She hurried out and leaned back against the closed door, trying to still her hammering heart, blinking back tears.
Boots clacked on the stairs and she hurried down, greeting her father and Kincaid as she passed.
“Are they all right,do you think?” Jenny asked. The girl glanced at the case clock for the hundredth time, sending Perry’s nerves skittering. It was well after midnight in the short summer darkness, but not one of them would sleep.
“Do pay attention to the game,” Perry said, trying to keep the crossness from her voice. She was as much on edge as Jenny. She dealt another card in their game of hearts.
“Do be patient, girls,” Lady Jane echoed, pulling a needle through the fabric of Perry’s trousers as peacefully as if she were embroidering a chair cushion in the morning room at Shaldon House. The window rattled and Lady Jane jerked her head up frowning.
So perhaps her calm was a deception. She certainly had seemed a bit restive when she’d yanked the mending from Jenny’s hands and ordered both of them to play cards. And the expression on Lady Jane’s face when she’d seen his lordship in his black jumper and trousers had inspired a great deal of speculation and questions that Perry had put aside until now?now when the time wore at her nerves like the waves wearing away the cliffs.
Like, for example, why hadJanefollowed Father here? Father could have ordered Charley and Graciela here, or Bink and Paulette.
“It is kind of you to stitch my trousers, Lady Jane,” Perry said.
“Well, I ply a good needle, if I do say so,” Lady Jane said, “I can repair anything from fine lawn to stiff leather.”
“But I must say, Jenny is far better at hearts than you,” Perry teased.
“Then it is a fair exchange. Jenny, if you are to be a sought-after lady’s maid, you are going to have some sewing lessons with my maid.”
“Your former maid,” Perry said. Lady Jane’s maid, Barton, had left to go into trade with a French modiste, Madame La Fanelle. “And if you engage Barton to train Jenny, Barton will want an investment to start a school for ladies’ maids.”
Jane laughed. “To be sure. She has an excellent mind for business. I shall be seeking employment from her someday.”
The wistfulness in her voice caught Perry up again. Lady Jane had very little income. She was living on charity and she hated it.
Perry had not fully realized that until now.
A soft rumbling snore came from the sofa, and Jenny giggled. “My brother used to snore like that when we could find a bed to sleep in.”
Perry looked over to where Pip lay, the huge black shawl cocooning him, and she thought about their interview earlier. Pip had recognized Sir Richard and kept silent.
Like her brothers had kept silent about Father’s business, or what they’d known of his business. It was an art she must learn if she wanted Father’s trust.
She sighed. Father’s trust was hard-earned. Likely he’d obliged Davy to leave Pip with them, because he didn’t trust Davy entirely. For his part, Davy had seen that Pip, who was inclined to run about on his own, would be safer with them.
Pip had settled in well, eating his way through two plates of a very acceptable dinner Jenny had prepared herself from provisions brought in by the new arrivals. She’d hinted that MacEwen had been teaching her more skills in the kitchen.
Perry smiled. And perhaps on the kitchen cot, as well. Jenny seemed happy. She’d brought up their tea and they’d compelled her to join them. They’d built a fire in this parlor against the evening chill, and Jenny had listened closely as Perry read Pip to sleep from a book of fairy tales she’d found in the study.
Jenny pressed her hand against a yawn.
“None of that.” Perry tapped the table. “Wake up now. It’s your draw.”
She would not sleep until the men returned.
