“Of the duchess,” Tommie said, looking back to him from the door. “She was truly scared this afternoon when she came running down those stairs as if a demon from hell was chasing her. It clearly crushed her at the thought of losing you.”
Owen hung his head, knowing how much it had crushed him too, thinking of not being with her again.
“Maybe it’s time you started thinking of the future, my friend.” Tommie’s words made Owen look up sharply again. “You cannot stay a butler and a duchess forever, can you?”
“We can for now.” Owen shifted uncomfortably between his feet. “We have to stay that way. She is married; it’s the law of this world.”
“Can you bear a life like that? Seeing another man married to the woman you love?” Tommie asked, opening the door this time as he spoke. “Think about it, Owen. If you want a different future for yourself, you are going to have to think about how to obtain it.” With the door closing softly behind Tommie, Owen sat back down in his chair again, feeling a determination build within him.
“One thing at a time,” he murmured. Yes, he had to think of a way to stay with Diana, but first, he had to rescue Diana from what could be a future of being thrown out of her house to live in the streets. “I must speak to Jessie and make her see reason.”
Chapter 17
“You ready for this?” Tommie whispered to Owen as he walked past him and moved across the kitchen. Owen didn’t have time to answer. He whipped around to see Tommie advancing towards the pantry door, slipping between the busy scullery maids and footmen as they attended to the kitchen.
Stepping inside the pantry, he returned with the fine trifle he had been making that Diana had not finished at dinner. “Jessie? Help me with this.”
“Help you?” she asked, her voice coming from the side of the room. Owen was careful to stay exactly where he was in the middle of the kitchen, watching as Jessie crossed the room in front of him, reaching for Tommie.
“The duchess very kindly said we could share this between ourselves this evening; she wants no more of it. Here, take it to the table – oh, watch out!” Tommie conveniently tripped on the edge of the workbench nearby.
Owen had to button his lip shut in order not to laugh at the display before him. The trifle glass tipped towards Jessie, promptly spilling its entire contents over her dress. The cream fell in globules down her gown, and the jam streaked the folds of her skirt.
“Tommie!” Her voice was so shrill that every head in the kitchen turned to face them. Owen slowly stepped backwards, inching his way out of the kitchen. “Could you not look where you were going?”
“I did say I needed help carrying it.”
“Jessie, that is no way to speak to the cook.” At the housekeeper’s interruption, Owen felt he could at last escape without being needed.
He found Tommie’s gaze once, nodding his thanks to him before he backed up completely from the kitchen and hurried towards the stairs that led up to the main part of the house. When he reached the entrance hall, he found it strangely all dark, with no slip of candlelight beneath the library door, where Diana so often did her writing, and no candlelight beneath the sitting room, where she would wait to play cards with him.
He turned his eyes up the staircase, looking for any light at all. He found a glimmer at the very top of the stairs, an orange glow that suggested someone had just walked across the landing, heading to the wing of the house where Diana’s chamber was.
“She’s your duchess; you should not go to her chamber.” Even as Owen whispered the words to himself, his feet moved to the staircase and began to climb. It didn’t matter anymore if she was his duchess, for she was also Diana. The woman he adored.
He climbed the stairs quickly and crossed the landing towards her room, turning down corridors to where her chamber door sat in a nook of the west wing. When he found a slip of candlelight escaping beneath the door, he knew he had tracked her down and softly knocked on the wood.
“Is that you, Laura?” Diana called, evidently thinking Owen was her lady’s maid. “You are very kind, but as I said, I can take care of myself tonight.”
“Then you will be relieved to hear I am not Laura,” Owen said, leaning towards the door and keeping his voice low so that she could still hear him, but his voice would not carry down the corridor. There was an abundance of shuffling sounds from within the chamber before the door flung open, revealing Diana standing on the other side, looking up to him through the candlelight with wide eyes and parted lips. “Can I come in?” he asked.
She pushed the door open wider, beckoning him inside before closing it hurriedly behind him.
“Did anyone see you?” she asked, following him into the room.
“No. Fortunately, Tommie is very inventive with distractions. Jessie is currently mopping up the remains of the trifle you barely ate at dinner from her gown.”
“No!” She gasped, flinging her hands over her face. “It was far too big for one person. I had no idea he was going to throw it over Jessie!”
“Neither did I, but it seemed to do the trick. She saw nothing but the trifle-covered gown at that point.” Owen laughed, thrilled when Diana did too. “Come here,” he whispered to her, despite them being completely alone in her chamber. She went quickly towards him, allowing him to slide his hands around her waist and pull her forward until she was nestled into his body, reaching up for a sweet kiss.
When his lips found hers, it wasn’t gentle. He filled it with the hunger he felt for her and all the fear he had felt that day of losing her. Their lips danced together, sneaking touches of tongues as he splayed his fingers across her back and the sides of her waist, holding onto her.
As they parted from their kiss, Owen found Diana was panting, just as he was. Her eyes were still fluttered closed with her lips turned up towards him.
“I’m beginning to wonder why you haven’t come to my chamber before now,” she whispered playfully. He chuckled and leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. At that moment, he was wondering the same thing. “Did you come to see me?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice deep as he angled his head towards her for another kiss, but he held off, for the memory of Jessie’s threat still burned. “And to tell you that I have an idea. One I can thank Tommie for.”
