Mama’s brow lifted. “No? Well, I don’t see the point in that.”
“Her bags were stowed on the wrong carriage,” said Lucas. He had to say something of use. “They’ll be in Scotland by now.”
“Oh, dear. And how did you come across her, Lucas?”
“By the side of the road.” Everyone aimed questioning eyes at him. “Her coach was beset by highwaymen.”
“Highwaymen?” exclaimed Mama, incredulous. “I thought they died out with the last century. Anyway, what incredibly bad luck you’ve had, my dear. Well, no help for it. You must be given a hot bath, and, Elizabeth, you’re of a similar size. You’ll lend her a gown of yours.”
“Of course,” said Elizabeth.
Lucas’s sisters and their husbands were glancing back and forth between Lucas and Nell, skepticism writ clear across their faces. They were wary of the lost-luggage-highwaymen tale. But they showed no offense. They were, if anything, amused. His sisters always did derive a bit too much pleasure from watching him scramble out of a scrape.
“And you must join us for our evening meal, Nell.”
“Miss Tait,” said Lucas, without thinking.
Mama’s eyes widened. “Pardon?” No one naysayed a duchess.
Except a duke.
“She should be addressed as Miss Tait,” he said, firm, as only a duke could.
“Ah, of course.”
He wasn’t finished. “And she should be asked ifshewould like to join us for the evening meal.”
“Quite right, Lucas,” said Mama. She returned her attention to Nell. “Miss Tait, would you like to join us for evening tea?”
All eyes upon her, Lucas thought Nell might shrink. But she didn’t. Rather, she gathered herself with a quiet dignity, looked the Dowager Duchess of Amherst square in the eye, and spoke the most shocking word Lucas would ever hear. “Yes.” A beat. “It would be my pleasure, Your Grace.”
In an instant, Mama took over and was directing servants to assist Miss Tait, who was suddenly swept up the staircase and gone.
But not before one last parting glance at Lucas. He’d never known a single glance, caught for the fraction of a second, could communicate so much.Shock. Befuddlement. Anger.Truly, he would think all lost if not for one fact.
She’d agreed to stay. For a while longer, at least.
Which gave him precious time.
Which meant all wasn’t lost.
A chance—slender though it was—remained.
8
Nell moved through the next hour of her life as if someone had stuck a great wad of cotton in her brain.
She couldn’t form a single clear thought. They all kept tumbling about and landing in a jumble.
So, she allowed herself to be led. Up the grand, curved staircase… into a pale lavender bedroom bedecked with tapestries and velvet… into a white-tiled bathing room… into a bathing tub the size of a small pond, where she soaked—luxuriated, really—until the water began to cool. Then she was slipping into a dress of pale-yellow silk. A dress like a breath of sunshine.
She’d never worn one of her creations, wary of developing a taste for luxury. And, now, feeling the sumptuous slide of silk against her skin, she understood she’d been correct. One could easily get a taste for this.
She gave herself a long once-over before the full-length mirror. With this dress, matching slippers, and white satin gloves that reached above her elbows, she would look like a lady to all the world beyond these four walls.
And how had this come to pass?
The cotton cleared from her brain.
