"I shall live happily ever after just as they do in the children's stories, Robbie," she told him.

"Without passion when you have such a capacity for it?" he wondered aloud. Damn, why could he not have the means to offer for her himself?

"Oh, I shall remarry," Lucinda assured him, "but the choice shall really be mine, and no one else's. Like my sister, Julia, I care not for position or possessions. Thanks to my late husband I can wed with a pauper if it pleases me. I cannot, I will not, be mastered by anyone, Robbie. I will only truly yield to a man who loves me. The man I love. That is what Robert Harrington wanted for me, and it is what I want." She lifted her head off of his chest and looked into the green eyes behind the black silk mask. "Have you ever been in love?"

"Once, years back," he responded. "I wanted to marry the daughter of a wealthy local gentleman. We had known each other since our childhoods. Elise was very lovely. We made love for the first time when I was seventeen, and she, fifteen. After that our passions were unleashed, and scarcely a day went by that we did not meet. I was planning to offer for her when her betrothal was announced to a marquess from Yorkshire. When we next met I asked her if it was what she wanted. I practically wept with my distress. She coolly informed me that her marquess was fabulously rich, and she wanted to be a marchioness.

"'But when he learns you are not a virgin,' I replied angrily, 'what shall you do then, Elise? Your marquess will divorce you and send you back to Oxfordshire in disgrace.' She laughed, and said they had already lain together. 'I cried,' she told me, 'and played the innocent. Then afterward as he slept I smeared my thighs and the sheets with a small skin of chicken's blood my nanny obtained for me.' I was astounded at her perfidy, but then came a worse revelation. She told me she was already with child, although whose it was she couldn't be certain. Mine, or her marquess's, she said. It made no difference as he would believe it to be his and recognize it as his heir. She was married with much pomp the following week. My grandmother and I attended her wedding. We could not avoid it. I was amazed at the dewy innocent she appeared that day," he finished.

"So that is why you dislike women," Lucinda said.

"I do not dislike women!" he protested.

"Then, why do you allow the Devil's Disciples to use you to prepare reluctant lasses for ravishing?" Lucinda asked him politely. "You are, I believe, still angry at this girl for deceiving you, and so, unable to punish her, you punish them."

Her clever reasoning overwhelmed him. "My God," he exclaimed. "What have I done? I did not realize I was still angry, but even now as I spoke on it I felt wrath again at being so deceived. Fury that Elise could have been so heartless as to throw away the love I had for her. Indignation that a title greater than mine and a purse of gold meant more to her than I did. What have I done in my selfish ire?"

"What is done is done," Lucinda said. "Will you allow this woman to continue to control your life by wallowing in remorse over your role as The Master? You have said no one was truly harmed, and you cannot change the past. What you can do is make a better future for yourself, Robbie." She kissed his mouth gently. "We shall spend the rest of the summer being lovers, not adversaries. I will heal all of your wounds. Come September, I shall have my revenge on a duke, a marquess, and a lord. You will have helped me, and certainly that will exculpate your sins." Then she kissed him again.

For the first time in years he felt free, but one thing disturbed him. "You will have to yield yourself to your suitors lustful desires, or they will not believe your charade. I cannot bear it that you must do this, Lucinda," he said.

"I am not afraid," she told him. "There is no other way I can whet their appetites; no other way in which I may turn them one against the other; no way in which I may have real revenge unless I do this. For the rest of their lives they will remember coupling with me before their companions, crying with their pleasure, hearing me cry with mine, and knowing that never again will they have such delight. Each must marry for his own family's sake. While it may be unfair to the women they wed, no woman will ever again satisfy them like I did. And as the years go by, the memory of that September night will take on greater proportions, growing more vivid in their imaginations. They will suffer as they have made other women suffer."

"You are as fierce as an ancient warrior," he said.

"My father often said had I been a boy I would have, like William, my eldest brother, made a good soldier," Lucinda told him. "Will you agree to be my lover, Robert?"

"Yes," he said, "and I shall send the footmen away."

"Oh, no!" Lucinda said wisely. "The Devil's Disciples sent them to you, and if you send them away now, they will report back to whoever is their true master. Let them remain and help you with my education as they have in the past. I know there is a great deal more I need to learn about sensuality, Robbie.

So began the most wonderful summer of their lives. The Master gathered his three randy footmen about him and ex-plained that Lady Lucinda, being a real lady, must be mastered in an entirely different way. He told them he had gained her cooperation and from now on they would be lovers.

"She will learn more this way," he assured them. "Your part in all of this, I regret, will not be as involved as usual; but this is an unusual case, and we have been well remunerated for our efforts."

"Then," said John, who was the cleverest of the trio, "we are to treat Lady Lucinda as if she were your mistress, and your guest, m'lord?"

"Exactly," he said. "But my identity must still remain a mystery to her. It is better that way should we ever meet socially. She will, however, call me by one of my Christian names, Robert, so do not be surprised if you hear her use it. Her late husband was called Robert. I thought the name would comfort her."

"You are indeed a master, m'lord," John said admiringly. "You could sell King George his own crown, and him none the wiser," chuckled the stocky footman.

The other two footmen chuckled also, but then Dick said, "Will we gets to have a little orgy with her before she leaves us, m'lord? We ain't never had a lady before as you know."

"We must see how things progress," The Master told them. "I will indeed need you for certain things Lady Lucinda needs to learn. She is a most eager pupil. Our employers will be very pleased come September when we meet again."

Polly finally made an appearance before her mistress later that day. She looked tired, and worn. "Well," she said sourly, "I hope you don't really have to choose one of them lordlings who want to marry you, m'lady. The duke howls while he fucks; the marquess almost crushed me with his weight, and his lordship seems to prefer a woman's arse to her cunny. I'm sore all over, inside and out."

Lucinda was sitting up in her bed, looking most fetching. One would have never guessed she had spent the entire morn-ing with a wicked little dildo stuffed up her. "The Master and I have come to an arrangement," she told her servant. "I promise you I shall marry none of them, Polly. Now call the footmen, and have them draw me a bath. I stink of lust, I fear."

"Well, thank heavens for your decision. But what kind of an arrangement has you made with The Master, m'lady, and can you be certain he will keep his word?"

"He will keep his word, Polly. Now, go and tell John I want a bath. I shall then explain to you what I have done."

Polly hurried off, and when she returned, Lucinda elucidated the situation as it now stood. "But what will yer brother say?" was Polly's concern when her mistress had finished her account of her several conversations with The Master.

"My brother, the villain, is involved up to his chasuble in this matter," Lucinda said. "He can do nothing but my will from now on, else I expose him to the archbishop."

"Ohhh, m'lady, you does have the whiphand," Polly replied admiringly. "Then we will live in London?"

"Perhaps," came the answer, and Lucinda smiled mysteriously.

The bath was quickly set up, and with no care for the three footmen, Lucinda stepped naked from her bed and into the tub. "John," she said, "do see the bed is remade with fresh linens immediately."

"Yes, m'lady," he replied, and sent the other two for the lavender-scented sheets. "Shall I do your back, m'lady?" he asked her.

"Ohhh, yer the bold one!" Polly cried, shocked. "I'm perfectly capable of washing my lady without yer help!" She knelt and, taking up the washing cloth, began to soap it vigorously. Then she began to wash Lucinda, muttering all the while beneath her breath about the cheekiness of certain people.

With a mischievous wink at Lucinda the footman crept up behind Polly and, kneeling down, reached about to cup her two plump breasts in his big, rough hands.

Polly squealed, surprised, trying to slap him away.

Lucinda laughed, but then she said, "Let her alone, John. If you are at a loss for something to do, please go and fetch me something to eat. I have not been fed since yesterday afternoon. I do not believe it is The Master's intention to starve me."

John arose, but not before giving Polly's nipples a pinch which caused her to squeak again. "At once, m'lady," the footman said. He hurried out as Dick and Martin returned with the fresh bedding.

"Make the bed quickly, and then be gone," Lucinda told them in a stern voice. Then she said to Polly, "My hair needs washing, too. All that dusty travel two days ago."

"Yes, m'lady," the maid replied, her equilibrium returning.