Page 25 of His Wicked Secret
Horatia ushered them farther into the foyer. “You are both in the east wing, along with most of the other guests.”
“How many are coming?” Gillian asked.
“About thirty. Mostly local families and a few other guests.” Horatia suddenly winced and covered her belly with her hand.
Alarm gripped Audrey. “Horatia?” She took her sister’s hand and exchanged a worried glance.
“It’s the baby. He’s kicking my… Pardon me, I must avail myself of the facilities.” Horatia rushed down the corridor.
Audrey watched her sister rush away in a flutter of skirts. “Do you want us to help you?”
“No. I’ll be fine,” she assured them before she vanished.
Audrey turned to Gillian. “The baby was kicking? Whatever for?” She knew so little of babes, especially those in the womb. Her parents had died when she was a child, and she never had the opportunity to learn much about such things.
Gillian chuckled. “Sometimes a baby can be positioned in a way that when they move, it can hasten the need for a lady to relieve herself.”
Heat flooded Audrey’s face. She was still looking down the hallway in horror. “Oh, I see!” She couldn’t imagine having a miniature person pressing her bladder from the inside, squeezing it like some tropical fruit. “That sounds quite awful.”
“It can be uncomfortable, I’m told.”
“How do you know about babies?” Audrey asked.
Her friend’s face broke out in a rare smile. “My mother was open to sharing such details with me. Her mother, my grandmother, had been a midwife. We helped a neighbor deliver a baby before the doctor could arrive.”
Audrey tucked her arm in Gillian’s while the footmen carried their bags to the room in the east wing. “How did I not know this?”
“Because I’m not sure I should be sharing this with you, what with you being so squeamish on such matters. You’d likely never want to have a child.”
“I’m not squeamish!”
Her maid smirked. “You are. Remember that time you pricked your finger on your needle and the blood—”
Audrey’s stomach turned. “Oh hush! Don’t remind me. It was so mortifying. It’s been hard to forget how silly I felt waking up on the floor. And in front of Emily and Anne, no less.” She bit her lip, frowning at the memory. Gillian patted her hand.
“I wish Lady Essex and Lady Sheridan were here tonight,” Gillian admitted.
“As do I,” Audrey agreed. “But they are leaving for Brighton with their husbands. Something to do with buying a few stud horses. Emily is most interested in joining Cedric and Anne in breeding those new Arabians.”
“And Ashton and Rosalind?” Gillian asked as they reached the opening of the hallway that led to their rooms.
“In Scotland, to see Rosalind’s brothers and their families.” Audrey giggled. “They’re such devils, you know. Though I mean that lovingly. She’s trying to coax them down to visit, but I suppose a castle in Scotland is far more interesting than a boring country house in southern England. Wouldn’t you agree? I’d get into such delightful scrapes if I had the chance to run about a castle. Do you think it could be haunted? Castles are always haunted, aren’t they?”
Audrey would’ve loved to visit a haunted castle and play the role a Gothic heroine. She’d run about in a white nightgown carrying a candlestick, searching behind tapestries for Bluebeard’s missing wives.
Gillian laughed. “I suppose there’s a ghost or two in any old house. But we really ought to get changed and see if your sister needs help with anything.”
Audrey gave her maid a pointed look. She was attempting to fall back into her role of servant and go unseen. “She has a fleet of servants, and you aren’t one of them. Now go and change into that lovely gown I bought you, the one with the white sash around the waist and little white flowers on the sleeves and hem. It will be perfect for tonight. You will look fetching.”
Audrey ignored her maid’s sigh and walked down to her own room. A footman had set her valise on her bed, and a maid was already pulling out her clothes.
“Which gown, miss?” the girl asked.
“The coral walking dress with the blue trim.” Audrey removed her cloak and waited for the maid to help her change. She knew the coral would accent her fair skin with a hint of pink in her cheeks, and the blue trim made the pink of the coral stand out.
“What’s your name?” she asked as the girl helped her dress.
“Sarah.”
