Valor of Love by Tracy Cooper-Posey

Author:Tracy Cooper-Posey [Cooper-Posey, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-09-20T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

That first night, Lilly slept on the sofa in front of the fire. Thomsett insisted upon it. He spent the night in the rocking chair.

Shortly after dawn, which rose bright and cheerful, the sky washed clean of everything but blue, there came a quick knocking on the door and a breezy, “Hello, the house!”

The maid, Shelby, carried a heavy basket over her arm and another slung across her back. She was an older woman, with pink cheeks, a big nose and bright, happy eyes. As Lilly tried to rise from the sofa and Thomsett took her baskets from her, Shelby announced she would have breakfast served in a jiffy. She bustled into the kitchen and Lilly could hear her exclaiming over the mess and the dirt as she set the fire going in there and called for Thomsett to bring her baskets in.

Soon, good cooking smells were wafting from the kitchen. Lilly had not felt hungry until that moment. Now her stomach rumbled anxiously.

Sitting, though, was painful. Overnight, her hips and knees, even her leg, had seized. She felt as though rust had them locked in place. Moving was painful. Sitting was worse.

Yet she couldn’t get up off the sofa, either.

Desperately, she said: “Thomsett…please…do you mind?” She held out her hand.

He made a soft sound that might have been impatience. “Yes, of course. How inconsiderate of me.” He gripped her hand. “Up you come.”

He lifted her onto her feet and she groaned at the motion and held still once she was standing. “I’m not sure that is any better,” she admitted. She could not grope her hips through her petticoats. It was already scandalously close to inappropriate that she had taken off her hoops in order to sleep. Her skirt hung in folds about her feet.

“Movement will ease the ache,” Thomsett said.

“That sounds illogical. Movement is what caused the ache.” Violent movement, she added to herself.

“I have suffered through such aches myself, when I first joined the army. The training was merciless and every morning I felt much as you do now. We were not coddled. The training continued regardless. By the end of the day, the ache had always gone.”

Shelby hurried into the room, carrying a heavy tray that she put on the table. “A walk on the moors is just the ticket, my lady,” she added, as if she had heard the whole conversation. “Stretch everything out and get the blood moving. It’s such a lovely day and all, too.”

Lilly was distracted by the heavenly scent of tea rising from the pot on the table and her throat tightened longingly.

Shelby patted the pot as if she had read Lilly’s mind. “Have some tea. I’ll finish breakfast and be right out with it.”

That was how the custom began. After breakfast, Lilly forced herself back onto her feet and slowly and painfully climbed the narrow stairs to inspect the bedroom, above. With Shelby’s help, she changed into a walking dress. Every movement hurt. Even breathing hurt, yet once she was changed, she could feel energy building from her slow movements.

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