“You shouldn’t, but I swear I won’t tell anyone. I need to know about him because I only last night found out he was my guardianand I’m unacquainted with him. Is he a good man, do you think?” Ana poured Tessie more chocolate. “What do the other servants say about him?”
“Well...” Tessie gulped more chocolate. It was probably the first time she’d tasted such a delicacy. “Mrs. Hedges says that he needs a wife, because he’s all rough and ill-tempered and he frightens everyone. She says a wife will gentle him. He has wounds from the war that pain him. Sometimes he’ll wake in the middle of the night with the most awful yelling, as if he’s back on the battlefield, and those nights he’ll—”
“Exactly what is going on here?” McArdle was at the door; arms crossed and face thunderous. Drat. He’d interrupted them before Ana could broach the subject of the list of names.
Tessie leapt to her feet, knocking her chocolate to the floor, where it made a stain on the carpet. “I’m sorry, sir.” She burst into tears and dropped to her knees, scrubbing at the chocolate with her apron.
Ana set her cup down. “I invited Tessie to sit with me. It’s entirely my doing and she’s not to be punished for it.”
“Return to the kitchens at once,” McArdle ordered. “Scullery maids taking tea with young ladies. This house has gone all topsy-turvy.”
“I thought you said that you had no maid to help me. I choose Tessie. She’s my lady’s maid while I’m here at this house.”
“Preposterous. A scullery maid cannot and will not serve as a lady’s maid.”
“The duke said that I might choose my own chamber, and I daresay he would approve of me choosing my own maid as well.”
“Ha.” McArdle sniffed. “We’ll see about that.”
“The first order of business is having Tessie find my gown.”
His nose wrinkled. “It was stained.”
Mud and blood from yesterday’s fight. “Then what am I to wear?”
“We’ve sent someone to collect your things from the boarding house. Until they arrive, you will stay in this room.” He gave his order and left.
“You’ve made an enemy, Miss Crewe.”
“I’m sorry, Tessie. I didn’t even ask if you wanted to be my maid, I was that irate with him. Should you like to be my maid?”
“More than anything, milady, but I don’t know how to dress hair and fasten elegant gowns.”
“Never mind, we’ll figure it out together. We’ll have to wait until my things arrive.”
“I’ll just go and fetch a cloth to mop up this chocolate, milady.” Tessie bobbed a clumsy curtsy and ran from the room.
Ana would make certain she wasn’t punished. She could use a friend and ally in this house filled with the duke’s absence and the disapproval of McArdle.
She had no clothing to wear. She couldn’t very well leave the house in her shift and a dressing gown. She was a prisoner here, as surely as if the duke had turned the key in the lock.
She helped Tessie clean up the spilled chocolate and then inspected the chamber she’d been assigned by McArdle, excitedly flinging the curtains wide only to find the decidedly uninspiring backside of the carriage house.
“This will never do. There’s no view.”
“There are some trees.”
“Even though I was living in a garret I had a glorious view, out over the rooftops of the city. It helped me write.”
“Are you a writer, milady?” Tessie asked, looking awed by the prospect.
“I am. I’ve written one novel already, although a publisher told me it was no good and I should write another. If I stay here for any length of time I must have a tolerable writing desk, a supply of fresh paper, quills, and ink.” The duke had said he’d buy her one hundred pencils. He should be willing to supply other sorts of writing implements. “I must finish half a novel in a little over a fortnight.”
“How exciting! What will it be about?”
“Have you heard of the Clovercote books by Lady Claridge? No? They’re romances.”
“Romances,” Tessie said dreamily. “I’d love to have time to read romances.”