Page 84 of Would I Lie to the Duke
“Where is my correspondence?” Lady Catherton asked.
“I have it collected in your dressing room.”
Her mistress gave a nod. “Do join me in my bedchamber in ten minutes. In the interim, be so kind as to take off my clothing and wear one of your own garments.”
With that, Lady Catherton slowly ascended the stairs with the help of another footman.
Jess waited until her mistress had reached the next story before she turned and raced down the hallway to the servants’ stairs. She took the steps two at a time. The moment she reached her room, she flung her bonnet to the floor and struggled out of her spencer and gown—no easy feat without a maid to assist her. As she dragged on one of her own plain dresses, Noel’s face kept appearing in her mind, his confusion and then pain. Agony threatened to drag her down, but she had no time for it now. There was only survival.
She splashed water on her face and rubbed it nearly raw with a towel. After attempting to smooth her now-disheveled hair into a somewhat demure bun, she glanced at herself in the tiny mirror above her washstand.
A wild-eyed woman stared back at her. One who didn’t know what the next minute would bring.
The little clock on her mantel showed that Jess had but a moment before she was due in Lady Catherton’s room.
Jess bent down and, with a wince, tore the hem of her dress to give credence to her story about her clothing being damaged. She was careful, however, to ensure that the tear could be easily repaired. There wasn’t money to buy anything new, since the extra money Lady Catherton had sent her had gone into paying Nell.
She headed from her cramped little bedchamber to her employer’s expansive suite of rooms. Her feet kept speeding up and she forced them into a sedate pace. After collecting herself outside the door to her mistress’s bedroom, she knocked.
“Enter,” Lady Catherton said.
Jess did so.
Lady Catherton had installed herself in a chair by the fire as her maid scurried around the room. She glanced toward her dressing table. “My correspondence, if you please. Go through it and tell me what you find.”
“Yes, my lady.” After a week of openly stating her mind, speaking so humbly stuck in Jess’s throat. She swallowed around her aching pride and picked up the large stack of letters.
For several minutes, she read aloud the names of the correspondents. To each name, Lady Catherton would reply either “Skip” or “Read.”
Finally, Jess read, “‘The Earl and Countess of Ashford.’” Why did that name sound familiar?
“Read.”
Jess broke the wafer and unfolded the single sheet of paper. “‘Your presence is requested on the evening of the twelfth of June for a ball—’” She frowned. “That’s tonight.”
Lady Catherton said to her maid, “Make certain that you air out my yellow silk, and press it. I’ll also want—”
“Apologies, my lady, do you mean to attend?”
Lady Catherton frowned as if confused by Jess’s bewilderment. “I do. And I know you’ll wear your finest dress, though if it has been damaged, it might require some repair.” She turned to her maid. “I’ll want the pearl-and-diamond earbobs, and—”
“I’m coming with you?”
Her mistress held up her walking stick, looking at her injury with frustration. “This blasted ankle ensures that I cannot move quickly or indeed much at all. I’ll need you beside me to fetch refreshments and bring guests to me.”
“I see.” Jess had accompanied Lady Catherton to smaller assemblies in the country, but nothing on the scale of an actual ball given by an actual earl and countess.
She stiffened as realization struck her.Please, no.
The Earl and Countess of Ashford were the hosts of the same ball Noel would attend.
Jess pressed a hand to her throat, and made several strangled sounds.
“Something ailing you?” Lady Catherton asked.
“As it happens,” Jess said in a raspy voice, “I have a touch of the grippe. It would be best if I stayed home tonight.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot spare you. The earl and countess rarely entertain, and I fully intend to be there. Afterward, you can go straight to bed with some broth.”
