Chapter Eleven
Two days laterthe house was filled with excitement. Everyone was happy except Mairi who was too busy to be anything but annoyed. Truthfully the servants were well trained and except for a last minute change to the menu, everything appeared to be going exactly as it should. The silver was polished, the table was set to perfection, and all of them had new clothes for the occasion, even the countess.
But with everyone so chipper and with no one to yell at in the kitchen, Mairi found her mood growing tighter and darker. The countess had grilled them all on the gentlemen attending this night. She’d even selected who would be the best husband for each of them and made sure the seat assignments matched. Mairi was given a second son of modest means but excellent breeding. He had significant musical talent, a fondness for the law, and enjoyed political entertaining. The last bit was the important part. He was a man who would likely need a wife who could throw together parties large and small without notice, and since Mairi had done so well with tonight’s planning, the countess thought she would make the best wife for him.
She couldn’t remember the man’s name. In her mind, she called him Second Rate Barrister even though he had no official law training.
It was time to dress, so Mairi made it upstairs only to pause on the landing. To the right was Connall’s bedroom, and she could hear his muted laughter through the bedroom door. She had no idea what he was amused by, only that he and his man Lloyd seemed to be getting along very well. The sound set off two completely contradictory feelings inside her.
His chuckle told her on a deep level that all was well. She knew he took his responsibilities seriously, but he’d always been one to smile when things were good. His laughter meant that things were very good at the moment, and she could relax.
But as soon as she did, the opposite thoughts burned through her brain. All was good for the man because he was rich, titled, and about to be buried beneath a tide of women who would do anything to become his duchess. She, on the other hand, had no dowry, no title, and no future unless she secured a man as soon as possible. Of course, all was well with Connall. That didn’t mean all was well with her.
She turned her back on his laughter and headed for her bedroom. But then she heard the girls giggling. Truthfully, Sadie was not a girl who giggled ever. Her mother had been the worst kind of shrew, and now Sadie was enjoying herself with Iseabail in a giggles-throughout-the-night kind of way. The two girls had stuck together like peas in a pod and were excited for their first presentation to society.
She didn’t blame them for their happiness. She envied them. Mairi had never had a sibling, much less a sister. The closest she’d ever come was when she first started work at the castle. She’d been one of two girls set to sleep in the kitchen to keep the fire burning through the night. She had a blissful month with a new friend until her father had woken up to the dangers of a girl on the lowest rung of the castle hierarchy. All of the laird’s men had access to the kitchen, and though nothing had happened to her, few kitchen maids could say the same. At least until she became chatelaine.
So young Mairi had returned to her cot above the glassworks and had slept there until she’d run away to London three weeks ago. To hear Sadie and Iseabail giggle now created a longing inside her that left her hollow. Did she dare try to fill it by knocking on their door? The other two were clearly good friends, what would they want with her?
If she were at home, these feelings wouldn’t ever arise. There was always so much work that she could distract herself with one task or another. But here, she needed new friends, and so she took the risk.
She knocked gently on their door. The laughter immediately ended and Mairi felt bad for stopping their fun. Then Sadie opened the door.
“Were we too loud?” she asked.
“What? No, why would you think that?”
She looked back at Iseabail who was sitting at the mirrored vanity. “We are just very excited,” she said quietly. They didn’t look excited. They looked afraid and nervous with a dash of giggling hysterics. Especially when Iseabail tried to put a decorative comb in her hair and ended up pushing her braid out of place giving her a lopsided look. The girl half sobbed, half laughed in dismay. Sadie, too.
“We’ve been trying for an hour to figure out what to do with these combs,” she said, gesturing to another one with a long, long feather sticking out the side. “Didn’t the countess give you one, too?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I have been—”
“—running the kitchen,” Sadie said. Then she clapped her hands on her cheeks. “You aren’t even dressed!”
“There’s still time—”
“If you hurry! Come on! Let’s see how your dress looks.”
Sadie pushed her back out the door. She wasn’t rough at all, but she crowded Mairi until she had no choice but back away. Iseabail, too, abandoned her hair and hurried to back up Sadie. Before long, the two women had chided and teased Mairi into her own bedroom.
“Oh, look how pretty your dress is!” Sadie said the moment she stepped into the room.
“And you have a comb, too!” Iseabail cried. “It’s from the countess and it… it… well it matches, doesn’t it? I mean, the feathers are lovely and so colorful.”
Colorful was one word for it. Feathers were often used as decoration, but these were painted bright colors. At least three of them were a faded kind of red which would kind of match her pink dress. Mairi looked at it in dismay. “I’m supposed to put that in my hair?”
Iseabail nodded. “We all have one. It was a nice gesture from her.”
How was she going to put that thing in her hair? She’d never been more grateful to have dark, boring hair. At least she wasn’t a redhead like Iseabail. That thing would clash horribly.
“Don’t think about it,” Sadie said. “Get dressed. We’ll figure out the combs somehow.”
The two girls helped her change, each taking a hand in pulling her stays tight. She was a strong woman capable of blowing glass and cleaning a carcass for a feast. She did not have a tiny waist and she despised the need to plump her breasts as well. But she was trying to attract a man who needed her to run a London household. That did not usually include having the muscles to haul a stag onto a spit, so she would hide the strength in her form.
With Sadie and Iseabail’s help, she tightened her ribs down and created cleavage in front. She pulled on a pink dress when she was definitely not a woman fond of pale colors. Then Iseabail retrieved the two paint pots given for the three of them to share. Mairi wasn’t going to put anything on her face, but Iseabail knew what to do. She rimmed Mairi’s eyes with charcoal and made her cheeks more rosy than ruddy.
Mairi peered into the mirror. “Goodness,” she murmured, echoing the countess’s favorite exclaim. “I look like a girl.”
