Yet, she sat down to wait for Lady Helena and drifted to sleep almost immediately. She felt she had barely closed her eyes when the door’s slam woke her with a jolt. Once she stood, she realized by the gumminess in her eyes and how liquid her muscles felt that she had slept for at least a couple of hours. Lady Helena strode in as Eugenia stood shakily.
“Undress me,” Lady Helena snapped. “I want to go to bed.”
Startled, Eugenia stared at her, noticing the sharpness in her mistress’s tone. One that she had never,ever,used before. “Of course, My Lady,” she replied, keeping her own tone meek.
Lady Helena said not a single word as Eugenia helped her out of her formal gown and into her nightdress. While she brushed out her long red hair and braided it for bed, Eugenia dared not speak. Though she considered Lady Helena her best and only friend, this aspect of her mistress frightened her.
What have I done wrong?
If there was an answer to that question, Eugenia had no idea what it might be. After seeing Lady Helena into her great bed and turned down the lamps, she put more wood on the hearth. In the light of the fire, she dressed herself in her own nightgown and crawled under the quilt.
She lay awake for a long time.
* * *
The next morning brought with it the sunlight, a new attitude in Eugenia’s mistress, and an apology.
“I am so sorry for being so rude last night,” Lady Helena said, embracing her. “His Grace hardly spoke to me at all, he hardly noticed my existence. My mother tried so hard to get him to talk to me, but he would not, he merely talked horses with my father. And the Duchess! She frightens me, Eugenia. If I marry the Duke, she will make my life miserable, I just know it. That woman is a viper.”
Eugenia helped her to dress and sat her down to brush her hair and coil it into a braid that she would pin atop her head. “I do not understand this, My Lady, why would the Duke invite you here, then ignore you?”
“I have no idea, Eugenia. But I heard whispers that it was the Duchess forcing his hand and sent the invitations.”
With an admonition to eat a hearty breakfast, Eugenia once more followed her mistress down the stairs to the castle’s main level. Parting at the dining hall’s great doors, she watched as Lady Helena went inside, and lingered for a few moments, hoping to spy the Duke. Unable to believe her good fortune, Eugenia saw he arrived a few minutes later and smiled as he caught sight of her.
“Greetings, Miss Betham,” he said grandly, taking her hand in his for a moment before releasing it.
Eugenia hastily curtseyed. “Good morning, Your Grace.”
“I trust you slept well?” he asked, his dark eyes twinkling. “You and your mistress?”
“Why, yes, thank you for asking. Your castle is so magnificent, I am in awe.”
The Duke glanced around and up at the buttressed ceiling, the stone walls with their tapestries, the mahogany sideboards. “It is a ghastly pile of rock is what it is.” He smiled down at her. “But it is mine, Miss Betham, and in spite of my acerbic words, I do love it.”
She answered his smile. “Just as you should, as your ancestors built it and passed it down to you.”
“As I shall one day give it to my son,” he said. “But, God willing, that day will not happen soon. I apologize. I am keeping you from your breakfast. Perhaps we might talk again later.”
Eugenia curtseyed, more gracefully this time. “I will look forward to it, Your Grace.”
She received yet another incredible smile from him, his eyes crinkling at the corners before he passed her by and walked into the dining hall. Her knees felt weak, which seemed to Eugenia to be a rather odd reaction to a simple conversation. Upon stiffening them while at the same time feeling once again that she walked upon a cloud, she went to the kitchen. The stout cook smiled as he placed a full plate before her along with a cup of hot tea.
If I keep eating like this, I will find myself rolling from place to place.
Yet, she ate every morsel, drank the tea, before thanking the cook, Mr. Simmons, for his generosity.
“You are most welcome, my dear,” he replied. “His Grace likes you, and I can certainly see why.”
His comment baffled and unnerved her; thus Eugenia stammered, “Your f-food is excellent, sir.”
Retreating before she could embarrass herself further, she found her way back to Lady Helena's quarters after only a few missed turns.
I am getting to know my way around this huge place.
Humming as she worked, Eugenia tidied the chambers, made the beds, rearranged Lady Helena's cosmetics on the table beside the looking glass. As her mistress had not yet returned from breakfast, she sat down to mend a small tear in the hem of one of Lady Helena's gowns.
Lady Helena burst into the apartments just as she began to sew, excitement spilling from her as fast as her flow of words.
