Page 124

She placed a log onto the fire and picked up Emma’s discarded chemise, draping it across the trunk at the foot of her bed.

“I told ’em you do like to sleep in the morn, and your man just smiled. Lord, he is a handsome devil. I can see—”

“Edith.” She sat up in the bed. “What precisely are we speaking of?”

“Why, your wedding, of course.”

“My . . .”

“The banns were posted this morn. Lord Clave spent the entirety of the morning meal speaking with my lord and Lady Sara. They must be hungry, having missed—”

“Wedding?”

“Oh, aye. You’ve missed much, slumbering away as you will. Faye is nowhere to be seen.” Edith smirked. “Sir Hugh arrived just as the announcement was read, and well, they’re ‘reuniting,’ it seems. I can hardly stand to think of it. ’Tis like thinking of your grandparents—”

“Edith . . .”

“Oh, aye. Well, it seems Lord Clave has not waited for you to rise to make arrangements. Reginald heard from James, who heard from—”

“Edith!”

“Beggin’ your pardon, my lady, for gossip’n, but I heard your future husband is most anxious to see the deed done.” Edith wrinkled her nose. “Deed isn’t the right word. Well, not for a weddin’ anyway. Though mayhap ’tis for what happened in here last eve.”

Emma peered under the covers, the evidence of their “deed” very much apparent. “Help me dress, if you please.”

When she swung her legs around the side of the bed, Emma groaned. Edith’s cackling did not help, and though she loved the maid dearly, this was one morning she would have preferred to have been left alone.

“And now I see why he’s in such a hurry,” Edith said.

After more comments like that one, and a bit of cleaning up courtesy of the fresh bowl of rosewater Edith had brought with her, Emma was finally ready for the day—and ready to find Garrick.

“Don’t you worry, my lady. I’ll clean this all up—”

“Edith.” She spun around and took the maid’s hands. “It just occurred to me. I’ll live at Clave.”

The look on Edith’s face said she’d already thought that.

“You’ll come with me?”

But rather than the excited agreement she’d expected, Edith hesitated.

“Edith?” Emma couldn’t tell if her maid wanted to smile or weep. “What is it?”

She dropped the other girl’s hands and waited. And then she remembered her affinity for Reginald.

“You’ll be staying here at Kenshire.”

When Edith looked down at her feet, Emma lifted her chin up. The maid was waiting on her answer. She’d miss her dearly, but Emma knew all too well the heart’s pull. “You will visit Clave often?”

Edith’s face brightened. “I would like that very much, my lady.” And then she pushed her toward the door. “Go . . . ’Tis late already.”

When she arrived in the hall, the meal had already ended. As Edith had said, Garrick was nowhere to be seen.

The hall was empty.

Not one servant was present. Aye, it was late, but not this late. Where had everyone gone?

Emma went to the kitchens, for that was the one place Cook and her maids could always be found. But that too was empty.