Every Kiss Was A Receipt

Synopsis

When Terry Kirk brought his sweet cousin home, the whole family braced for disaster. My mother‑in‑law stood guard in the hall, and the maids glared like they were ready for a fight. Everyone expected me, the notorious "tigress", to explode. They were wrong. I personally took the cousin's hand and led her inside. I gave her the finest jewelry and the best courtyard. My mother‑in‑law praised my virtue; my husband's eyes glistened with gratitude; the cousin nearly wagged her tail with pride. For three months, I took her to every party and praised her to anyone who'd listen. She flirted in front of me, saying my husband had bought her another hairpin. I smiled, pinned it in her hair, and told her she looked lovely in everything. She thought I was trying to please her. What she didn't know was that every time she went out to meet a "lover," someone was keeping a log. The handsome rouge seller, the penniless scholar, the rich young heir... The first and fifteenth of the month for the scholar, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays for the shopkeeper, and Sundays for the rich heir's lake trip. Her schedule was busier than my household accounts. When it all came crashing down, Terry stood in the back garden watching his sweet cousin cling to another man. His face turned green. I stood in the moonlight, gently covering my mouth. "Oh no! Gabrielle, how could you?" Later, when she knelt and begged me to save her, I crouched down and whispered so only she could hear, "Gabrielle, being a tigress isn't scary. Playing the innocent angel isn't scary either. What's scary is thinking everyone else is a fool."