The Wallflower's Stocking by Jane Charles

Author:Jane Charles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Night Shift Publishing

Chapter 8

Gaia linked her arm with Carina’s as they left the milliner, quite happy with the ribbons she’d purchased. Carina had declined such frivolities and reminded Gaia that she was a companion, a servant. Except, when it was just the two of them, Gaia carried on as if they were friends.

They were friends. The best of friends and the reason Gaia had insisted on Carina becoming her companion when her only other option was a workhouse, or worse.

It was Carina who retreated to the position she had chosen for herself when there were others around.

“Shall we continue on to the bookshop?” Gaia asked.

“Yes, please,” Carina said. “I have already read everything in your father’s library, and I do not wish to do something so boring as embroidery while I chaperone and remain unobtrusive the next time Lord Lydell pays a call,” she teased.

Just thinking about Lord Lydell warmed Gaia, and an excitement swirled in her belly. She’d never experienced such with anyone before and she anxiously anticipated where it might lead.

“It is a shame Felix cannot join us in the parlor,” Carina mused. “Then I would have no need for a book or stitching.”

“You are above a coachman,” Gaia gently reminded her friend.

“No, Gaia, I am not. My father ruined the family. He was a barone who fell into bankruptcy, lost everything, and suffered a violent death that destroyed my mother.”

This would be the first year that Carina would have none of her family for the holiday. Her mother had died last January after a long illness, which Carina blamed on her father for leaving them destitute.

“I am sorry,” Gaia said.

When Carina was going to be forced to leave school, Gaia’s mother had offered to pay for Carina to remain, but her friend refused the charity. It was then that the compromise of Carina being Gaia’s companion was struck, and her education continued. However, Gaia had never thought of Carina as a servant, only as a friend.

“I have accepted my place,” Carina offered. “It is you who cannot.”

She was correct, and Gaia knew that it was useless to argue with her friend. Neither one of them would change their mind on the matter and she understood Carina’s pride in accepting her need to earn her way.

Once they entered the bookshop, the two separated. While Carina hunted for the next books that she’d like to read, Gaia wandered, and glanced at the shelves, though nothing caught her interest. With a sigh, she turned the corner and walked right into the chest of a man.

His hands came up to steady her, clasping her elbows. An awareness swept through her being as warmth spread up her arms. Taking in a breath, Gaia looked up and into the green eyes of Lord Lydell.

She’d known it was him before she ever saw his face. She couldn’t explain how or why, only that she had an awareness of his touch. The moment his hand cupped her elbow, she knew who she had bumped into. Had Gaia looked up into the face of a stranger, she would have been quite shocked.

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