AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 21
WhenOliviawokeupin the morning, she felt sore but pleasantly tired. She stretched in bed, a wide smile playing about her lips. She rolled over onto her stomach, unwilling to get up.
Jarvis was to come to her father today and ask for her hand.
Her life—the life with the man of her dreams—was finally to begin. The thought made her spring up in the bed.
Right, she was naked.
Olivia stood and padded toward her dressing gown, lying on the floor by the bed. She put it on and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place. Her room was the same. Yet, everything had changed.
She walked toward the servant’s bell and called for her maid. “Please, bring me a warm bath. I want to wash before breakfast.”
The maid scurried away, and Olivia sat beside the hearth combing her hair while the footmen ran back and forth, filling a hip bath.
As soon as she slipped into the bath, the maids scrambled to clean the room. They talked in hushed tones among themselves, but Olivia didn’t listen. She was too lost in her blissful thoughts to pay any attention to them.
“Did you sleep without your nightgown again, my lady?” Her lady’s maid asked as she placed a clean shift and a day gown on the chair next to her bath.
“Yes, I—” Olivia fought to conceal her blush. “I am afraid I did.”
Were the maids looking for her nightgown? Is that what they were discussing? Olivia looked away and started washing her arms, but at the back of her mind, shame burned. Would the maids continue to discuss her in the kitchen? Would the gossip be let out of the house?
She hoped Jarvis would come soon, so no explanations would be necessary.
As she washed, dressed, and prepared for breakfast, she was filled with dread. Would it be better not to come out of her room at all until Jarvis arrived? How would she be able to look her parents in the eye?
She took a deep breath. A missing nightgown was not evidence enough that anything shameful had happened. Her maids were probably used to Olivia scattering clothing everywhere and her overall weirdness to not pay much attention to it. If Olivia acted normally, she was certain that nobody would suspect a thing.
Olivia came down to breakfast a few minutes later. Her parents were already there, enjoying some early morning banter. Olivia hissed as she sat, feeling rather tender between her legs.
“Is something wrong?” her mother asked instantly.
“No, nothing, Mother. Probably just a scrape.”
Her mother tsked and shook her head. “You know you always scrape yourself over something; you need to be more careful.”
“How did you sleep, my dear?” her father asked, and heat traveled up Olivia’s neck to her cheeks.
“Rather well, thank you,” Olivia answered without looking up from her empty plate.
A footman brought her a plate filled with breakfast food right at that moment, and Olivia was grateful she had some activity to busy her hands. She started chasing the food around with her fork.
“How was the ball, dear? Did you enjoy yourself?” her mother asked. “Well, aside from the horrid incident at the end.”
Olivia had told her parents that the ball was cut short due to an unknown incident at the end of the night. She did not know the details, so she had nothing more to tell them when she came home earlier than expected.
“Yes, very much.” Olivia lowered her face closer to the plate.
“Dearest, do not slouch, or soon you’ll have to dig your nose out of your food.”
Olivia straightened slightly.
“Did you read the morning paper?” the viscountess asked her husband. “There’s sure to be an account of last night’s ball.”
“Yes, my dear, I did. And it is the most dreadful of things. Someone was murdered in one of Kensington’s rooms during the ball!”
Her mother gasped in horror. Olivia raised her head.
