“Are you all right? May I get anything for you?” Georgie said, kneeling down and chafing Hester’s hands. “Goodness, your hands are like ice!”
“I am… perfectly well. Just… a little… out of breath. Been upstairs… linen cupboard…”
“Take your time, Hester. Would you like a little wine?”
“No, no! Quite well, Georgie… it is just… so many stairs in this house. Were you looking for me?”
“Only to beg for some tea. I forgot to buy more, and I have the ladies coming for tea and cakes this afternoon.”
“Next door, in the big pantry. Let me show you. You can take… whatever you want. No need to buy tea.”
“I like to provide at least some of what we eat and drink,” Georgie said. “The duke feeds us dinner in magnificent style, but it’s better if we’re a bit independent. I’m not family or servant now, so I don’t want to take anything for granted.”
They moved out into the servants’ hall, where the men all stood again as they passed through, entering the cool pantry, with its marble-topped counters laden with cheese, cakes and half-eaten pies, and its shelves of jars and bottles.
“Here,” Hester said, pointing to a low shelf behind the door where a line of wooden boxes lay, each neatly labelled with a brass plate. The largest was marked,‘Hall’, and a row of smaller ones bore such labels as‘Duke’, ‘Mrs M’, ‘Mrs R’, ‘H’, ‘Lady J’.
“Does everyone have their own type?” Georgie said, fascinated.
“It makes it easier. The ladies like the expensive types, but they all have their favourites, just as the gentlemen who take snuff have their own mixes. The big one is the cheapest. For the servants. This one for the drawing room, after dinner. Her grace keeps hers in her sitting room upstairs, since she prefers to make her own tea. Mrs Merrington likes two types, one for morning and one for afternoons, see?”
She flipped open the lid to reveal two compartments inside.
“And you don’t lock them up? All these boxes have a lock fitted.”
“We trust the servants,” Hester said. “The second duchess set up this system. Never seen a reason to change it. Never had a problem, either. Mrs Richard’s is the most expensive. Do you want to try that?”
Georgie agreed to it, but she took only as much as she would need for the afternoon. She was rather glad she had not taken more, for she found it not at all to her taste, with an odd bitterness. But the other ladies seemed to like it and they all drank copiously and ate every last crumb of cake, so the visit was a success.
Of course, Rowena was not there. The breach seemed to be too great for her to overcome, which left Georgie sad. At least the cheerful Merrington ladies were her friends, and Lady Juliet and even Lily, the duchess, and she had her husband, who was also a friend.
But most of all, she had her little secret, a secret that was growing larger by the day and could not be concealed much longer. She could not be unhappy, even after the quarrel with Rowena, when she had her baby to look forward to.
17: Tea And Cake
Jamie could hear Georgie humming as she dressed for dinner. She always hummed after she had entertained the ladies, he had discovered. Sometimes their visits had to be abandoned if callers arrived downstairs, but when the ladies came and stayed for a while, their chatter seemed to lift Georgie’s spirits. Not that she ever seemed downhearted, for she was a kindly soul who never made him feel unwelcome, but he knew she must resent him, and regret the foolishness that had led to their marriage. After such a brief marriage to a man she adored, how galling it must be to put up with an inferior husband like Jamie.
But tonight she was happy. She had on a gown he had not seen before, a little looser at the front to accommodate her growing belly. It was rather a striking teal colour which suited her colouring admirably.
“New gown?” he said, blushing slightly at the brief view of her shapely legs as she rolled up her stockings.
“Yes. Do you like it?”
“Mmm. It reminds me of a kingfisher.”
“Oh. Too bright, do you think?”
“Not a bit. It sets off your hair admirably. You look lovely. A kingfisher is a beautiful bird, you know. Most English birds are drab creatures, all dull browns and blacks, but the kingfisher is the brilliant exception.”
“Oh,” she said again, her tone surprised. “Goodness! What a charming compliment.”
“I am sorry — I am not very good at compliments. I wish I were.” He took his spectacles off, looking down at his shoes. “I should love to have that quickness of mind that some men have, to think up just the right words at the right time, but I have never had the ability.”
“Yet your employment is all about words.”
“It is not the words that are the problem,” he said with a wry grin. “The trouble is, they generally come to me about an hour later, when the moment has passed.” And then, because the matter lurked constantly in his mind, he added, “Yet another way in which your Henry outshone me.”
“Oh, but Henry wasn’t exactly free with his compliments, either, and when he did make one, it was for something entirely beyond my control — my ankles, for instance, or my—” She broke off, waving her hands vaguely in the vicinity of her chest.
