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Vern saw this at once and snorted. He turned and waved Sir Edward closer, “I am sorry to greet you from my bed, sir. While these two battle over m’sister, may I introduce myself as I see Jules is too excited over some other matter to attend to the oversight. I am Vern.”
“Indeed, so I gathered, I am…”
Jules remembered his manners at that moment and hurriedly interrupted with an unintelligible sound and then with a wave of his hand as he offered the necessary introductions.
Dilly had been stalled in the door frame, waiting for the outcome of this. Did his lordship wish her to bring up a tray or not? He finally saw her hovering nervously about and said, “Oh, Dilly, I am sorry. It appears we won’t be having tea.”
She nodded and made good her escape down the hall and then hurriedly down the main staircase. She flew for she had any number of things that needed taking care of and not enough minutes in the day, so she grumbled to herself as she made her way. “I don’t have time to wait on swells and bloods,” she told no one in particular as she went past a collection of Berkley portraits. She was highly flustered and in something of a state when her mistress and Miss Madison came through the front door and nearly bumped into her.
“Why Dilly, whatever has you so flushed?” Star’s brow was up high as her eyes scanned the hall for a clue.
“Naught, but Oi will say this to ye, Miss Star. Oi cares fer ye and the young lord. That’s why Oi stays on, otherwise Oi would go to Mrs. Quigly, who thinks Oi would do as ‘er own personal maid.”
“But Dilly, I don’t understand. Do you wish to leave us? Have we burdened you with too much work?” Star stole a quick glance at her friend, but if Miss Madison had an answer, it wasn’t written on her face.
“No, don’t be thinking that. Why ye and the young lord ‘ave been good to me, ye ‘ave. ‘Taint that, but it makes me uneasy to serve ‘imself and ‘is friends abovestairs, it does. It would be more fittin’ if there was a serving boy to do that.”
Dawning lit in Star’s eyes and mind. No doubt Miles was up to some devilry with Dilly for she was a pretty little thing, and he was an outrageous flirt. Over the years, she could not help but notice that about him. She knew him well and though he meant no harm, she also knew to someone like Dilly, he could be intimidating.
Exchanging a knowing glance with Georgie, she patted Dilly’s shoulder and said, “Dilly, I do promise that as soon as we can, we shall bring in the additional help you need. You are perfectly correct. ‘Tis time Vern looked about for a valet to handle such things.”
Satisfied, Dilly sniffed and allowed a quick curtsy before she headed toward the kitchen and Cook.
Chapter Nine
“I WON’T HAVE Miles and Vern teasing that child. Why, it is the outside of enough. We can’t afford the servants we have, let alone another,” Star said in a hushed aside to Georgina and chewed her bottom lip.
“Now Star, Vern is not the sort to dally with a vulnerable girl like Dilly and Miles, well,” she smiled, “Is Miles. He can’t help himself, can he?”
“Indeed. Yet lately, he seems to think I might be open to his dalliance,” Star frowned.
“Well, as to that,” Georgie smiled wickedly, “Miles is infatuated with you. I say infatuated because in my opinion that is all that it is and I don’t want your head turned by him.”
“Take a damper!” Star fidgeted with her fingers. “Miles, indeed. That is like my saying that Vern has a tendre for you—Miles and I would never suit.”
Georgie frowned. “I don’t know if it is quite the same thing. Vern wants to marry me because he likes me and thinks he would be comfortable with me as his wife and because the joining of our two estates would get him out of financial trouble. Miles wants to marry you because he openly adores you and thinks that he might be in love. He isn’t, but he thinks he is.”
“I quite agree. Miles adores every maid in town. He can’t help himself. He loves women. When we we
re young he once told me that he thinks each and every one of us, tall, thin, fat, skinny, all hold a mystery he needs to unfold. Can you imagine?” She laughed out loud as they reached the top step and turned at the landing toward her brother’s room.
“Star, don’t go raking them down until you have calmed yourself,” Georgie cautioned.
“Do I not look calm?”
“You look like you are about to toss them into the gallows and throw away the key,” Georgie giggled.
“You know Georgie…things are dire. There is something I haven’t told you,” Star started to say, thought better of it and bit her lip. Her brother had been hobnobbing with common thieves—a pack of criminals, giving them information he should not have been. The horror of it had her on edge. How could she tell Georgie such a thing? She was irritated with him. She knew he had done it, foolishly yes, but because he had been desperate.
She walked into her brother’s room and saw Sir Edward, profoundly dashing in his buckskin riding jacket, sitting beside her brother’s bed and in close conversation with him. Why, oh why did Sir Edward have such a whirlwind effect on her? It was as though the air had been wrenched from her lungs and withheld just out of reach. The sensation left her giddy.
“Star!” Vern exclaimed on a merry note. “You are back and in time to hear the good news.” Vern’s smile widened as he found Georgie stepping into the now overcrowded bedroom. “Hallo, Georgie, come and give an ailing man a kiss.”
“Hallo, brat,” Georgie said and blew him a sisterly kiss.
He eyed her and said softly, “I shall have to teach you to do better than that.”
“Oh, you don’t have to teach me, dearest. I fancy I rather know the knack of it better than you realize…but there is always the when and the who to be considered before I display my talents.” Tongue in cheek she started to turn away, but for the beseeching tone of his voice which called after her.
