Page 30 of The Truth about the Earl
There was no time to be wasted and Norah shook her head, marching past the astonished footman and hurrying toward the servant's stairs. She did not see the wide-eyed looks of the maids, nor hear the gasp of the housekeeper as she made her way past them, her mind and thoughts centered on only one thing.
Hurrying into the kitchen, she saw a small boy sitting at the table, stuffing food into his mouth with both hands. Her stomach dropped, compassion pouring into her heart for him despite her circumstances.
“My lady!” The cook’s eyes widened and she stepped back from the pot she had been stirring, but Norah smiled somewhat tightly and waved one hand toward her, encouraging her back to her work.
“I thought to come and speak to this child,” she said softly, as the cook remained where she was despite Norah’s encouragement. “Thank you for feeding him.”
The cook’s eyes drifted toward the small boy, who was still eating as though nothing had changed, having no interest in Norah’s presence. “I do not think I have seen one so thin,” she murmured, as Norah closed her eyes for a moment. “Half-starved, that one.”
“Then I will keep him here with us,” Norah said, firmly, making her way to sit down at the table opposite the small boy.“Should you like that?” The boy looked back at her, his eyes seeming too large for his small face. “Would you like to stay here? You will have hot food and a warm bed and while you will have errands to run and the like, you will not need to go searching for food any longer.”
The boy’s eyes widened all the more. “Do you mean it?”
“I do.” Norah was not quite certain that her monies, such as they were, would accommodate another servant but she supposed that he was quite small and would not cost a great deal to keep. “If you wish to stay?”
The boy nodded fervently before picking up another piece of bread and shoving it into his mouth. Norah gave him a small smile, glancing up at the cook so that she would not whisper to the boy to behave with more propriety.
“And what is your name?”
Swallowing hard, the boy spoke out of the side of his mouth. “Joseph, miss.”
“Well, Joseph, I shall have the butler look after you although you must promise to do as he says.”
Again, the boy nodded and Norah smiled.
“You took a note for me today, I think,” she continued, trying to keep her tone calm and steady. “That might be one of your duties here if you can do it well?”
“I can, yes, I can!”
“That is good. Tell me, who gave you that note?”
Joseph nodded again. “It was a lady.”
“A lady?”
“She wasn’t the one to give me the note, though. She just stood a little bit away and made sure that I got given it by one ofhermen.”
A little confused, Norah frowned. “I do not understand.”
The boy picked up a bit of cheese. “A man came out and gave me the note and told me to take it to his house. I got a coinand everything!” He grinned at her and Norah tried to smile, her mind taking in everything that Joseph was saying. “But when I looked back, I saw the man make his way back to this big carriage and in the window was a lady watching me.”
“And you think this lady sent the note?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Because she was watching you so carefully?”
Joseph frowned, biting his lip. “She was watching meverycarefully. I think she wanted to make sure I would come back.”
“You’re to go back?”
“Meant to get my second coin, ain’t I? But I won’t go back. Sometimes when you go to get your second coin, there’s nothing there for you. They just want to make sure that you’ve done what they asked. And she looked like the sort of lady who wouldn’t have that second coin.” His lips pulled tight and he scowled, making Norah nod in understanding.
“I see. And can you tell me what the lady looked like?”
Joseph shook his head. “She was just like one of them posh ladies. Like you.”
Norah’s stomach twisted. “I see.”
