“That’s concerning,” Agnes agreed. “You really don’t know anything?”
“She hasn’t spoken since I found her,” Bridget said.
“I did notice she was unusually quiet. Usually, she chatters on so much you can’t get a word in.” Agnes sighed. “Whatever happened must have affected her very strongly, the poor thing. Well, this is you.”
She opened a door.
The so-called blue room was more white than blue. The walls were pale blue, and the bed coverings were embroidered with blue flowers, but the furnishings were white, and so were the curtains. What really got Bridget’s attention was how large the room was. It was much bigger than the tiny space she’d had at the orphanage, of course—she had expected that. But it was also larger than the room she’d had at her parents’ house.
She looked at Agnes. “All of this is for me? Are you sure? I really don’t need this much space.”
“This isn’t the biggest room in the manor,” Agnes said with a smile. “It was chosen for you because it’s the closest to where Emma sleeps, and I can already see that having you near her is something we want to prioritize.”
“That’s true,” Bridget said. If that were the reason, she could accept the big room, even though it was more space than she knew what to do with. “Will you show me how to get to Emma’s room from here?”
“Of course,” Agnes said. “And after that, I’m sure you could use a bit of quiet and some space to unpack your things?”
“That would be lovely,” Bridget said, realizing that she hadn’t been on her own for any real length of time since leaving the orphanage.
This was going to be difficult. But she was determined to do all she could to help Emma, and if that meant integrating herself into life at Greystone Manor, she was intent on doing just that. Having Agnes here would make it easier, at least.
But even so, she couldn’t help feeling worried about living with the Duke of Greystone. What was he going to expect of her?
And how was she going to balance taking care of his daughter with the fact that she found him so distractingly, devastatingly handsome?
CHAPTER 9
“So how did you come to work at the orphanage?” Agnes asked that evening over dinner.
Miss Wetherby smiled. “It’s a long story, and not a very interesting one,” she said. “I’ve been doing work there since I was young. But when the day came that I had to leave my father’s house, I needed somewhere to go, and the orphanage seemed like the perfect answer.”
“Why did you have to leave your father’s house?” Agnes pressed.
Reeves frowned at his sister. Even though he wanted these answers too, she was being very blunt in the way she asked the questions, and he didn’t approve. What he didn’t want was to give Miss Wetherby the excuse to say that he and his family were ill-mannered in any way. He wanted their behavior to be above reproach.
If Miss Wetherby minded the questions, though, she said nothing about it. “My father wanted to see me married,” she explained. “I spent a few Seasons in London, looking for a potential match, but it came to nothing. That wasn’t acceptable to my father, so he told me to find a new situation for myself.”
“That sounds awful,” Agnes breathed. “Anything might have happened to you!”
“Oh, no, I was never in danger,” Miss Wetherby said. “I knew at once that the orphanage was the best place for me. And had it not been, there was always my cousin’s house.” She glanced at Reeves. “I believe you’re friends with her husband.”
“Do you?” This was news to Reeves.
“The Duke of Desford,” she said. “You mentioned him when we were at the orphanage.”
His eyes widened. “The Duchess of Desford is your cousin?”
“I’m more than just a girl who works at an orphanage,” she told him coolly. “I have a whole life you don’t know about.”
Clearly. He reviewed what he knew about Prudence in his mind. She was the youngest daughter of the Baron of Highgate, but he didn’t know much more than that about her family of origin. If Miss Wetherby was her cousin, she was probably from a family of similar rank, he speculated. That was interesting. Hehadbeen thinking of her as just a poor girl who worked at an orphanage.
Not that this knowledge changed anything, but it explained how Leonard had come to know where Emma was. It hadn’t even occurred to Reeves to wonder about that when his friend had first told him that Prudence had received a letter from the orphanage, but now he put the pieces together. Prudence’s letter had come from her cousin.
“Well, but this is wonderful,” Agnes enthused. “It’s as if you were a friend waiting to happen! But tell me, a lovely young lady like you, why did you never marry? I would have thought the gentlemen would be lining up for a chance.”
“Agnes,” Reeves admonished. “This isn’t any of our concern.”
“I don’t mind,” Miss Wetherby said with a smile. “I never found anyone who interested me—and to tell the truth, I don’t think I ever captured anyone’s interest either. I had no suitors. Prudence always says I could have had them if I had made more of an effort, and maybe she’s right—I don’t know. What I do know is that I wasn’t interested in making more of an effort. Seeing me married was always something my family cared about much more than I did.”
