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could without being too obvious about it, while she filled her mind with the ritual formulae employed on similar occasions.
    In a logical and orderly fashion, she summarized for the duke her sisters’ and absent brothers’ assessment of the situation and their reasons for wanting to send her away.
    â€œThey say the only other solution is for me to marry a man of the highest rank,” she went on. “They say others must defer to him. They say that a man so highly placed will want an innocent girl of eighteen. I am not truly innocent, and I am not eighteen, but I am a virgin.”
    â€œOoooh,” said Mama.
    Zoe went on determinedly, “Yusri Pasha gave me as a second wife to Karim, who was his eldest son by his first wife. But Karim could not make his…his…”—though Marchmont kept his eyes half closed, she knew the duke regarded her intently—“his instrument of delight. The limb a man uses for pleasure and to make children. What is it called?”
    Shrieks from the sisters.
    Zoe ignored them. “No one will tell me what it is in English,” she said. “If I ever learned the word, I have forgotten it.”
    He made an odd sound in his throat. Then he said, “ Membrum virile will do.”
    The two older sisters put their heads in their hands.
    â€œHe could not make his membrum virile hard,” Zoe said. “He was sickly, you see. He was unable to be a true husband, though he was so fond of me, andI did everything they taught me to awaken a man’s desire. Everything. I even—”
    â€œZoe,” her father said in a strangled voice, “it is unnecessary to explain in detail.”
    â€œOne wishes it were not necessary for her to speak at all,” a sister muttered.
    â€œOne wishes the floor would open up and swallow one.”
    â€œWe shall never, never live this down.”
    â€œNever mind them, Miss Lexham,” said Marchmont. “Please continue. I’m all ears.” He drank some more.
    â€œI shall be an excellent wife to you,” she said, hoping she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt. She told herself that if this didn’t work, she’d go to Paris or Venice as she’d threatened, though those had never been her first choices. She wanted to live in her native land and have the life she’d dreamt of for twelve long years. It looked as though the Duke of Marchmont was her one chance to have that life. He was handsome and young and healthy and not excessively intelligent, and he desired her. He was perfect.
    Fate had thrown him in her way. A gift. All she had to do was hold onto him.
    Don’t panic , she counseled herself. You know exactly what to do. You spent twelve years learning it.
    â€œI know all the arts of pleasing a man,” she went on. “I can sing and dance and compose poetry. I learn quickly and will learn how to behave correctly in…in good society…if you will help me, or find me teachers.”
    She was not calm enough. Her English was faltering as a consequence, but she plunged on. “I knowwidows are worthless, but I was never a wife of the body. I remain a virgin, and a virgin is valuable. Too, I have jewels, enough to make as great a dowry as a maiden would have. I shall be a loving mother to your children. All the children of the harem were fond of me. In truth, it made me sad to leave them, and I shall be happy to have children of my own.” She paused and glanced at her sisters. “But not too many.”
    â€œNot too many,” he repeated. He drank some more.
    â€œI know how to arrange a household,” she said. “I know how to manage servants, even eunuchs—and they can be impossible. Their moods are more changeable than a woman’s.”
    â€œEunuchs. I see.”
    â€œI know how to manage them,” she said. “I was the only one in all the household who could.”
    The other two sisters put their heads in their