The Louise Allen Collection. Louise Allen

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СКАЧАТЬ him with a trace of amusement tweaking at the corner of her mouth. ‘I’d say you were in a bit of a pickle, my lord, especially as I’ve no doubt your houseguests will be here shortly. The roads are mostly passable now, that we could see.’

      Oh, hell. Adam realised he had not thought about that. The arrival of four eminently respectable members of London society, two of whom he did not know well enough to confide in, was quite sufficient to ensure Decima was ruined.

      Even as he thought it, Emily Jane hurried in, hung about with more shopping. ‘There’s two carriages coming up the drive, my lord.’

       Chapter Ten

      ‘Then it’s a good thing I’ve been here all the time and only Emily Jane and William went into town, isn’t it, my lord?’ Mrs Chitty finished tying her apron strings round her plump middle and took the frying pan firmly from Adam’s hand.

      ‘Emily Jane, take off those wet things and go and open the front door. And no gossiping, mind.’ She turned back to Adam. ‘You’d better hurry and put your coat and neckcloth on, my lord, and warn the young lady what’s happening. And don’t you worry about Emily Jane and William, they won’t be saying anything out of turn, I’ll see to that.’

      ‘Mrs Chitty, you are a paragon. Whatever I pay you, you are going to get a raise.’ He bent and planted a kiss on her red cheek. ‘And what makes you think it’s a young lady?’

      The housekeeper merely looked at him; a long, slow stare that produced the first blush Adam was conscious of in over ten years. With a rueful grin he strode out of the room and up the stairs, just in time as the knocker thudded on the front door.

      Decima sat at the dressing table, guiltily enjoying having her hair properly dressed for the first time since she had left Charlton’s house. She had protested, but Pru refused to sit down and rest, so she gave in and allowed herself to be fussed over.

      The knock at the door startled them both. ‘Decima? Are you decent?’ Adam slipped inside before Decima had a chance to check whether she was or not.

      ‘My lord!’ Pru managed to sound like the most outraged chaperon, only to bridle indignantly as she was completely ignored.

      ‘Mrs Chitty, the kitchen maid and the footman are back—and my guests are at the front door now. Pru, are you well enough to come downstairs? Good. Mrs Chitty has, of course, been here the entire time. We have not been cooking, we have not been looking after ourselves and, Pru, you have not left Miss Ross’s side.

      ‘Mrs Chitty is cooking breakfast, and whatever the others need—I don’t know where they’ve come from this morning. I will go and warn Bates. Perhaps you and Pru can come down in about twenty minutes.’

      He vanished before they had the chance to reply. ‘Well, Pru…’ Decima took a deep breath and regarded her reflection carefully. Her mouth felt dry and her stomach contracted painfully. Strangers—that was enough under normal circumstances to send her into an agony of self-conscious shyness. But these strangers could ruin her. ‘Fetch my jewellery case, please, Pru, I can see that this is an occasion for the utmost respectability. Can you act like a dresser? I want you to pretend to be the sort of upper servant who could chaperon me.’

      ‘What, like Lady Ambridge’s dresser?’ Pru’s eyes widened at the recollection of the stately dame in the employ of one of Decima’s cousins. ‘All starched up and top lofty?’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘I can do that, I reckon. Ooh, yes.’

      When Decima descended the staircase she was followed by a haughty little person who looked down her nose at the footman and completely ignored the nervous kitchen maid who was carrying plates into the dining room.

      Decima hesitated outside the door. Strangers. The familiar panic and shyness swept through her and she could feel her shoulders rounding into the defensive stoop that falsely promised invisibility.

      No. She could not skulk out here and she could not appear in the dining room behaving as though she had something to hide. At least, after one look at her, Adam’s guests would never suspect for a moment that anything untoward had been going on. If a gentleman was going to indulge in dalliance, he was not going to chose a gawky spinster who was almost thirty years of age. For once her failings would stand her in good stead.

      She stood up straight and walked in. By the fireplace two couples dressed in the height of fashion were talking animatedly to Adam, who turned at her entrance. His jaw dropped, just slightly, and she smiled, realising that with her hair up, her pearls glistening with expensive restraint and her one remaining respectable morning dress on she looked every inch a lady and not like the hoyden who had been rolling in the snow or grooming horses.

      She turned to Pru. ‘You may take your breakfast with Mrs Chitty this morning, Staples.’

      ‘Very good, Miss Ross.’ Pru dropped a starchy curtsy and followed it with an inclination of her head towards Adam. ‘Good morning, your lordship.’

      Her exit seemed to bring Adam to his senses. ‘Miss Ross, please allow me to introduce you to my friends. My cousin, Lady Wendover, and her husband, Lord Wendover.’ A lively-looking lady of about five and twenty with an older husband with a grave expression and amused eyes. ‘Mr and Mrs Highton.’ A slightly older couple, beautifully dressed and she with languorous blue eyes. ‘This is Miss Ross, who has been snowed up here and must be delighted to see some new faces after three days of boredom.’

      ‘Not at all, my lord. I am delighted to meet your friends, of course, but I have been far from bored.’ Decima smiled her thanks to Mr Highton, who pulled out a chair for her. ‘You and Mrs Chitty have looked after us admirably.’ She looked round at the others as they took their places. ‘My only refuge until Lord Weston came to my aid was a most disreputable alehouse. You may imagine my relief at finding shelter here. Were you snowed up, too?’

      Conversation flowed easily. It seemed Adam’s guests had reached Grantham before they wisely decided to go no further than a comfortable inn and had set out early that morning. ‘We were looking forward to Mrs Chitty’s cooking,’ Lord Wendover remarked, helping himself lavishly from the platter of ham, eggs and sliced sausage the footman presented.

      ‘Indeed, yes,’ Decima agreed. ‘It is excellent, is it not?’ This was all right, she could manage. They were too polite to stare at her height, in such a small group they could not whisper about her gawky plainness, and best of all, none of them were trying to marry her off.

      After the meal she got to her feet. ‘If you will excuse me, I think I should go and oversee my packing. I imagine my carriage should be here shortly.’

      Pru was already upstairs, but, although the portmanteaux were out and open and several drawers had already been emptied onto the bed, there was no sign of her, only the sound of all-too-familiar bickering from the room across the landing.

      ‘Pru!’

      ‘Yes, ma’am.’ Pru positively flounced out of Bates’s room and into her own. ‘That man!’

      ‘I see you have started the packing.’

      ‘Yes, Miss Dessy.’

      ‘Then shall we finish before the postilions arrive?’ she suggested briskly.

      At last, leaving Pru to organise William СКАЧАТЬ