“You have breakfasted?” he asked, nodding to Gabriel and taking over her care.
“I have indeed. Thank you,” she took the seat he held for her. “And I am looking forward to this conversation. I have, as I mentioned last night, some questions for you, Giles.”
“I am glad,” he nodded, resuming his own seat behind his desk. “Glad that you feel up to asking questions, and glad that you have formed them by yourself. All good signs that your recovery is well underway.”
She agreed. “I was in an appalling condition, wasn’t I?”
He hesitated.
“Please. Give me the truth with no bark upon it. I need to know.”
He chose his words carefully. “When I found you, I believe you were near death.”
She took a breath, but remained silent, her eyes fixed on his face.
“There was no food, little water, and the only warmth came from a small fire which was using what must have been the last of your firewood. You had aged blankets that you had bundled around yourself, a bite on your foot from a rat, and—” he paused.
“And?”
“You were infested with other, smaller vermin.” He sighed. “I could not bring you into the carriage as you were. I got rid of the worst of it all, cut off most of your hair because of it, and wrapped you in the blankets I had brought with me. All were burned when we returned here.”
“I was starving,” she murmured, one hand drifting absently to touch a curl.
“You were.” He folded his arms. “What happened, my Lady? Can you tell me?”
She nodded. “I can now, I think. It seems like another lifetime, and thus easier to talk about.” She leaned back in the chair. “My stepson happened, to put matters in a nutshell. The Earl, my husband, passed away at the end of an illness which had begun to make itself known close to a year before. The doctor believed his heart was failing and could do little to help, other than recommend rest and tranquillity. His son from his first marriage arrived unexpectedly a few months later, and from then on...”
She paused, her lips tightening, her brows meeting in a frown. “For some reason he had taken a violent dislike to me and had not returned to Kilham Abbey after the wedding. From what I saw of him at that time, he seemed mean, angry and potentially vicious. I assumed that money was involved, since my husband mentioned his son’s tendency toward profligacy.” She shifted in her chair. “The Earl was not a miser, by any means. But he was at heart a decent man with a belief that he was best served by a policy of financial caution. I certainly did not starve at Kilham Abbey, although we lived quietly and hardly ever entertained.”
“Did you go to London?”
She shook her head. “No. Never.”
“So, your stepson arrived …and…”
“My husband’s health deteriorated. There were arguments, angry words…” She swallowed. “None of which were beneficial to my husband’s health. After he passed away, barely a day after the funeral, his stepson threw me out. I was told—not asked,told—that I was to remove to the Dower House forthwith, and only allowed to take with me the clothes that were essential. I managed to pack a couple of books as well. Everything else was, according to him, part of the Kilham estate, and thus his.”
“A brute of a man, and no credit to his father,” observed Giles.
“I could not agree more,” she answered.
“What happened then?”
“Then…there was Mrs Ashe, the only resident of the Dower House. As sour-faced and mean a woman as one could possibly imagine. She begrudgingly made food and served it by leaving a plate of it somewhere in the hall. More than a few times the rodents got to it before I did. She never cleaned…I found myself doing that with a bucket I’d stumbled across outside. She lived in the servants’ quarters, and I’ll lay odds that there were no rats there.” Gwyneth shivered.
“There was nobody with you when I found you.” Giles looked sombre. “You were quite alone.”
She blinked and then nodded. “I think I knew she’d gone. It got colder and colder, and so quiet. I was already hungry and foraging in what parts of the garden were still accessible. I had no winter clothes, you see. Only the blankets and I couldn’t afford to let them get wet…”
Her eyes shone with unshed tears. Giles hated to push her, but he needed to know it all, to hear it all, then it could be put away in the past where it belonged.
“I lost track of time. I heard nobody. Finally I risked going to her quarters. They were bare. Nothing I could use. No clothing, no blankets, and worst of all, no food. The larder had been stripped clean. I cannot say whether she had very little to start with, or whether she was cruel enough to pack everything and take it with her. I don’t even know when she left, to be honest. But I would guess that’s when my journey downhill really began.”
Giles held up his hand. “And now your journey is upward, my Lady. Back into the light.”
She nodded, and he watched as some of the tension left her shoulders. “How did you find me?”
“I believe I mentioned that Wolfbridge is in trust for those related to the line? You are related to the line.”
