blushed to her roots, but somehow managed to tell him she would be needing rags in a few days.
He wondered how she would’ve dealt with it if he did not broach the subject.
Secretly, Jaxon hoped she’d have no need for the rags.
22
Charlie stood perfectly still. She had been poked with pins more times than she could count during these fittings. She had asked Jaxon not to stay for fear that his presence was making Mabel nervous and that was why she had become a human pincushion.
As Mabel began marking seams and thrusting pins in place, Mrs. Jenkins showed Charlie trim and sketches.
“So Captain Bloodworthy decided not to join you?”
“He has his own fitting today,” Charlie said, knowing he made his appointment after she asked him to let her go alone.
“Oh, which tailor is he using?”
Charlie thought for a moment. “I don’t remember the name, but it’s the one on the corner of the next block.”
“Oh, Samuel Levins?”
“Aye, that’s it.”
Mrs. Jenkins nodded. “Mr. Levins does splendid work.”
The bell over the door jangled alerting the women to another customer. Mrs. Jenkins, supervising the fitting, disappeared through the curtain to the retail area of the shop.
“Miss Adams, what a surprise. How can we help you today?”
Millie Adams lowered her voice. “I saw her come in. I want to meet her.”
Mrs. Jenkins looked around nervously trying to figure out how to prevent Millie Adams from confronting Captain Bloodworthy’s fiancée. She genuinely liked Miss Sinclair, and had dealt with Millie Adams enough to know that she was helpless to stop her. When Millie pushed past the seamstress to the back, Mrs. Jenkins rushed out of the store. Thank goodness she knew where Captain Bloodworthy was having his fitting.
“Hello, Mabel. Won’t you introduce us?”
Charlie forced a polite smile to her lips. She didn’t know much about social interaction with a land woman, but some things just seemed common sense. Did one extend their hand before or after the introductions? What if she was supposed to curtsy? Perhaps the woman would forgive her if she faltered. The woman had a regal way of carrying herself that made Charlie feel inferior. The woman’s lips curled into a sneer.
“Uh,” Mabel said, frozen to the spot, three straight pins held between her lips.
“No need. I know who she is. Do you still have any material from my blue dress? It would be the perfect trim on Miss Sinclair’s dress. After all, I know she likes my scraps.”
The smiled died on her Charlie’s lips.
She was stunned. She had no idea who this pretty blonde viper was, or why she would say such a thing. Quickly, Charlie drew on her memory of meeting Grayson for the first time.
“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage.”
“Good.” The smirk on her face marred the woman’s beautiful looks. She had the most stunning crystal blue eyes. They reminded Charlie of the ocean water in Aruba. Her nose seemed too small for her face, but gave her a China doll appearance. Charlie wondered if her hair might have come from Swedish ancestors as it was so pale that it was nearly white and pinned up fashionably.