“I do not wish to stay in this house anymore. What I need is a fresh start, somewhere away from here, begin again. Surely, you will need a maid where you are going, someone to help you with the chores.”
“You really wish to come with me?” Diana asked, tilting her head to the side as she watched the maid. “There was a time when I was the last person you wanted to see.”
“That was some time ago now, Your Grace.” Jessie smiled with her words. “I want to work for someone I know I can trust, someone who truly has my best interests at heart. I know that to be you, Your Grace.”
“Well, I suppose if you do come, there must be one thing that we change first.”
“What is that?” Jessie asked.
“You will have to stop calling me ‘Your Grace’,” Diana said with a laugh. “How about Mrs Arnold instead?”
“Mrs Diana Arnold. It suits you better!”
***
“You’re going?” Tommie asked, stepping forward into the office. “Today?”
“I should have known you’d be up early enough to see me go,” Owen said with a chuckle as he turned around, adding the last things to his suitcase.
“Baking bread takes a long time. I always have to start early.”
Owen moved towards the door, only to find Tommie standing in the way.
“Tommie, surely you are not going to stop me going?” Owen asked, ready to plead with his friend. After the night before, Owen had been filled with a kind of hope he hadn’t thought possible, where a life was laid out before him that could truly make him happy. All he had to do was walk out that front door with Diana on his arm.
“I’d never stop you,” Tommie said, shaking his head before outstretching his hand. Owen took it happily, the firm handshake a solid nod of friendship. “Are you getting that future you wanted, my friend?”
“I am.” Owen nodded. “We may never be able to stand up in church and declare it, but if we move far enough away, we can live as husband and wife, and no one will know better.”
“What we’ll do for love, eh?” Tommie laughed. “We’ll do things we never thought ourselves capable of.”
“Very true.” Owen released Tommie’s hand as he picked up his bag, buckling it shut ready for going.
“How will you live?”
Owen explained how they were taking the equivalent of the dowry that was once in Diana’s name, and how they hoped her writing could someday prove profitable.
“In the meantime, I’ll find a position,” Owen said, heading towards the door another time. Tommie stepped away, allowing him through before following him down the corridor towards the servants’ stairwell. “I’m willing to turn my hand to anything if it means keeping us with bread on the table.”
“I don’t doubt you will,” Tommie said warmly and clapped him on the shoulder. “Do me a favour, though, once you are set up.”
“Yes?” Owen asked as he turned at the bottom of the staircase, looking back to his friend.
“If you ever find yourselves quite comfortable for money and in need of a cook.” Tommie waggled his eyebrows and gestured to himself. “You know who to write to, don’t you?”
“My friend, I’d never have another cook.” Owen laughed and shook his friend’s hand one last time. “Goodbye.”
“Good luck!”
Owen tossed the case over his shoulder and hurried up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time in his eagerness to be back by Diana’s side. When he reached the main hallway, he was startled to find that Diana was not the only one waiting for him by the doorway.
Dressed in her pelisse with a shawl around her shoulders, Diana was threading a second shawl around Jessie’s shoulders.
“The bags are packed,” Owen said, reaching their side as he placed his case beside Diana’s portmanteaus. “Jessie, you’re leaving us?” he asked, pointing down at the small case beside her and the bonnet on her head.
“Not exactly,” she said with glee and bobbed on her toes, looking towards Diana who clearly chose to explain for her.
“Jessie would like to come with us.”
