“Yes,Ben,don’t go through the trouble,” his sister said through clenched teeth. When she turned to Lady Charlotte, she managed a smile. “His Grace has a large heart. He’s always taking in strays.” She looked toward the kitten, which he’d found on the road and brought home last week…and Miss Ramsey.
“Prudence,” he said, straightening his spine, folding his hands behind his back, and stepping in front of Miss Ramsey, “surely Lady Charlotte doesn’t wish to subject her delicate sensibilities to your unkind temper. Perhaps you should arrange for her to visit with you another day.” He turned his unregretful gaze on his sister’s guest.
“Good day to you, Lady.”
With just a look toward Miss Ramsey and a slight motion of his chin, she came to him. Ignoring the slight commotion behind him, he took the kitten from her arms and kissed it.
As he left the hall with Miss Ramsey at his side, he made a note to thank Sudbury for stopping Prudence from following him.
“Why aren’t you in the kitchen, Desdemona?” he asked the kitten.
Beside him, seemingly unfazed by the goings on, Miss Ramsey smiled. “Is that her name, Desdemona?”
“Yes. She was Othello’s wife in Shakespeare’s play Othello.”
Her pretty, aqua eyes opened wider. “I’ve heard of Shakespeare!”
“Of course you have,” he let out a short snort. “Everyone’s heard of him.”
“Even people in the twenty-first century.”
He cut her a curious side-glance. “Does his fame live on then?”
She nodded and reached over to pet the kitten asleep in the crook of his elbow. She was oblivious to the many stares and whispers going on from the other inhabitants of Colchester House. Ben wasn’t, and glared at every one of them.
“Where are we going anyway?” she asked.
“Back to your room. We’ll find you something decent to wear and shoes, and then we’ll go have breakfast together in the dining Hall.”
He swore her face lit up, warming his heart and his blood. He suddenly had the odd desire to make her happy all the time. Was he enchanted? Possessed? He wasn’t himself. But then, who was he really? At the tender age of eleven everything in his life had changed, including him. He stopped being thankful and happy, and began living for revenge. But this woman claiming to be from a lonely future was luring him with fiery light, joy, and…peace. The peace wasn’t comforting. It was foreign and it made him confined and unsure. But the more he basked in her lightand watched her smile, the more he wanted to smile with her. He dropped her off in her room and set out to find Edith.
“I’ll take care of everything, Your Grace,” the servant promised.
When he began to return to the room with her, she stopped and smiled at him. “I’ll bring her to you when she’s ready, Sir. It would do no good to her reputation if you were in there while she was getting dressed.”
“Of course,” he said, feeling his pitiful face grow flush. He turned away and listened to her footsteps as she walked off.
“Edith,” Ben called, stopping her momentarily. “What do you think of her, of Miss Ramsey? Is she unkind to you when I’m not nearby?”
She laughed softly. “What does my opinion matter in such things, Sir?”
Her opinion was the most important one in this matter. Many ladies pretended to be patient, kind, and generous when others were watching. Servants knew them best. “I wouldn’t ask if it didn’t matter.”
She bowed her head in reverence. “I think she’s a bit peculiar and uncommonly charming. I like her, Sir.”
He let out a breath he wasn’t sure why he was holding. Yes. She was a bit peculiar. She didn’t conform. Somehow, she remained true to who she was. Not some copy of a hundred otherladies.She was certainly uncommonly charming, enchanting him without him even knowing, until it was too late. Too late for what? he asked himself on the way to the kitchen to drop off Desdemona. Too late to stop thinking of her when he wasn’t with her. Too late to care about anything but her. Too late to live his dream of returning to the battlefield. Who was she that she tempted him to seek peace and forget killing? He turned to look over his shoulder, toward the way from which he came.
He’d gone against everything he’d promised to his parents–himself. He’d let trouble in, and now he was doomed.
Chapter Six
Fable didn’t have much of a figure. She was basically straight without a voluptuous curve to her, so she was glad that the fashionable clothes of the time created ways to make her look more womanly. Of course, a corset made of pastel peach silk and pieces of whalebone was pretty but painful as it pushed up her bust and slimmed her waist, but one suffered to be beautiful, didn’t one? The attached sleeves, despite being a bit long, fit her slim arms as if they were made for her. They weren’t. According to Edith the clothes belonged to Flora, one of Lady Prudence’s head servants.
Fable didn’t care where they came from. She’d learned in her life to be thankful for whatever came her way. So, she let Edith dress her in voluminous petticoats that Edith had to pin up so Fable wouldn’t trip over them. There were actual wooden hoops placed at her sides to widen the silhouette of her hips. Covered in petticoats, they looked wider than a linebacker’s shoulders. According to Edith, they weren't half as wide as those of the noble ladies. Nor was the fabric as fine. A tight bodice decorated with ribbons stopped her from breathing when Edithpulled the laces tighter from the back.
“So, I guess breathing and sitting down isn’t an option,” she said wryly while she lifted one foot at a time to be fitted with shoes from Edith’s friend Rose from the west wing. They were made of coral silk and wood. Cotton pads were placed inside the soles for comfort. She was a servant, not a noble woman so she wasn’t invited to wear a wig, powdered or otherwise. There wasn’t time to pin up her hair and she didn’t want it braided, so she wrapped it up in a loose bun on top of her head. She loosened a few tendrils that curled around her face. Edith showed her approval with a circlet of babies-breath that she wrapped around the bun. When she was finally ready to leave her rooms and see the duke, Edith led her to the dining Hall.
Her heart felt as if it were beating in her throat. She thought of him telling her he was permanent. Why would he say such pleasing things, things that made her heart dance if he didn’t like her? She wanted to squeal with happiness and twirl her way to the entrance.
