Page 34 of A Housekeeper for the Earl of Drinkwater
It was Serena’s turn to shake her head and smile brightly.
“Not at all, my lord,” she said. “This is your house, after all. I can come back to this room later if that would be easier for you.”
“No,” Lord Drinkwater said, rather quickly. “That is, I shall need this room soon, and since you are already in here, I can’t imagine telling you to come back to it later.”
Serena nodded, her heart leaping into her throat.I am certain now that he did not come for any book,she thought.
Immediately, she scolded herself for having such thoughts. Before she let her ideas get any sillier, she dipped into a small curtsey and returned to the bookshelf. She was glad she had mostly finished with the higher shelves before he entered. She was not prepared to climb back up on the stool with him in the room.
Even with her back to the earl, she could swear she still felt his eyes on her. When she dared to steal a glance at him as she refreshed the cloths she was using, she saw she was right. She stopped, meeting his gaze yet again, and she was sure she would swoon.
Her attraction to him was overwhelmingly powerful, and she felt both sheer excitement and embarrassment in its grip. What would he do if he ever found out she was thinking such things? He would dismiss her, that is what. She needed to clear her head and erase such thoughts, and she must do so quickly.
“Oh, excuse me, my lord,” she said, suddenly hurrying over to the crystal vases. “I almost forgot to tend to these.”
The earl, now deeper inside the library, took a step closer to her.
“You needn’t trouble yourself with those,” he said, giving her one of the smiles that absolutely melted her. “I can replace those over time.”
She shook her head fervently.
“Nonsense,” she said. “That would be a wasteful purchase, when I can get these as clean as if they were new.”
Before he could continue to protest, she curtseyed one last time, excusing herself again, and then she gathered up the vases. She hurried from the room, praying she did not lose her grip on them.
As she rushed to the kitchens, she thought about the earl’s intense gaze upon her. Serena began to wonder, for the first time, if it was possible that Lord Drinkwater felt the connection between them, too.
Chapter Fourteen
“Good morning, milord,” Clarke said as soon as Edward entered the dining room for breakfast. The dining room still looked tired and worn, but Miss White had done wonders by simply dusting and polishing the furniture and adding more candlesticks and flower-filled vases to the room.
Even the mirrors on the walls had been cleaned, and it now resembled the room in which he’d once dined with his parents and brothers. It was both heartwarming and gut-wrenching to see it that way, and Edward was very glad he’d hired Miss White.
Edward also noticed that the butler had an impish smile on his face and his hands behind his back.
“Good morning, Clarke,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “What do you have there?”
The butler moved one of his hands in front of him, and Edward saw the man was holding an envelope.
“Oh, this?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows as he moved to hand it to his master. “It is a letter, milord.”
Edward chuckled, taking the letter, and studying it. His laughter turned to joy as he saw who it was from. It had been almost two weeks since he had written to his beloved Caroline, but seeing his name written in her beautiful script gave him another much needed surge of hope.
They could still marry, which would mean he would have a wife he deeply cherished. And, with her dowry, he would be able to cover the expense of the remaining repairs to the house and estate.
“This is wonderful news, which is much needed just now,” he said, tearing the letter open as he walked to his seat. Emily was just bringing him a small plate of eggs and toast when he started reading the letter. But just a moment later, his heart fell:
Dear Edward,
I am thrilled to learn that you are back from the war in one piece. I lay awake so many nights, worried sick about you. I can, at least, rest a little easier, knowing that you were not lost, like so many other poor soldiers.
However, you should know that I am already married. I know we promised we would wait for each other, and it is with a heavy heart that I say this to you. But I could not wait any longer, Edward. I realised there was no reason to believe you would ever come back to me, and I could not let the opportunity to marry my husband pass me by.
I hope, one day, that you can forgive me. Perhaps I should have written to tell you sooner, but I could not even be sure if my letter would reach you. And I suppose I feared that, if you were still alive, it might hurt you enough to make you careless with your life, so that you might be killed, after all.
I will always remember our time together fondly, and I pray you can too, despite the circumstances. I wish you well, Edward. I hope you can find your own happiness, and that you can be happy for me, as well.
Farewell, Edward.
