Page 51 of The Good Duke
Persephone snapped her old sketch pad closed and hastily returned it to inside her valise.
She hastened across the room and drew the pretty painted oak panel open.
Surprise brought her eyebrows arching up. “Mrs. Trowbridge!” she said excitedly.
Her hair, having been white as long as Persephone had known her, gave the housekeeper a timeless look.
The older woman smiled. “Well, saints on Sunday! I had to see it with my own eyes. It is you, Miss Forsyth.”
“And it is you,” she returned, and it felt so very good to find something and someone constant in her life that Persephone couldn’t help it. She threw herself into the other woman’s arms.
The old servant instantly embraced her, as though it were the most natural thing in the world for a grown woman whom she’d not seen in more than twenty years to launch herself at her.
Persephone’s survival had been dependent upon her taking work at Mrs. Belden’s, the stern headmistress who’d forbade either her students or instructors from showing any emotion.
And in this instant, being in this household with Simon and familiar servants, Persephone was hit by the realization of how lonely she’d been and how very much she’d missed the Broadbents, who’d been more family than friends to her.
Alas, the decorum Mrs. Belden had all but beaten into her reared its head.
Embarrassed by her show of emotion, Persephone made herself release Mrs. Trowbridge.
“Forgive me,” Persephone said. “I didn’t expect to find you here. Had I known you were here, I’d have forgone breaking and entering for knocking at the front door.”
Mrs. Trowbridge gave her a gentle smile. “Well, I am just so very glad we were in residence.” The older servant’s smile slipped. “Though there have been any number of…changes since you were last here.”
Persephone followed the housekeeper’s gaze to the door, her meaning clear—Simon.
She opened her mouth to ask the questions that had kept her awake last night. The first being when had Simon changed to a person she no longer recognized?
But then she stopped.
Friendly though Mrs. Trowbridge had been and proved to still be, there could be no disputing her loyalty to the master of the house. Why, the very nature of the housekeeper’s presence in this household all these years later, when staff turnover for nearly all households was two to three years, served as further testament.
Mrs. Trowbridge cleared her throat.
“His lordship.” She paused, her lips formed a grimace. “His Grace,” she corrected. “He is waiting for you.” The housekeeper gave her head a wry shake. “That is going to take some getting used to,” she added more to herself.
“His title or him waiting for me?”
Mrs. Trowbridge chuckled and then led Persephone from the room.
As she followed the older woman through the once-familiar halls, Persephone assessed her surroundings as they went. Shades of pinks and greens had been the late Countess of Primly’s favorite colors, which had led the earl to gift her trinkets and paintings all done in those hues. Those gilded frames overflowing in an explosion of pastel flowers and porcelain vases remained in the exact spots they’d occupied.
Only, where they’d once contained flowers lovingly arranged by the countess, now they sat bare and, not unlike their new owner, transformed into coolly impersonal ornamentations that may as well have sat in any lord and lady’s household.
And it was beyond silly to mourn all the changes that had befallen Simon. After all, time left its mark upon everything. People were no different.
Persephone certainly bore no resemblance to the carefree, high-spirited girl who, after summer rainstorms, had raced over the hills of Cheshire to reach the end of the rainbow that filled the sky.
It was simply that being with Simon again made her mourn for the way life used to be. Not just how he used to be, but Persephone herself too.
Her circumstances didn’t allow her the freedoms and luxuries she’d previously known—and taken for granted. Being around her friend from long ago just reminded her of the way life had once been and how it would never be again.
As Persephone and Mrs. Trowbridge reached the corridor leading to Simon’s office, Persephone gave her head a slight shake.
Either way, she needn’t worry about all the ways Simon had changed. She wasn’t long for this household. He’d offered to help her secure work, and when he did, she’d be free of this residence and Simon. Why, given the fact their stations had them orbiting in completely different universes, it was doubtful she’d see him for at least another twenty years.
No, it’d likely be only when he had a daughter of his own and need of a matchmaker, which Persephone would still be because there were no other opportunities, at least not respectable ones, awaiting her.
