The Marquess She Loved by Clever Jessie

Author:Clever, Jessie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798985201895
Publisher: Someday Lady Publishing LLC
Published: 2022-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

She was fairly certain when she’d found him at breakfast there was a moment when he first saw her that he wished to have her for his second breakfast.

The heat of desire in his eyes was unmistakable. She’d seen that look there before, but it had never been directed at her, and now that it was, it was like a blow directly to her heart.

Because she didn’t trust it.

She had been there that night in the conservatory, had seen the absence of life on his face as Lady Valerie had walked away, and now Adaline couldn’t bring herself to believe Ash might finally have feelings for her that were far from the quiet tones of friendship.

How she had managed to take her seat and calmly peruse the breakfast offerings, she couldn’t be sure.

She had directed the conversation to safer topics as quickly as possible after that, and soon she had lost herself in the comfort of banal things such as house inventories. It still had seemed to take forever for Elsbeth to fetch her mother, although the woman was supposedly staying in the inn now that Grant Hall was seemingly unlivable.

Adaline wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but Mrs. Hutchinson had proven a positive note in an otherwise trying situation. The woman looked as though she was not past fifty, but by Elsbeth’s recollections, the housekeeper must be closer to sixty although her unlined skin and dark hair showed hardly any traces of time. It appeared the Hutchinson women aged gracefully.

Mrs. Hutchinson had taken the post at Grant Hall after her husband, a land agent of a neighboring estate, had passed away. She had wished to be closer to her daughter, and the hall had provided an excellent opportunity. The trouble had started soon after that, the housekeeper explained, but they were unable to get into the depth of the situation before Mr. Biggins returned. Mrs. Hutchinson seemed to know the man with a certain familiarity, and Adaline watched them as they greeted each other, her interest piqued.

“Mrs. Hutchinson,” Mr. Biggins said with a smart bow. “I trust you are comfortable here at the inn. You appear to be recuperating.”

Mrs. Hutchinson’s smile was timid, and color appeared in her cheeks, but she didn’t speak.

“Recuperating?” Adaline turned concerned eyes on the housekeeper. “You weren’t hurt in the blast at the hall, were you?”

The woman waved her hands as if to brush off the concern. “It’s nothing as terrible as it sounds. I was in the kitchen when it happened. It was more of a shock than anything.”

Adaline could recall the strange larder they had found themselves in. They hadn’t ventured farther, but the state of the larder had been suggestive enough as to the state of the rest of the kitchen.

“I had to carry her out of there, your ladyship,” Mr. Biggins said, plucking his felt hat from his hands and holding it pensively between them. “It was an awful thing.”

Mrs. Hutchinson’s hands fluttered before moving to tuck a piece of hair back into her chignon.

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