Page 6 of Falling for a Footman

“I thought you said that the old entrance hall was too dark?” Charlotte teased her.

“It was,” was the only thing Lucy uttered as she started towards the stairs. Charlotte followed her. “This is just... there is not enough shadows. This is not how I would have done it at all, Mama,” she declared in a louder voice and leaned slightly over the banister to look at their parents who were still standing at the armor with Hester.

Charlotte was quite certain that she caught her mother roll her eyes at her father, before she answered pertly:

“Well, when you have your own house, you can redo the entrance hall exactly how you want to.”

“Oh, I will, you can be sure. And if I don’t marry, I will convince Henry to redo this in green colors and hang heads of stags he shoots on the walls.”

“Well, I wish her all the luck in the world with that,” Charlotte could hear their mother mutter to their father.

“I think you have outdone yourself, Millie,” their father answered.

It was Lucy’s turn to roll her eyes now. Charlotte could not help but grin unladylike as they turned the corner towards the family wing of the estate.

“Would you really have done it in green with stags on the wall?” Charlotte asked. If she had been in charge, she would have done something fairly similar to her mother.

“Yes, it would be much more interesting to draw or paint,” Lucy answered as if how a room would look in a sketch or a painting was the only thing that mattered when redecorating it.

“I think it’s elegant,” Charlotte stated and almost crossed her arms over her chest to underline the point.

“One could say that, but anything elegant or beautiful is simply too boring. It’s like the new footman for example. He is simply too handsome to be interesting. No, give me William any day, he is much more interesting to draw.”

The comparison of the sturdy footman William to the new one made Charlotte’s cheeks heat and she once again felt the swirl low in her stomach. This could not be happening to her. She quickly rushed to her room, closed the door behind her and leaned her back against it.

Why was she feeling this way – about him? She had practically been presented to all the respectable young men of the ton - or at least those residing in London - and none of them had made her feel anything like the footman had just now.

Was he exceptionally handsome? Charlotte frowned as she tried to remember his features but all she could recall was the deep blue eyes under dark brown hair. Would she even be able to recognize him when she saw him around the estate?

There was a knock at the door and Charlotte quickly stepped aside and called: "Enter.”

Immediately she chastised herself for thinking that she was secure in her bedroom: Her ladies maid Miss Walker entered with two footmen behind her carrying Charlotte’s chest between them.

"It's this way," Miss Walker directed the footmen and led them into Charlotte's dressing room. Charlotte only saw the back of the man entering the door but as he turned into the dressing room and put down the chest, she could see that it was the footman. She felt herself blush again and quickly walked to stand by the window.

"I thought you'd want to change into the green muslin dress, so I had William and James carry your chest up first, Lady Charlotte," Miss Walker directed behind her. Charlotte could hear how proud she was of herself to have been able to arrange it. Miss Walker had been promoted to lady’s maid before Charlotte's season started and was still keen to go the extra mile to make an impression.

"Thank you, Miss Walker," Charlotte muttered, while all she could think was that she now knew his name. William had been with them for several years. The other footman, her footman, no, not hers but the one with the striking blue eyes - he had to be James.

She turned to briefly look at the footmen as they were leaving her room. She had thought to be able to catch one last glimpse of the footman’s back before he left but she found he had looked momentarily at her as well. Once again, she was captured by his dark blue eyes and could not turn her gaze away. She thought she caught a smile in the corner of the footman's eye before he left her room and closed the door after him.

Charlotte turned quickly towards the window to hide her blush from Miss Walker. This was a catastrophe. It had never occurred to her that the magnetism her mother had talked about might draw her to such an inappropriate man as a footman.