Harlequin Historical March 2019--Box Set 1 of 2 by Sophia James

Author:Sophia James
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Claire finished her tea. ‘Might I retire to my room? I would love a rest.’ She had not done anything exerting, but she desperately wished to be alone.

With her memories.

‘As you wish.’ Miss Attwood stood wearily and started to escort her to the door.

Claire stopped her. ‘Please do not feel you have to accompany me if you would rather stay. I can find the room myself.’

The older lady sat down again. ‘Thank you, dear.’

Claire walked back to the hall and climbed the two flights of stairs to the bedchamber she must call hers.

At least until she must move to the room next to Lord Stonecroft.

She opened the door and a surprised Ella gave out a cry. ‘Oh, m’lady. You startled me so.’

Claire rushed over to her, taking both Ella’s hands in hers and squeezing them. ‘I am so happy to see you, Ella! No one told me you had arrived.’

‘Yes, a little while ago.’ Ella smiled. ‘The housekeeper said I was to unpack your trunk.’

Claire released her. ‘Did you meet the other servants?’

‘I think so. I suppose I will find out if I met all of them when I appear for a meal.’ Ella turned to the dressing room with its clothes press and cupboard. ‘I was putting everything in here. Will that do?’

‘Certainly.’ Claire watched her unpack the trunk with its lovely clothes purchased by Lucien. Her heart ached.

‘So,’ the outspoken Ella started asking as she lifted another dress from the trunk, ‘what is this Lord Stonecroft like?’

Claire’s ache intensified. ‘He is older. Old enough to be my father, easily. But there is nothing to object to in him.’ Those last words seemed to echo as she spoke them, as if she’d heard them from someone else’s mouth.

‘Old enough to be your father?’ Ella cried. ‘He must be ancient. Fifty? As old as fifty?’

She shook the strange sensation away. ‘Quite as old as fifty.’

‘Did you remember him at all?’ Ella asked.

‘Not at all.’ The cold Bath stone with which the Crescent and the Circus were built was more familiar to her.

‘Are you going to marry him?’ the maid pressed.

Claire’s hands rose in a futile gesture. ‘It is what I am supposed to do.’

‘Yes,’ mumbled Ella. ‘And I was supposed to marry some well-to-do merchant.’

There was a knock on the door and it opened before Claire could acknowledge it.

Miss Attwood walked in. ‘I was informed your maid had arrived.’

Claire swallowed a retort about respecting her privacy. ‘Miss Attwood, may I present Miss Ella Kiley, my lady’s maid.’

‘Kiley?’ Miss Attwood’s brows rose. ‘You are Irish, then?’

Ella curtsied respectfully. ‘I am Irish, ma’am.’

‘Miss Attwood is Lord Stonecroft’s sister,’ Claire explained to Ella. ‘She runs his house for him.’

Ella curtsied again. ‘Ma’am.’

‘She is very young for a lady’s maid,’ Miss Attwood said in disapproving tones.

‘Perhaps,’ Claire responded. ‘But I am well satisfied with her.’

‘Have you been told where you will sleep, girl?’ Miss Attwood asked.

‘In the attic, ma’am,’ Ella replied.

‘No!’ Claire broke in. ‘I want her to sleep in the dressing room here.

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