“Stella, whoever that person is, they have no way of knowing where I am. Besides, why would they take items that belong to me?” Eliza dismissed her maid’s concern. “I am certain there is a reasonable explanation, one that we have not yet considered.”
“You are correct.” Stella shook her head. “I need to stop reading your books. They do give me a fright.”
Eliza couldn’t help but grin. “That is exactly what they are supposed to do, but I will not allow you to stop reading them. I need your assistance.”
Stella was always the first to read any book after it was complete, and sometimes even wrote the words dictated when Eliza’s hand hurt too badly to write. It was Stella who made notes or comments if something was confusing, or unclear, and also offered valuable feedback. She and Saul may be servants, but at one time Stella had been a governess and when she met Saul, a fighter, she lost her position and was unable to find another one. Then Saul became older, no longer winning the matches and the two needed another profession. They arrived together when Eliza first sought her servants. She had liked them immediately and over time, they became more than servants to her.
“I will return to the laundry,” Stella offered before she ducked out of the room.
Eliza poured herself a cup of tea from the pot that remained at the corner of her desk. Stella replaced it often throughout the day and would leave a sandwich if Eliza forgot to leave her desk to eat.
With cup in hand, Eliza leaned back in her chair and chuckled.
If she were still the same girl who had attended the Wiggons’ School for Elegant Young Ladies, she would have invented a story to explain what had happened to the items, and it would be something magical, of course, such as fairies or brownies that wish to steal a person’s possessions before taking their souls.
With a grin, she sat forward and pulled out a clean piece of parchment and wrote handkerchief, glove, stocking, and fairies or brownies who steal items before souls, then set it aside. That would be another novel or serial for a magazine.
Had she known her future when she first readWake Not the Dead, and imagined that a local viscount was a vampire, she would have begun writing much sooner.
Eliza set her teacup aside and picked up a pencil but the moment she clasped it, pain traveled from her thumb to her wrist and she blew out a sigh. There would be no more writing today. Instead, she would stroll the gardens and possibly go into town if Stella was available to accompany her. Though, in truth, she was old enough that she did not need a chaperone or companion.
Chapter6
Those first fewdays following the wedding, with nobody else in the house other than servants, had been pleasant and Lucian found himself relaxed, but then it grew too quiet with his thoughts often turning to his temporary neighbor. If he could bed her without commitment, he would. But she was innocent and respectable, which would require a more permanent relationship if he wanted intimacy. As she was everything that he was not, Lucian could only imagine the difficulties they would encounter until they grew to hate the other, and the very reason he did his best to ignore the desire he carried for Eliza.
Regardless, Lucian still had to resist the urge to visit Greenhaven Cottage daily.
He rarely gave the neighboring estate a thought, even when someone lived there. But none of those people had been Eliza Weston.
In the meantime, Lucian busied himself with estate business, reviewed documents from his man of business regarding his investments made in mining expeditions and just yesterday he had received a package from a man who often traveled on his behalf and sent back interesting finds that included diamonds and emeralds, which Lucian added to his collection. There was not a gem that he did not own and kept on display in a small room off the library where he had also stored interesting rocks and fossils.
Except none of that interested him today.
He paced and wandered. The manor, despite how large it was, seemed small and confining, which prompted Lucian to make the decision to take his curricle into town. Perhaps he would enjoy a meal at the local ale house.
As he pulled out of the drive and onto the road, Lucian had to suddenly pull back on the reins before he ran over Eliza.
She stepped off to the side and looked up at him.
Why was she out on the road, walking, and where were her servants? “What are you doing?” Lucian asked.
“I went into the town and purchased a few items.” She held up her basket to show him.
A woman, especially a miss should not be strolling about on her own. She should at least have a companion or someone to protect her. “Where are your servants?” he demanded.
“They have other duties at the cottage,” she answered.
“You should not be alone.”
“I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” She blew out a sigh. “Where are you off to?”
“I am on the way to town,” he said. “But I will see you home first.”
“That is not necessary, Lord Garretson. The walk is not so far and I am eager to return to my writing.”
“I will take you,” he insisted.
“Very well.”
