Chapter Three
April, who had keptherself awake during the latter part of the evening by sheer will power, slept the moment her head touched the pillow.
She woke disoriented by the strange room and the sound of the opening door.Not the bedroom door to the passage, she realized as everything came back to her, but the connecting door to Piers’s room.She had expected him to use the master’s chamber as no more than a dressing room, so she had left her lamp turned low for him to find his way to her bed.
After dinner, the gentlemen had taken some time to rejoin the ladies in the drawing room.Unlike the females of the party, who were tiptoeing politely around each other, trying not to discuss anything that might compare birth, education, wealth, or background, the men were clearly enjoying being together.The gales of laughter issuing frequently from the dining room told her that much, as did the passionate discussions they kept up as they finally entered the drawing room.
Had they been at home, April would have curled happily into a chair and let herself drift off to the sound of their voices and laughter, but here she was hostess to more than just Piers and Haggs and Percy Austin, all of whom knew her story.These were strangers with their womenfolk, and a certain degree of formality was required, at least on the first night.
It was Piers who had said, “You are tired, April.Let me light you upstairs.”
“Oh no,” she had insisted.“I can easily light myself!But I believe I will retire for the evening.”
To her surprise, the other ladies had elected to go up to bed too, and they had parted in the passage with perfect civility, even content to share the services of the maid Peggy to unhook their gowns.April, from long practice and contortions which were becoming more difficult, had managed on her own.
Footsteps now weaved across the floor and the mattress sank under Piers’s weight.A waft of brandy reached her.Still too sleepy to talk or even open her eyes, April pushed at the bedclothes to make way for him.
“You’re awake,” he said.“I’m afraid I’m a trifle disguised.”
At that she smiled.“You were a trifle disguised several hours ago.Now, I would say, you’re as drunk as a viscount.”
“I can sleep next door.”
If he had wanted to, he wouldn’t have come to her.She found his hand on the mattress and tugged it.Somehow, she knew he was smiling as he turned out the lamp and lay down, heaving at the coverlet and folding his body around hers.Foxed as he undoubtedly was, his movements were more deliberate than usual, yet they were still gentle and careful.She dragged his arm around her, settling it in the most comfortable place, and he kissed the back of her neck.
“Good night.”
“Good night.”She smiled again because he had had such an enjoyable evening.This, after all, was why they had come, and she was glad.
His breathing lengthened into sleep almost at once, and she, contented by his familiar presence, expected to fall back asleep at once.Curiously, she didn’t.She was aware of the house quieting, the final murmur of voices, and growing silence.
A twinge of heartburn caught her by surprise as it sometimes did since the baby had become part of her.At home, she kept a glass of milk by her bedside to deal with it, but here it had not entered her head.She adjusted her position, hoping it would just go away while she slept.
But annoyingly, she now appeared to be wide awake.
She lay listening to her husband’s breathing, which was heavier than usual, and thought about the baby and what it would mean for both of them, how to keep it safe and healthy through all the hazards of birth and childhood.
She knew the risks to her own health, of course.She had known many women who had died in childbed.Poor women, for the most part, but money and rank was not that much protection in motherhood.Yet somehow, she didn’t believe she would die.She wanted to live too much.Though God knew how she would care for a baby when she was only just learning to care for herself in this new life.
New life...It was not that she had forgotten the old.Only that it seemed so far away now she had Piers, no longer merely her master and unlikely friend, but her lover, her husband, her lord...
Life was strange.
A sudden bump startled her, loud in the silence of the night, and forceful enough to vibrate the floor below her. She sat up in alarm, trying to work out where it had come from.Had something fallen inside the room?Next door?Above?
There were voices now, muffled but urgent, surely both male and female.And then another, a low, moaning sound that chilled April’s blood.
Her hand froze over Piers’s shoulder.In the normal way of things, he was not a great drinker, but she was quite familiar enough with those who were to know that very little would waken him now.And exactly what use he could be in his present circumstance was debateable.
Slipping out from under Piers’s arm and the bed covers, she crept around the room in her bare feet, while the eerie moaning continued, rising and falling, and behind it, the soft voices murmured on.
The sounds did not seem to be quite above, or beside.Eventually, as she stubbed her toe on the hearth, she thought they were coming from the chimney.The fire which had been burning earlier in the day had gone out, but she hesitated to put her face too close to it.
The moaning stopped and there came the sound of something sharp, like a blow or a smack.Someone cried out.It sounded like a woman or a child, and April had had enough.
She managed to light a candle and find her dressing gown—Piers had knocked it off the end of the bed onto the floor—which was made of heavy, shrouding velvet.She marched out of the room, determined to find out who was moaning and crying, and if someone was being hurt.
The trouble was, when she left the room, she could no longer hear those sounds.Even when she returned to her bedroom chimney, everything was silent except Piers’s soft snores—and the somewhat louder ones echoing up and down the passage.It would have been funny if she had not been so anxious.She walked up the passage, even past the linen cupboards to the guest bedchambers beyond.She walked down the servants’ staircase to the kitchen and then flitted around the rooms of the ground floor and first floor.
