Chapter Twenty #2
“Thank you, Mrs. Lawson. I’d like you to meet your new mistress, Lady Erina Feather.” He turned to Erina. “Mrs. Lawson is our very efficient housekeeper. She has been with us for some years.”
“Allow me to offer my felicitations, my lady.” The housekeeper sank into a curtsy.
“I hope you had a pleasant journey. Your trunk has arrived. As you have not brought your maid, I trust the housemaid, Merry, will be satisfactory for the time being. She’s a well-behaved girl.
But should you wish to interview a replacement for the position, I shall be happy to arrange it. ”
Erina was more than happy with the arrangement as at home their upstairs maid, Lucy, had helped her since her lady’s maid had left to marry the vicar, and then her father had begun economizing. “I’m sure Merry will be perfectly adequate, thank you, Mrs. Lawson.”
Harry took Erina’s hand and drew her through an arched doorway.
They entered a long, elegant room, with a fireplace at one end and a row of French windows opening onto a terrace along one wall.
The drawing room was furnished in varying patterns and variations of green with a fine, crimson Turkey rug covering the floor.
Beyond the windows, the lawns rolled away through the gardens and impressive park of established trees.
Erina walked over to the windows. “The grounds are magnificent. I can’t wait to see more of them.”
Harry stood at her shoulder. “I look forward to showing it to you.”
She turned to him. “Have you ever lived here?”
“This is where I grew up.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I haven’t lived here for many years.” Harry’s gesture drew her back to the view. “Look, Erina.”
A groom led a bay horse across the lawn below the terrace.
Erina shrieked. “Jessie!” She opened the doors and rushed out, crossing the terrace and down the steps to stroke her mare’s glossy flank.
The groom greeted her, and Jessie neighed in recognition.
Erina swiveled to find Harry grinning at her.
“You always intended to bring her here and didn’t tell me? ”
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“Oh, Harry! It’s a perfectly wonderful surprise.” She gazed into his soft, brown eyes. “You are wonderful.”
Harry raised his eyebrows. “Am I?” He took her arm, and they returned to the salon.
After knocking, Mrs. Lawson entered the room. “Would you care to freshen up before tea is served, my lady?”
“Yes, thank you.” With a meaningful glance at Harry, Erina followed the housekeeper from the room as a small kernel of hope grew inside her. Harry was a thoughtful man. She couldn’t imagine him ever treating her badly. They would spend many months here, and she loved it already.
“Within the next day or so, I should like to meet the rest of the staff,” Erina told Mrs. Lawson.
“Of course, my lady.”
“You might show me the house, too, if you will, Mrs. Lawson. At a later time, we can go over the accounts.”
Mrs. Lawson turned to her with a seemingly incredulous expression, perhaps surprised that Erina knew about house management. “Of course, my lady.”
In the bedchamber, Erina pulled off her pelisse as she looked around.
The walls were papered in an intricate pale-blue, gold, and cream design; the curtains were gold damask.
The carved oak four-poster bed was hung with the same damask, the cream-silk cover to match the carpet.
It was far grander than any bedchamber in her father’s house.
Perching on the high bed, she thought of her faded, floral bedcover as she smoothed her hands over the cover.
Would she and Harry share this chamber? Or did he have his own suite?
Her mind whirled, and her heart thumped wildly in her chest. She left the bed, trying to wrestle with her baffling emotions.
Her trunk delivered, she was sorting through it when a knock came at the door, startling her. Heavens. Her heart thumped. Was that Harry?
A young maid with curly, brown hair and the fresh complexion of a country girl entered. She bobbed. “I’m Merry, my lady. Shall I unpack the trunk?”
“Yes, please, Merry. I’d like to wash and change my gown.”
Half an hour later, Erina came downstairs dressed in a favorite muslin gown woven in a sage green-and-blue pattern. Merry had revealed a surprising skill with hair, securing Erina’s in a topknot with a pink ribbon.
Harry rose from the chair as she entered the drawing room. He had also changed his clothes, and his hair looked damp. His gaze swept over her, and he smiled his approval. “I like the pink ribbon.”
“Merry is gifted.”
A servant brought in a tray, and the couple seated themselves to partake of tartlets, almond cakes, and ham and cress sandwiches.
She could eat little of it, although Harry tucked in with good appetite.
It was on the tip of Erina’s tongue to ask what they might do with the last of the daylight hours.
But she was afraid she’d flush crimson if she did, so she seized the teapot and poured them both an aromatic cup of tea.
Harry’s eyes twinkled. “We might take a walk in the park before supper,” he said, as if he’d read her mind.
“I’d like that,” Erina said with relief.
Heavens, she wasn’t usually this restrained.
It was just that she wasn’t sure what Harry expected of her.
Was this to be a marriage of convenience?
A polite friendship with the occasional visit to her bed to beget a child?
She would hate that more than anything. Her hand shook, and she spilled tea into the saucer, where it dripped onto the table. “Bother.”
Harry edged forward from his side of the table and placed a hand over hers where it fluttered uselessly like a bird. “We need a good, long talk after our tea,” he said in his calm manner.
She began mopping the tea up with her napkin. “We can converse while we walk.”
He shook his head. “I think not.”
She raised her eyes to his. “No?”
Harry’s eyes had darkened. “I don’t believe it can wait.”