The Seduction of Lady X by London Julia

Author:London, Julia [London, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Historical romance, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439175514
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2012-03-26T21:00:00+00:00

Mrs. Lampley sent Rue from the dowager house to the main house for fresh linens. “You cannot use so much lye, Rue,” she chastised the girl with a shake of her head. “It eats the linens whole if you put in too much.”

“Aye, mu’um,” Rue said.

Rue was rarely out of the dowager house, as she was too fearful of being accused of doing something wrong. She ambled up the path, taking her time, happy to be in the sunlight. When she reached the kitchens of Everdon Court, no one was about. There was a plate of muffins on a wooden table, amid some pottery bowls and a sack of flour. She helped herself to a muffin.

“Rue!”

The girl was so startled she dropped the muffin. Miss Foster swept in, her apron full of eggs. “What in blazes do you think to be doing? Do you see anything on that table that invites you to help yourself?”

Rue looked at the table.

“No, you do not,” Miss Foster answered for her. “Pick it up.”

Rue bent down and scooped up the muffin. She didn’t know what to do with it and stuffed it in the pocket of her apron.

“Do not think to come into my kitchen and do as you please! That may be the way of Miss Lampley’s kitchen, but it will not be tolerated here!” Still holding the corners of her apron, Miss Foster leaned across the table, pinning Rue with a look. “Those muffins happen to be for Lady Carey. She is partial to them.” She leaned back and began to put her eggs in a bowl. “I expect her appetite will be increasing very soon, if you take my meaning.”

“Hungry, is she?” Rue asked through a mouth full of muffin.

“Oh, she’s hungry, all right,” Miss Foster said, and chuckled. “Hungry enough for two.”

“I am hungry like that when I forget to break my fast. By the afternoon, I think I might faint away.”

Miss Foster sighed impatiently. “Not because she forgot to eat, you little simpleton. She is eating for two.”

Rue blinked. That was precisely what she meant. Sometimes she felt as if she ate enough to feed two people.

Miss Foster clucked her tongue. “A baby,” she whispered, and smiled broadly. “Have a care that you don’t repeat that to anyone, do you hear? The marquis is away and it wouldn’t do to have that sort of talk going round.”

Rue frowned a little. She had heard Miss Lampley say that the marchioness was barren. Perhaps she’d meant something else entirely.

“Do you intend to stand about all day? What do you want?”

“Linens,” Rue said.

“Linens! Do I look as if I have a key to the linen closet? Go and find Mrs. Perry and stay out of my kitchen.”

It was a half hour before Rue returned to the dowager house, having taken her sweet time wending along the servant’s path back to the dowager house. When she stepped into the foyer, she almost collided with Mrs. Lampley. “Oh! Beg your pardon,” she said, dipping a curtsy.

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