“I live with my aunt and uncle because my brother was killed. Here in fact. In a hunt. I would change that if I could and still be living at Penrose with him,” Cecilia murmured somberly.
Peggy flushed. “I’m sorry, Your… Cecilia. I was prying.”
“Not a bit of it, Peggy. I was being open and honest with you. You will find that is my preferred way to deal with people. If I don’t wish to talk about something, I will say so.” Pulling thebedsheets up to her chin, she added, “Now, do I have a dressing robe, I seem to have misplaced my night clothes.”
Peggy giggled and Cecilia wondered if she took the jest at face value, a silly joke about her mistress somehow losing her clothes during the night, or if she understood the subtext. Namely, that Cecilia had been stripped of her nightclothes which had been abandoned somewhere, likely in the throes of passion. The question was soon answered.
Peggy hurried across the room and lowered her voice. “It is my habit to take tea in the Fairy Garden, and I found your nightclothes there this morning. I have put them to be laundered.”
Cecilia blushed and impulsively reached up to catch Peggy in a hug. “I did not know it was called the Fairy Garden,” she whispered.
“That’s my name for it, since I was a child. It is a magical place when the flowers are blooming. The fragrance of them is almost as beautiful as the colors. His Grace used to carve little figures of fairies for me and leave them in the Fairy Garden for me to find. I still have them all in my room.”
Cecilia felt a pang in her heart, a sensation of wonder. The towering, brooding man that she knew. The man whom her brother had joked rarely cracked a smile. That man entering a child’s world of magic and wonder, just to please her. Such a man was truly a husband to be proud of. She became determined to see more of that side of him, to get past the walls he castup between them and get to know the man that Peggy and her family had the privilege of knowing for so long.
“I shall fetch you a robe and then bring up your bathing water,” Peggy added, blushing furiously from the hug but smiling happily.
She went through the door she had opened and returned with a long, silk gown. Then, her nakedness covered, Cecilia was given a tour of her rooms. There was a dressing room with three full-length mirrors and an enormous dressing table. Three large wardrobes stood against one wall into which her old clothes were placed as well as many more new garments. The bathing room was tiled on floor and walls, and dominated by a large bathtub on clawed brass feet. It looked large enough to accommodate at least two people. That led Cecilia to think of sharing it with Lionel, which made her blush. There was a study attached to a library and a sitting room that looked out over part of the castle grounds.
As Peggy left to bring hot water for the bath, Cecilia stood at the windows of her sitting room, looking out over the vast gardens. Many were still in shade, the sun not yet reaching over the castle’s bulk to caress them with its rays. Her eyes followed winding paths between rose beds and towering rhododendrons. There was a fountain, tinkling merrily amid a large pond on which lily pads floated. The path disappeared into a grove of trees at the garden’s furthest point. As she watched, she saw Lionel walking along the path towards the trees.
He limped, favoring his right leg, and walked with head bowed as though lost in thought. Before he reached the trees, he stopped and turned. She could not tell where he looked because of the distance between them, but it felt as though he looked at her.
For a long moment, she looked back, wondering if he could see her. If he was thinking about her.
Then he turned away and was swallowed up by the trees.
CHAPTER 11
As Lionel was clearly not at home to join her for breakfast, choosing instead to stroll through the woodlands, Cecilia had Peggy bring it to the sitting room which formed part of her suite. She asked Peggy to join her and they talked as they shared tea, toast, and jam.
“So, tell me, Peggy. The Duke. What are your thoughts on him? Is he a good master? A kind man or a cruel one?” Cecilia asked, chin propped up on her hand as she leaned forward. “He certainly seems very…seriousat times.”
Peggy hastily shook her head. “A very good employer. Generous and kind I would say. He expanded the servant’s wing after recovering from his illness and our rooms are very spacious now. Not that they were crammed before. But we have a sitting room of our own and I have a bedroom that could accommodate two very easily, yet I have it all to myself! And he is a man who is very inclined to laugh. He often makes jokes in my hearing. And he is very fond of the funny stories Mr. Blackwood tells of his days at sea.”
Cecilia frowned. “I have not seen that side of him. He struck me as a very dark man, prone to glowering.”
“Begging your pardon, my lady, but, I think that is the face he presents. I know what you mean and have seen it. He can be very frightening when he scowls. But that is the face he shows only to the outside world. Never in Thornhill.”
Cecilia felt a touch morose upon hearing this. He was treating her as though she were an intruder from the outside world rather than his wife in name and deed. It made her feel doubly used and even more determined to win him over.
“I hope that I can be included in the number of people privileged to see him smile soon,” she murmured, “this house will be a cold and lonely place otherwise.”
“Oh, I am sure you will, Cecilia,” Peggy smiled softly, offering the teapot to refill her cup.
Cecilia accepted and sipped at her tea. She did not share Peggy’s optimism and found that she was somewhat envious of the side of her new husband that Peggy and the other servants saw.
“Oh, another thing. I seemed to catch the Duke walking into the woods beyond the gardens this morning,” she began. “Where could he be going, do you think?”
Peggy looked up to the ceiling, her pretty face creasing momentarily into a look of concentration. “I do not know that hewould be going anywhere in particular. Those woods extend for some distance I think. I remember playing there when I was a child. The old mill is there, and beyond that, the farm belonging to John Fletcher and his family. But that is some miles distant and over difficult countryside. I never went that far, though my father took me in the trap a few times. Perhaps he goes to visit them?”
Cecilia smiled brightly, not wanting to make a mystery of it where there might not be one. She supposed he might have some business with his tenants. If Lionel was not at home, then she would have to make use of her time somehow. Her preference would have been to seek him out, to spend time in his company, and to try to show him that she was genuine. For now, she would simply have to make do with using this as an opportunity to explore the castle by daylight.
After breakfast, Peggy left her in order to complete her duties and Cecilia was alone. The castle felt cavernous and lonely. Its stone hallways and empty rooms were oppressive in their loneliness. She wandered for a while, not knowing where she was going or with any direction in mind. She saw many rooms, sitting rooms and drawing rooms, games rooms and libraries, studies, and bedrooms. It seemed there was a room for every pastime imaginable. Many were shrouded in dust sheets, clearly disused. Others were simply empty and with the air of rooms kept clean but rarely utilized.
After climbing a stone, spiral staircase, she found herself in a corridor carpeted in thick, dark blue. Paintings hung on the walls depicting animals and landscapes. Tall windows gave a view of a jumble of rooftops with the Great Hall rising aboveall like a mountain. She also saw the tower in which her rooms were located and realized that she must now be in a part of the castle close to the Duke’s chambers. For a moment she stopped, wondering if they were above or below her. Or perhaps simply further along this corridor.
Her mouth grew dry and her heart skipped a beat at the idea of walking into Lionel’s bedchamber. The thought of doing so while he was absent, was somehow more erotic than if he had been there. It would be an intimacy, unguarded and unlooked for. Perhaps, in his rooms, she would find some insight into his nature. A glimpse behind the wall he maintained against her.
