“This is another pleasant room for a married couple, is it not?”Leaving the door open, she crossed the hall.“And Mr.Fosterson opposite, I think.Oh, wait, where are you and Mr.Keith?”
“He is just at the end of the hall—he likes oddly shaped rooms.I will go wherever you want me.”
April eyed her.“You were considering the servants’ quarters.”
Meg blushed.“It’s where some people will expect me to be.”
“Fortunately, I am your grand hostess,” April said with mock splendour.“And I expect you to be among the rest of us.What about this one?”She opened the door next to Mr.Fosterson’s and found another charming bedchamber, decorated in a tasteful manner that would have suited most tastes, male or female.
“If you’re sure...”Meg said doubtfully.“Actually, it is the last bedchamber made up on this floor.There are linen cupboards around the corner, and beyond those more bedchambers.I can easily make another bed there, out of the way.”
“Why should you?”April said.“Unless you are more comfortable in such solitude?”
“Oh, no,” Meg said, and compressed her lips on whatever else she was about to say, for the larger of the two maids was puffing her way towards them from the servants’ stairs with several bags.
April informed the girl which room was which.“Oh, and tell Cook I shall be down to see her shortly.”
“Cook’ll be happy to come to you, my lady,” panted the maid.
“I’m sure she would be, but in this case, I shall come to her.What is your name?”
“Becky, your ladyship.”She was a slightly ungainly girl, with a pleasant, good-natured face.“I hope you’re happy with the rooms, my lady,” she added anxiously.
“I am.But it must have been a lot of work for two maids.”
“Oh, most of it was done before the mistress took the others up to London.”
Lady Temperley, in fact, had agreed to leave a full complement of staff, with the exception of her housekeeper, to look after the Petterils and their guests.What could have changed her mind?It was highly inconvenient.
Feeling she had been absent for long enough, April returned to the drawing room, where tea was just finishing up.April felt obliged to turn and lead the way upstairs once more.
Apart from the sudden, overwhelming urges to sleep at odd hours of the day, her pregnancy did not trouble her much.Her stomach rarely rebelled now, and she still seemed to have the same energy between naps.Nevertheless, as she reached the upper landing once more, she felt a little warning sting in her abdomen.
Ignoring it, she marched along the passage, throwing open the doors and announcing the occupants, whose bags now awaited them inside.Piers had followed his friends upstairs and was glancing into his own room.Good.She wanted to talk to him.And sit down.
“Oh.”Miss Algernon, standing inside her own door and gazing toward the window.“I was hoping for a room on the other side of the house.The view would be so much prettier.And I had thought it would be bigger.”
“You could change rooms with Mr.Hale,” April said patiently.
“Dr.Hale,” Miss Algernon corrected.
“But I thought it more masculine,” April continued.“Or you could take the larger room which I had assigned to the Hubbles, since there are two of them.”
“Are there no others?”
“Not made up,” April said.“Beyond the linen closets on this floor are more bedchambers.Since there are only two maids to the whole house, I hesitate to ask them to make up yet another room, but—”
Miss Algernon blinked at her and interrupted with pitying amusement.“Two maids for a house of this size?My dear Lady Petteril, why did you not employ more?I could have advised you had I known.”
Considering she hadn’t even been invited, this seemed a little rich to April.Still, aware of her own shortcomings and inexperience, she felt her face heat.And the sting in her abdomen sharpened.
“Well, do let me know what you decide,” she said.“You will excuse me for a moment?”
As she walked back toward her own room and Piers, she was aware of the professor behind her, glancing into his daughter’s room.“What’s wrong with it?”he said impatiently.“Why, it’s a lovely room!”
Ha!April thought ill-naturedly and opened her own door.She closed it carefully behind her before she walked to the nearest chair and sat down on it, folding her arms around her stomach.
“There, everything is fine,” she murmured to the tiny baby within, as she did with increasing frequency.“Be calm and happy.We’ll just sit here for a little...”
