Thel smoothed a hand down her back. “Are you ready?”
She took a deep breath, then nodded.
He turned the knob and pushed. The door opened on a long creak, revealing a dimly lit interior. All of the furnishings in the foyer were covered in white sheets, and there were squares of dark patches on the walls where paintings had once rested. Where the gardens and façade had been painfully familiar, there was little she recognized inside the house.
An elderly servant in a blue tweed jacket rose from his place on a chair beneath the staircase and squinted at her. “Lady Allen?”
“Boris!” She rushed forward to greet the man who had been her only ally in a home that had sapped every ounce of life from her. “I suppose I should not be surprised to see you here. Did the new earl keep you on as butler?”
She’d wanted to ask Boris to come work for her after the funeral, but he’d been employed by her late husband’s family for decades.
The old man rubbed his long beard. “That he did, my lady, although I think it was more out of convenience than tradition. Two days after the funeral, he walked through the house once, dismissed half the staff, and departed for France. But now you are here! The earl left instructions that you were to be welcome whenever you wished.”
She did not have the heart to tell him she would not be visiting again. If she’d harbored any hope of convincing Boris to leave with her, she would have offered him a position in her household, but the man was far too loyal. She thanked Boris, then took Thel’s hand and led him to the stairs.
Her feet moved without her bidding them. How many times had she walked down the hallway, practicing the perfect stroll, checking her face in the mirrors to confirm not a hint of what she felt shone through? The earl had encouraged this in his own way. When she showed a rare smile or hearty laugh, he would apologize for his “energetic” wife. That was when he was not calling her “youthful” and “naïve.”
“My lady, you should stay out of that room,” a young voice said.
She turned to see a maid twisting her apron in her hands.
“What’s your name?” Olivia asked.
The girl bobbed a curtsey. “Willow, my lady. I was a maid here before you left. This room… It hasn’t been prepared. It wouldn’t be right for you to see it in such condition until we…” She gulped. “Until we gave it a proper cleaning.”
“The condition of the room does not matter, as I’m not here to stay. This is no longer my home, Willow.”
“Have you come—is there something you seek?” The quick glances Willow shot at Thel suggested there was more going on, but Olivia did not have a frame of reference to determine what it might be.
“Is something the matter?”
The maid clutched her apron in both hands, then spoke so quickly that Olivia almost didn’t make out the words. “We didn’t think you would mind, milady, seeing as all your possessions were moved after the old earl died, and we knew the dress wasn’t yours, so Delilah sewed up the cuts in the gold chiffon and fixed the fine lace and found a buyer in the shops in Whitechapel and sold it. Begging your pardon, but the money is long gone.”
Olivia shook her head. “I didn’t leave any gowns behind.”
Willow’s gaze dropped to the floor. “I know, milady. It was the other lady. She wore it whenever she visited.”
“What other lady?” she asked, but then she knew. It should not have come as a surprise. The earl had treated her no better than a possession. Of course, he had sought his pleasure with another woman.
She had come to the house determined to learn where her nemesis was getting information, but now it was obvious. It was not a member of her staff at all, but her former husband’s mistress.
She forced her attention back to Willow. The girl was speaking even faster and with such a high-pitched voice that Olivia feared she was on the verge of faint.
“…swore us to silence, and even after he died, we feared his old ghost would haunt the place.”
“You aren’t in trouble, Willow,” she said. “Can you tell me more about…” She had to force the words out. “This woman. What did she look like?”
Thel might have called her masochistic for delving so deep into the earl’s sins, but any woman who’d willingly come to the earl’s bed had to have been lacking in both self-preservation and morality. Exactly the kind of woman who would be amenable to bribes.
Willow ducked her head. “I wish I could tell you more, but the previous earl was very careful when his mistress was concerned. I think he didn’t like us knowing what he was up to. I only ever caught glimpses of her.”
She looked so anxious that Olivia felt compelled to smile. “You can return to your duties, Willow.”
As the girl hurried away, Thel threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed. “Do you feel this woman is important?”
“Yes.”
The earl had taken pleasure in sharing the secrets he had extracted out of his acquaintances with her, especially whensaid information made her uncomfortable. He had once gleefully informed her that Lady Cowper had been beaten by her husband so badly that she could not exit her house without wearing a veil.
