AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Payne, if I could see you upstairs?” Mabel said in her most kind and authoritative tone, clasping her hands before her. If she was going to stand in front of the large majority of her staff while covered in dried, crusty mud, she would do so with as much dignity as she could.
Payne seemed to collect herself and stammered, “Yes, miss. Of course.”
“Very good. Thank you.” Mabel directed a nod to the occupants of the room, indicating they could resume their duties. She was tempted to say “at ease” as her father often did but refrained, chuckling to herself at the odd looks that would most likely follow her.
“Am I correct to assume,” Payne asked as she sidled up to her mistress, “that you would like me to draw a bath?”
“Yes, Payne. A bath sounds simply wonderful.”
“Right away, miss,” Payne said as she moved for the kitchen.
Mabel shook her head as she turned toward the servants’ staircase. There was no sense in trailing mud along the carpeted stairs within the house. It would be much easier to clean if she remained on the bare, wooden set.
As she reached the upper level that contained the schoolroom, nursery, and family rooms, she heard giggles layered with rich, feminine laughter and smiled to herself. Asking her friend Giulia Pepper to come and help her with Pippa had been the best decision she had ever made. The two had taken to each other like flies to honey; no other tutor or governess had ever been able to reach Pippa quite like Giulia had. Mabel was able to get through to the little spitfire, but they tended to butt heads more often than not, and she found that their relationship thrived better when they practiced intervals of healthy breaks between their time together. Something that Giulia gladly helped to implement.
Giulia had come to the nearby estate, Halstead Manor, the previous year in an effort to kindle a relationship with her uncle, Lord Hart, the earl that resided in that castle, misnamed in an effort by the previous Peppers to avoid taxes hundreds of years ago. While there, Giulia had made the acquaintance of Mabel and her friends, Amelia and Hattie. The four had become friends quickly and easily. Mabel had a difficult time remembering life before Giulia entered it.
She had now been a guest in the Sheffield home for six months while helping with Pippa’s schooling and courting the heir to the earldom, Nick Pepper, a distant relative of hers.
The two had come together while she stayed at the castle, but to give herself a little freedom and a pinch of propriety, Giulia had come to the Sheffield home to live for the time being. But that would soon be at an end. Giulia would marry her uncle’s heir, leaving Mabel alone with her sister and elderly grandmother. Not that Mabel complained. Giulia and Nick were obviously made for one another.
Mabel slipped into her bedroom and began peeling off her mud-soaked dress. Payne came in a moment later with the first of the hot water and set up a screen quickly.
“I’ve got Peter helping with the water, Miss Mabel, if you would like to step behind there.”
Mabel nodded and jumped behind the screen just as the door opened and Peter came in, a bucket of steaming water in each arm. The footman’s gaze leveled on her face over the top of the screen and she felt her cheeks warm. Blast her ridiculous height! She hunched her shoulders slightly, but it did little to lower her and she settled on looking away as Peter and Payne made multiple trips to fill the tub with hot, steaming water.
Payne closed the door and turned the lock before Mabel stepped over and lowered herself in the water. She sighed in contentment as she sunk in the warm liquid and let Payne wash the mud from her hair.
“Miss Pippa practicing her aim again?” Payne asked with levity.
“Naturally,” Mabel replied soothingly, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the fingers massaging her scalp.
“That little spitfire is a handful.” Payne chuckled. “She sure keeps things interesting.”
“Interesting is one word for it.” Mabel laughed. Payne had it right, though. Pippa was a ray of sunshine in the Sheffield house—the young, vibrant foil to Gram’s spirited, aging soul.
The thought brought a wave of melancholy over Mabel and she sucked in a breath of air when Payne’s hands moved away before plunging her head under the water. If only she could erase Gram’s irritable mood as easily as she could the mud from her skin.
* * *
“Go on now. Have your dinner, and then Hope will bring you down to the parlor for games,” Mabel said, indicating the table set in the corner of the room.
Pippa’s nose scrunched up. “But I don’t want to eat my dinner in the nursery. The nursery is for babies.”
“Who told you that?”
A defiant little nose shot into the air, and Mabel struggled to keep her calm as she waited for the answer. Everyone else was most likely already assembled for dinner, and Mabel was having a beast of a time getting Pippa to let her leave the upper level of the house. The small, navy-violet eyes stared back into Mabel’s, and she considered giving in before the voice in her head reminded her not to. The child was not going to learn to be obedient if she was spoiled and given everything she asked for, no matter how much easier that would feel in the moment.
Mabel let out a breath and dropped to her knees, trying for a gentler approach. “Pippa, did someone tell you that the nursery was for babies?”
“Yes.” Pippa let out a long breath.
Mabel fought a smile. The girl mimicked adults so well, she seemed like a tiny grown-up herself at times.
“Was it a friend of yours or someone in the house?”
Pippa’s face immediately reeled back as disgust marred her precious little features. “Jacob Tucker is no friend of mine!”
