A Love so Dark by Chasity Bowlin

Author:Chasity Bowlin [Bowlin, Chasity]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-23T18:30:00+00:00

TWELVE

Accompanied by a footman and Collins, Olympia made her way along the main thoroughfare of the village. The snow had not amounted to much, but the temperatures were cold enough for the ground to be frozen solid rather than the soggy, muddy mess that they’d first arrived in.

The village of Easton on Ryburn was small, incredibly so, as Griffin had warned her. Still, there was a milliner, a haberdasher and a linen draper all within a short distance of one another. It would be a quick trip for them, she thought.

“You may wait out here,” she told the footman.

“But, m’lady, I was instructed not to let you out of me sight,” he said, his voice panicky and high pitched.

“And she won’t be out of your sight. There are windows right here where you can watch her the entire time we’re in the shop,” Collins said impatiently. “Your job will be complete and her ladyship can order personal items without either of you dying of the humiliation.”

The young footman blushed and then nodded furiously. “Yes, Miss Collins! M’lady?”

“That will be perfectly fine, Thomas,” Olympia agreed as she tried to make sense of Collins. As a scullery maid, she’d been meek and quite timid. With her elevated station, she’d become quite a force to contend with. Still, referring to the purchase of unmentionables in front of the footman was hardly appropriate.

Of course, her patience for Collins was also challenged by her lack of sleep. She’d lain awake for the better part of the night thinking of Griffin and his confession in the hallway. Had he not been so distraught he would not have told her about his sister. She was certain of it. But he had, and now she could not put it from her mind. Nor could she put the journal and those letters from her mind, and all she’d learned of his parents and the passion they’d shared. It all pressed heavily upon her and she wondered what course of action to take. To tell him and damn the consequences, or to keep the secret and let it fester inside her?

Entering the shop, Collins at her heels, the few women gathered inside immediately fell silent. The hush that swept through the shop was immediate and the atmosphere palpably tense. Ignoring the curious stares and those that bordered on hostile, Olympia approached the shopkeeper. “We are in need cloth for day dresses… wool, preferably, something warm. And velvets for dinner dresses, I think.”

“You’ll need to go to Liverpool, my lady,” the shopkeeper said. “We don’t have anything here for you.”

Olympia looked at the table to her left, piled high with bolts of wool in an array of colors. “Are these not suitable for me, then? Are the colors unflattering to me perhaps?”

The woman’s ruddy complexion deepened with either anger or embarrassment, or perhaps both. “You’d be happier with the finer fabrics available to you there, Lady Darke.”

Olympia’s smile did not waiver, though her eyes were cool and hard as she stared the woman down.

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