CHAPTER 8
DINNER BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS
Earlier, in Ivy’s bedchamber
Ivy gave a start as Anne Salisbury curtsied and quickly took her leave by way of the dressing room. Although the woman hadn’t been formally dismissed, she had completed dressing her and her hair.
She had done a masterful job of it, too, the fiery copper locks pulled into a series of curls around her crown atop which lay a smooth, flat bun. Even better, her scalp hadn’t suffered one whit.
The appearance of Robert had no doubt frightened poor Salisbury, and Ivy couldn’t blame her. Her own heart was pounding a tattoo in her chest worthy of a Scottish drummer. Not due to fright so much—more because of the sudden excitement she felt at seeing him in his formal clothes.
“Skittish thing,” Robert said, a frown marring his already harsh features.
“Oh, you meant Miss Salisbury?” Ivy teased, referring to his comment,You look surprised and rather lovely this evening.
He gave her a quelling glance.
“That skittish thing is the reason Walker got me here inthis awful weather,” Ivy said, threading a sapphire earbob through the piercing in her ear.
Robert furrowed a brow. “What do you mean?”
Ivy dared a glance back at the dressing room to ensure Salisbury had indeed taken her leave. “Mr. Walker is sweet on her. They’ve been exchanging correspondence ever since they met last year,” she explained, finishing with the other earbob.
“I thought Walker was a married man,” Robert said, his voice nearly a whisper.
Turning from the mirror, Ivy frowned. “He was, until Mariel died five years ago,” she said on a huff. She was about to add, “Do keep up,” but from his stunned reaction, she thought it best not to scold him.
“I’m sorry. I... I didn’t know,” he murmured. “But I am happy for him... if...” He waved to the dressing room door. “If he and Salisbury...” He cleared his throat and sighed, obviously not about to say any more about it.
“Well, good, because I may have given them permission to...” She stopped speaking when she noticed how he was staring at her. “What is it?”
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble for me,” he said, waving a hand, his gaze taking in her blue dinner gown, jewelry, and coiffure. “But I know you prefer to stick with tradition. You always look stunning in blue,” he added.
Ivy grinned. “It’s called sapphire, and it perfectly matches the parure you gave me for our tenth anniversary,” she said, holding up a wrist to display a sapphire and diamond bracelet. The earbobs decorating her earlobes were part of the same set. “I so rarely have an occasion to wear the parure.”
Robert gestured to the dressing room. “Will she be coming out of there?”
Ivy glanced to where he indicated. “I rather doubt it. There’s a servant’s entrance on the other side. Salisbury islong gone.” She didn’t add that she had a thought as to just where the servant was heading.
She hoped the woman was off to see Walker.
Given the timing of their arrival and the amount of time it would have taken for the driver to unhitch horses and when Graves would have summoned the housemaid to her bedchamber, Ivy knew the two wouldn’t have yet had a chance to see one another.
He displayed a frown. “I didn’t mean to scare her off,” he murmured.
Realizing Ritchfield had given her the perfect opening with his comment, Ivy asked, “Did you bring some ghosts with you from York?” From the expression on his face, Ivy knew she had hit a nerve.
“Why... why do you ask that?” he stammered.
She stepped forward and hooked her hand around his elbow, forcing him to turn towards the door. “Why did you look as if you had seen one when I asked?” she countered in a quiet voice.
Robert stutter-stepped before he had them taking leave of her bedchamber. “Perhaps I was hoping to leave them behind,” he murmured, once they were in the corridor.
Ivy gathered her skirts in one hand when they approached the top of the stairs. “What’s happened, Robert? What ghosts are you talking about?” she asked in a whisper. Although there didn’t appear to be any servants nearby, she didn’t wish for their conversation to be overheard. From what Salisbury had said, she assumed all the servants had heard Graves’ recite the comment about the ghosts. She didn’t want them to think her husband had brought some of them with him to Ritchfield Park.
Robert was quiet until they reached the landing. “I found some correspondence I’d quite forgotten about,” he said.
“Oh?” she prompted. They descended another flight ofstairs before she realized she would have to force an answer from him. “From whom?”
