Chapter 3: Hotel

Later that night at the hotel, Jane discovered that she and her new fiancé were to share a bedroom. Sir Henry, or Henry as he insisted she must learn to address him, said this was due to the exigencies of war, but Jane had noticed that there was a separate room available for the chauffeur, and that Henry had signed in as Sir Henry and Lady Johnson.

Musing about it as they went up to their room she could not help thinking that Lady Johnson sounded so much better than Miss Jane Edson.

In the hotel room, Henry said, "It's late, my dear. I suggest we retire immediately."

Jane looked at the large double bed and then at her fiancé before saying diffidently, "But there is only one bed?"

"I assure you it is big enough for the two of us," he replied with apparent concern, and then ruined the effect by adding a sort of snorted snigger.

Jane turned her back on him and prepared for bed, firmly ignoring his presence in the room. Henry, sensing her nervousness, made no move which might frighten her, remembering that this was a virgin of half his age and restraining himself with the thought that later, in the dark, he would partake of their real "wedding night", albeit some weeks early.

In bed in her decorous long flannel nightgown, with the light out, Jane felt his hand stroke her hair, then her shoulder, and was somewhat calmed. Then his hand crept down on to one breast and she became more nervous again. However he seemed content to cup her breast and simply lie thus. Sir Henry was simply dealing with her as he would with a nervous young horse, and proceeding very slowly and cautiously.