Jolene was waiting to help her prepare for bed. “I thought you’d be up early.” She went to the door, waited for Ulysses, who had paused to sniff the furniture in the sitting room, to gallop in, then shut the door.
Melissa crossed to her dressing table and sat on the padded stool. “Hair first. Perhaps if you brush it, that last hint of smoke will vanish.”
“We can but try.” Jolene set to, pulling out the pins she’d set in place only a few hours before.
Ulysses came to investigate Melissa’s hems. Nosing beneath them, he found the toe of her slipper, gripped it between his teeth, and tugged. “Grr.” He tugged and waggled his head. “Grr!”
Melissa laughed, and Jolene smiled. “He really is a character.”
Sobering as the events of the afternoon replayed yet again in her mind, Melissa looked down at the puppy, then raised her gaze to the mirror. “I can’t understand how he came to be in the barn. It was locked when we reached it, and he was in a spot he couldn’t get out of.”
Jolene glanced down at the puppy. “No way would he have been silent while someone left him in a barn. I’ve seen how well the farm buildings are kept here, so I wouldn’t imagine there was any hole for him to have wriggled in.”
“He couldn’t have climbed the bales and got to where he was by himself.”
“Well, then.” With Melissa’s long locks free, Jolene reached for the brush. “Shutting him in there had to be deliberate. Presumably to get you to go in and rescue him. You wouldn’t have gone into the barn otherwise, would you? And his lordship and Mr. Felix with you?”
“No,” Melissa agreed.
As Jolene drew the brush slowly through her hair, Melissa closed her eyes. “When I left here after lunch, Ulysses was asleep on his blanket in the corner. I shut him in, then I met you downstairs.”
Jolene continued plying the brush. “I meant to come and fetch him later, but before I could, the Phelpses had us rushing down to help with the fire.” Melissa opened her eyes to see Jolene glance at Ulysses. “I thought the bundle of fur would be safer here.”
“He would have been.”
After several moments of brushing, Jolene frowned. “Even if one of the maids had let the little terror out of these rooms, he would have scampered after you. It’s you he makes a beeline for.”
“Hmm.” Melissa’s brain felt sluggish; she closed her eyes again. “Someone must have come up almost as soon as I left and taken him outside.”
The point was a potential avenue to be pursued. Shortly after lunch, there should have been staff around upstairs, tending to this and that. Some maid or footman might have seen whoever had taken the puppy.
“There.” Jolene set down the brush. “Your hair’s had as much brushing as it can take.”
Melissa opened her eyes and considered her long tresses. “If the smoke is still lingering tomorrow, perhaps we can wash it again.” She looked down, then around for Ulysses. After losing interest in her slipper, he’d ambled off. She spotted him worrying a knotted rope half hidden beneath her bed.
As if feeling her gaze, he fixed a big brown eye on her, then picked up the rope and came trotting over to offer it. Laughing softly, she bent and obligingly caught one end, and Ulysses launched into an energetic game of tug. “He, at least, seems to have recovered completely from his ordeal.”
Jolene was bustling about, laying out Melissa’s nightgown. “Well, he was rescued by you and his lordship, his favorite people, so by his lights, all is well in his world.”
Melissa grinned. She ended up slipping from the dressing stool to sit on the rug and was engrossed in her tug-of-war with Ulysses, with Jolene indulgently looking on, when a tap fell on the door.
Absentmindedly, Melissa called, “Come in.”
The door opened, and Benton, the senior maid, walked in, bearing a salver on which reposed a mug of something steaming.
Melissa had noticed that Benton rarely smiled—indeed, rarely raised her gaze from what she was doing—and the maid did the same now as she carried the mug to the dressing table and placed it carefully on the glass surface.
“What’s that?” Melissa asked.
Benton turned her way and, eyes downcast, bobbed a curtsy. “His lordship ordered it brought up for you, my lady. It’s a mug of warm milk. He said he thought as you’d benefit from it.”
Melissa couldn’t stop her eyes widening in surprise. “I see.”
Benton bobbed again and made for the door.
His teeth anchored in the rope, Ulysses watched her go, growling and tugging all the while.
The instant the door shut, Jolene declared, “It just shows.” Her smile was the epitome of indulgent approval. “Head over ears in love with you he is.” She put a hand to her chest. “Sucha sweet gesture.”
