''What?'' she asked, her eyes wide, her mouth open.
''No, I... I know...''
The Matriarch's eyes lifted. ''You've been unchaste?''
''No!'' Nina shook her head.
''No, I have not. I just... think I would know what to do when the time is right.''
She chuckled dryly, nodding.
The Matriarch shook her head. ''That's why you've stayed together and nothing has happened yet.'' She smacked her tongue.
''Gina,'' she called.
Lady Gina nodded and walked out. The door opened and a servant came in carrying two boxes.
She set them on the table and stepped back.
The Matriarch nodded and she opened the first box.
Nina looked at the contents. Then she looked away. Then she looked back because she wasn't sure she'd seen correctly.
She had seen correctly.
Silk and lace and very little of either, in colors that left nothing to the imagination and served no practical purpose she could identify. Tiny things. Delicate, devastating, tiny things, folded in tissue paper like they were precious.
