AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She gave me a few books from the library to keep after I told Miss Beck’s secret on how to care for colicky babies.” Amelia smiled. “She frets about everything though, so I’m glad I’m here to help her with the babe.”
“You always were good with children back at the orphanage,” Louisa mentioned, while a part of her was still trying to digest the tragedy that had befallen Duke Westwood.
While musing over the new knowledge, Louisa began to realize a few more things she had dismissed but now, they were thrown into sharp focus. The dark circles under the Duke’s eyes, how he was awake with the sun, or possibly before it, and how he gazed out into nothing when he was in his mother’s garden. She realized why, from the one visit of Lord Ashford, he had never had another.
He’s brokenhearted and alone. Who is there to show him any kindness?
“Louisa?” Amelia asked. “Is something amiss?”
“Yes,” she replied. “There is. Now I understand so much more and I want to pity him, but I do not think he is man who takes much to being pitied. I feel moved to do something—but what? It not as if I have anything much to give.”
“Monetary no,” Amelia said. “And besides, even if you do have such means, he is a Duke—he has all and more than what he needs. But you do have something to give, Louisa, and it is what made you stand out back at the orphanage—your kindness, use that.”
“But—” Louisa failed to imagine out what she could do with kindness? Give him a listening ear? That was if he—on the very faint chance—would let her do so.
“No buts, Louisa,” Amelia shook her head defiantly. “You will find a way, I know you will, you always do.”
Internally, Louisa doubted it but if there were a possibility, she would try her best to find it. “I’m sorry that I got lost in my thoughts, but I am glad that you have found a good home.”
They spoke at length until Louisa noted that she had to get back to the Montagu home before it started to get dark. Reaching for her bonnet, she placed in on and tied the strings. “I wish I could stay longer, but I cannot, not this evening. I’ll send a note again to tell you when I can come to see you.”
Standing, Amelia embraced her tightly.“I am so glad to see you, Louisa, and don’t fret, if you cannot come to me, I will come to you.”
After a warm goodbye, Louisa set back on the backroad and took the road back down to the Duke’s estate. It was nearly dusk when she arrived at the manor house and instantly took off her coat and bonnet, then dressed in her working clothes and tied a clean apron around her waist.
She hurried off to the kitchen and immediately added herself to the staff there. She helped to clean up after the food was made and was wiping down the tables when Mrs. Wickham came in and said, “MissStone, His Grace is asking for you.”
Her head darted up, and for a moment, Louisa felt as if she lookedlike a scared rabbit.“Yes, Mrs. Wickham.”
“He is in his study,” the housekeeper advised.
After washing her hands, Louisa left the kitchen and took the stairs, dually wondering what he wanted from her and secondly fearing that all she had learned about him earlier that day would show on her face. She was heavily reticent when approaching the door but took a quick breath and knocked on the door.
“Enter MissStone,” Duke Westwood said.
Stepping inside, Louisa halted a mere foot inside.“You have sent for me, Your Grace?”
“Yes,” he said.“Please sit, and do not worry, this is not something against you. I would like to talk to you.”
Nervously, Louisa took the seat across from his desk, and folded her hands on her lap. He looked tired, pallid, the dark circles under his eye were a bit more prominent and the lines around his mouth were deep-set. His eyes however were just as piercing as ever and when his gaze settled on her, she tried not to squirm.
He closed the book he had been reading and set it aside, then seemed to sag into his chair. “I want to know more about you, Miss Stone,” he said. “I could easily have gone to Mrs. Wickham and asked about you, but I will not. I would like to speak with you.”
“About what, Your Grace?” Louisa asked.
“Your life,” he said. “I have seen you, MissStone and pardon me for making conclusions but you do your jobs with this smile on your face and with what you have told me about your life; I wonder how you can have such a… cheerful disposition.”
With all the pain in his life, he is asking me how I surmount my past. Maybe this can be one of the ways Amelia told me.
“Because I know my life can be worse, Your Grace,” Louisa replied. “People like me, orphans, are the one who are most expected to become the worst scourges of our society. A lot of boys become thieves and murderers while women become…er…I should say courtesans. I know a seldom few of us who have gained bigger positions; an older girl from the orphanage got a sponsor and she became a governess, and another one grew to be a clerk in an investigator’s office. I escaped that life.”
His fingers drummed on the arm of his chair, “How old were you when you were taken into the orphanage?”
Louisa’s fingers dug into her skirt and a horrid memory flashed behind her eyes.“I was seven. My mother died when I was four and I never knew my father. A lady who had enough children of her owncould not take care of me anymore and sent me off with a member of the local church.”
“And while you lived with that woman, what was your life like?” he asked.
This time, Louisa’s eyes clenched tightly—she did not want to answer himbut could she refuse a Duke when he asked her a question? “I was cold and hungry, but there was a roof over my head, and I had somewhere to sleep, so it was not all bad.”
