Eugenia choked on her laughter as her head hurt too much to laugh openly. “I think you may be right.”
Lady Helena rose. “I have just the thing for you, Eugenia.” She walked to the table where she sat while Eugenia brushed her hair. “A few drops of laudanum, from when I cannot sleep.”
“No, that is for you,” Eugenia protested.
“I can get more,” Lady Helena replied, removing a small bottle from a drawer. “Plus, you need it right now, and I have little trouble sleeping these days.”
“If I fall asleep, I cannot assist you.”
“Then help me get ready for bed first. But youwilldrink this laudanum, Eugenia. I care about you and have no wish to see you in pain.”
Eugenia rose, helped her dress for bed, and brushed out her long auburn locks before braiding them. With only a single lamp lit, its wick turned down low, she, too, undressed and put on her dressing gown. Under Lady Helena's stern emerald gaze, she drank the cup of water with the laudanum added. Eugenia waited until Lady Helena crawled into her bed and drew the covers to her chin before she went to her own.
The laudanum took effect almost immediately. Her head spun sickeningly despite the fact she lay horizontal, still aching terribly. But she did not suffer long before she fell asleep.
She did not dream at all.
* * *
The morning brought with it freedom from Eugenia’s aches and a late summer storm. A depressing drizzle streamed down the windows as Eugenia dressed Lady Helena and piled her hair into a tidy coif on the top of her head. The laudanum left her feeling slightly groggy, but as her pain had mostly vanished, Eugenia knew that, too, would pass soon.
“I was supposed to ride with His Grace today,” Lady Helena sighed as she stared at her reflection in the looking glass. “I have no wish to ride in that.”
She gestured toward the dimly grey windows. “Perhaps he might be interested in a game of cards or chess instead.”
Guilt nudged Eugenia as she tucked the last tendrils of hair into place. Her mistress had high hopes of marrying the Duke one day, and Eugenia knew he never would. She realized His Grace liked her more than Lady Helena and all but said so the previous night. Eugenia loved her mistress like her own sister and had no desire to harm her.
Just marry her for heaven’s sake, and leave me be.
“I am sure he will,” she replied slowly. “After all, he should be getting to know you.”
“Only if he wants to marry me,” Lady Helena said with a touch of bitterness in her voice. “I do not think he wants to.”
“You do not know that,” Eugenia said, her guilt rising. “Perhaps, and I am just guessing here, My Lady. What if he is simply getting over another love? One that hurt him?”
Lady Helena spun around, her green eyes wide, hopeful, forcing Eugenia to lose her grip on her hair. “Do you think so, Eugenia?”
Desperate, Eugenia tried to smile. “My Lady, I am just guessing. What else might prevent him from paying attention to you save the fear of rejection or hurt?”
“Another woman who has captured his interest,” Lady Helena replied, but the hope in her expression did not fade. “If he is suffering from a loss, then perhaps there is still hope he will turn his interest to me. I must simply try harder to show him I can be a good wife to him. There is no other woman about this ghastly castle who can turn his head.”
Eugenia finished her hair and smiled into the looking glass over her mistress’s shoulder. “There, My Lady. There are none in this place who can match you as a potential wife to the Duke.”
Lady Helena smiled back and patted Eugenia’s hand. “You are a true friend. Thank you for your kindness.”
As they walked down the stairs, Eugenia’s guilt over Lady Helena's words rose and all but overwhelmed her. She knew quite well the Duke’s attentiveness of her went far beyond a simple and passing interest and had she not felt the same for him, she might have dismissed it easily. With every passing day, every time she met his deep-sea eyes, she knew she could fall in love with him.
She dared not let that happen.
I must tell him. I should make him realize that what we are feeling for each other must not go any further.
After seeing her mistress into the vast dining hall, the Duchess, the Earl, and Countess already seated at the table along with Lord Wilmot, Eugenia walked dispiritedly, head down, toward the kitchen for her own breakfast. Because her eyes were lowered, she saw his boots just in time before slamming headlong into him.
“Your Grace.”
Eugenia bent into a curtsey and rose with his finger under her chin. He dropped his hand almost instantly, as though the touch of her skin on his burned him, yet he smiled down at her, his dark blue eyes glinted with what she thought was mischief.
“How is your head?” he asked, a small grin playing over his mouth.
