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‘Good. Well, I’ll show you around now, so that we can leave His Grace in peace,’ said Vanessa. ‘I’m afraid it will take you ages before you start to find your bearings—it is rather a large house.’
‘So I see,’ said Roxy. She looked up to find a pair of pewter eyes studying her and she felt the unsteady lurch of her heart as she returned his gaze with a polite smile. ‘Thanks very much for the lift, Your … er … Your Grace.’
‘The pleasure was all mine,’ he answered coolly.
He turned and walked into the big house and Roxy stood there for a moment, feeling a bit like a child who had just lost her security blanket, until Vanessa’s voice broke into her thoughts.
‘Come inside,’ said the housekeeper.
Roxy had thought that entering Valeo Hall was going to be a bit like booking into a smart hotel, but all thoughts of hotels faded the moment she stepped inside. A vast, marbled staircase led up to the first floor and was supported by huge alabaster columns—so that it felt a bit like standing in the British Museum, on a school trip. Looking up, she could see high, domed ceilings with carved and gilded cornices. Exquisite tapestries hung from dark wooden walls and chandeliers like complicated cascades of diamonds sent fractured rays of light across the expanse of floor.
But it was the scale of the place which was so startling. Everything looked so vast that it made her perception seem warped. A chair sitting by the start of the staircase—presumably in case you got exhausted after the long walk across the hall—looked as tiny as a piece of furniture from a doll’s house.
‘Good heavens,’ said Roxy, underneath her breath—but Vanessa must have heard her because she smiled.
‘I know. It’s pretty amazing the first time you see it, isn’t it? I remember walking in here for the first time and not quite believing I was going to be allowed to stay!’ She fixed Roxy with a curious look. ‘I believe you’re just here on a short-term contract, until after His Grace’s birthday party?’
Roxy nodded. ‘That’s right,’ she said, as something in the formal-sounding terms of her employment reinforced the Duke’s inaccessibility ‘Is it going to be a big party?’
‘About three hundred and fifty guests, I believe.’
‘Gosh,’ Roxy observed wryly. ‘He must have a lot of friends.’
There was a split-second pause. ‘He?’ echoed Vanessa, with a slightly studied expression of surprise. ‘The Duke’s friendships are not really any of my business—and neither are they yours. I’m afraid that you’ll be much too busy polishing all the glassware and dusting the statues to spend time thinking about His Grace’s private life! And now, I’ll take you across to your room if you like.’
Roxy felt an unexpected twist of disappointment. ‘You mean I’m not staying here?’
Vanessa’s head jerked back, as if Roxy had committed her second faux pas in as many minutes. ‘In the main house? Good heavens, no. Did you think you might be? The workers’ cottages are about a five-minute walk away, over by the windmill. As staff accommodation goes, you’ll find it’s excellent and I’m sure you’ll be perfectly comfortable there. Just let me get my coat and I’ll take you—it’s pretty wintry outside.’
It certainly was, thought Roxy as an icy wind greeted them and chilled her through to the bone. The clouds were dark and heavy but it seemed almost too cold to snow. They crunched their way across the frosty grass until they’d reached a row of small cottages and when Vanessa unlocked the door of one, it was so low that Roxy had to dip her head to enter.
Inside it was simply furnished and compact, with tiny windows looking out onto the flat Norfolk landscape. There was a green furry crocodile lying on the sofa and a used mug on the coffee table, next to a half-eaten packet of digestive biscuits. Vanessa gave a little click of disapproval.
‘You’ll be sharing with Amy—one of our permanent cleaners, who’s about your age.’
‘Sharing?’ echoed Roxy, because the last time she’d shared had been when The Lollipops were starting out and they’d been jammed into dingy little digs and had nearly killed each other.
‘His Grace didn’t mention that? I suppose he didn’t realise. You’ll have your own bedroom, of course,’ added Vanessa crisply. ‘I did ask Amy to make sure that the place was tidy before you arrived. I’m sorry about the mess.’
‘That’s okay,’ said Roxy automatically.
‘Staff dinner will be in the main house, at six-thirty,’ Vanessa was saying. ‘And whatever you do, don’t be late. We have a brilliant cook but she doesn’t take kindly to poor timekeeping. Now, unless you’ve got any questions, I’ll leave you to unpack.’
After the housekeeper had left, Roxy unpacked her suitcase and made herself a cup of tea in the small and very old-fashioned kitchen. Her hands cupping the steaming drink, she walked over to the window and stared out at the darkening sky. And she thought how bizarre fate could sometimes be and the different places it could take you.
She had ended up working in a stately home, in the most subservient position of her life. It wasn’t ideal, but it was a life-saver.
And the last thing she could afford to do was to start falling for her arrogant and aristocratic boss.
CHAPTER FIVE
ROXY had never heard of a ‘vermicular collar’ or a ‘large, conical foot’. But there again, she hadn’t realised that you could pay as much for a rare, Georgian wine glass as most people would spend on their monthly rent. Or that she would be expected to polish hundreds of the wretched things during the frantic run-up to the Duke’s party.
She sighed as she held another delicate goblet up to the light and watched it sparkle, imagining herself toasting the birthday boy. What would she say to him, if she was speaking from the heart? Here’s to Titus Alexander, the icy-eyed Duke who I can’t stop thinking about—or fantasising about, even though I’m obviously the kind of woman he despises.
‘So this is where you’ve been hiding yourself.’
A familiar aristocratic drawl interrupted her dreamy thoughts and Roxy very nearly dropped the precious glass, her fingers only just clamping around the twisted stem in time to save it. And she turned round to find herself looking into a pair of mocking grey eyes.
