“Very good, sir.” Now that he had an idea of her status, Mr. Jeffers turned to her. “Welcome to Marshfield Manor, Miss Sudbury. Jenny will take you to your room.”
“Thank you,” she said, but she hesitated, looking forlorn.
“Lord Marshfield’s footman will bring your luggage to your room directly,” Mr. Jeffers assured her.
“Oh,” she said, and gave Jasper a hard stare.
“She lost her luggage,” he explained to the butler, unsure why he was doing so. Mr. Jeffers would have had no concern. Indeed, he made no remark, nor changed his expression. It would now be the problem of the chambermaid, and by morning, the housekeeper, Mrs. Bowman.
“You may ask Jenny to bring you anything you need for tonight to be comfortable. Be it nightdress or tooth powders.” He couldn’t conceive of what else she would need and, if the temperature were warmer, would expect her to sleep bare. He coughed thinking of her in bed only yards away.
“And if you’re feeling peckish, I’m sure something can be scrounged from the kitchen pantry. Isn’t that right, Mr. Jeffers?”
“Indubitably, sir,” the butler agreed with little enthusiasm. Mr. Jeffers would awaken the cook at his peril and thus knew better. If Julia wanted something, he would be forced to make the food himself, even if it were a humble plate of cheese and bread.
“No, thank you,” she said at once. “I don’t want anyone to go to any trouble. I need nothing but a place to lay my head, I assure you.”
“Then I bid you good night,” Jasper said, trying not to sound like a man ready to creep along the hallway and sneak into her bedroom.
Sending him another inscrutable look, she followed the maid up the main staircase.
Watching her go, waiting to follow at a respectable distance, Jasper tried to persuade himself the spirit of Christmas was causing his happiness andnotbecause Julia was under his roof.
Chapter Thirty
“Lady W__ has gone to Lady Macroun’s much celebrated yearly Twelvetide country party. No one in Town seems to know whether her sister, who has lately been on the arm of Lord M__, accompanied her.”
-The Sun
Julia had more nervesin her stomach upon awakening near noon on Christmas Day at the Earl of Marshfield’s estate than she’d had when sneaking into his bedroom to steal his cravat pin months earlier.
And if she spent a moment discerning why, she would have to ascribe her anxiety to meeting his mother. That and having no clothing except the dress and coat in which she’d traveled.
She could do nothing about the former until she went downstairs and encountered the dowager countess. But the latter problem, she had to consider immediately. First, she needed some hot water and soap, and a comb at the very least.
Upon tugging the bell-pull beside her bed, in a very few minutes, a maid came in, although not the same weary one who’d assisted her the night before.
