The Wrong Bride by Cameron May

Author:Cameron May [May, Cameron]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2019-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

A house maid was assigned to Winnie since she hadn’t brought her own maid along. The girl was not particularly quick, though she seemed affable enough. Winnie was given a small room at the back of the corridor of the floor where most of the sleeping rooms were. The girl, Cherry, hadn’t been in the household long, though Winnie had hope of gently prying information from the girl to help her navigate the Blackwater household. The men were to be sleeping in two of the largest rooms, and some of the women were bedding together as well, since several of them were of long acquaintance. The house was much larger than Lance’s estate house, and thus confusing at first. Winnie discovered from Cherry the reason she had been given a room to herself, and felt the far reach of gossip even here, many miles from her home. She allowed Cherry to prattle on, even encouraged her to do so. It slipped that Cherry had heard some of the wives and husbands didn’t ordinarily sleep together anyway, though she didn’t know which, and since the men usually retired later than the women, it worked out for everyone.

After putting away Winnie’s clothes and other items, Cherry didn’t seem to know what she ought to do next. She loved to work with hair, though, and when Winnie dressed to go down for the first meal, a late dinner, she was glad she’d been assigned the girl. Cherry twisted lengths of Winnie’s brown hair every which way, until they were intertwined coils of a handsome high chignon, with tiny curls falling forward off Winnie’s forehead. Cherry applied the makeup Winnie had bought along, a suggestion of Mistress Goodwill, and Winnie wore the somewhat plain brown velvet dress, its high collar sprinkled with sequins, the sleeves slim all the way to the wrist. Winnie thanked the girl and went outside her room, wandering along the corridor to the curving stairway. Doors of several of the women’s room were open, and Winnie heard chatter and occasional bursts of laughter from lady guests dressing for dinner, felt the quieting and curious looks, but no one asked her in or made comment to her when only a simple greeting would have made her feel welcome. Doors were open on the men’s rooms, too, but those were quietly closed after a smile or two.

At table, Lance nodded his approval across the way, though there was no accompanying smile to warm her. With no fire in the chilly dining room, Winnie was glad for the bit of heat generated between her skin and the velvet. After the bland meal, men wandered away to the smoking room, and the women gathered in a cavernous sitting room where a tepid fire struggled to provide heat. On the edges of the half-dozen woman, one of them Lady Caroline, with no one trying to engage Winnie in conversation, she wandered to the far end of the room where a piano announced itself lonely like herself.

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