Page 3 of If the Slipper Fits
“So you keep saying,” Caden muttered.
“Now can we attend the picnic? I’m famished.”
He might need sustenance to survive the week. He unfolded himself from the couch. No black spots danced before his eyes. Encouraging. “Lead the way.”
***
“I detest these over-blown things. If not for Beatrice being my favorite grand-niece, we’d not have made the journey south at’all.” Lady Wentworth held up the lorgnette she wore on a gold chainaround her neck and studied the expanse of lawn, dotted liberally with clusters of picnickers and servants.
Anna lowered the pimento-cheese finger sandwich she nibbled and regarded her employer quizzically. “Oh, yes. You like her so well, your first response was to decline the invitation. And it’s Bernadette.” She popped the last corner of her sandwich into her mouth.
Lady Wentworth shot her a perplexed look. “I beg your pardon?”
“Your favorite grand-niece. Her name’s Bernadette.”
Lady Wentworth waved a dismissive hand. “I’m sure I said that.”
Shaking her head, Anna wondered, not for the first time, what precipitated the dowager duchess’s change of heart.
For herself, she’d quite forgotten the party invitation. After all, Lady Wentworth had issued her so-called regrets upon receipt. Then, with no warning, the lady announced her intention to attend the engagement party and it was all hustle and bustle and off they hastened, southward.
Anna hadn’t recognized a soul at last evening’s welcome reception, not that she’d anticipated doing so. But would anyone recognize her had been the question burning in her mind? More to the point, was anyone searching for her?
Nearly two years had passed since the harrowing incident, when she’d fled for her life after…what she’d done. Surely so much time having passed worked in her favor.
Thenhewalked in, and she proceeded to choke on her champagne, drawing several sets of curious eyes.
But really. Caden Thurgood, after all this time? Here?
And he could be no one else. She couldn’tnotrecognize him. He’d grown from the young boy of her childhood acquaintance, but she’d know that face, those eyes, and thatpresenceanywhere.
Despite her champagne-up-the-nose gaff, his gaze grazed past her without a moment’s pause. She supposed his lack of notice owed more to her role as a lady’s companion than anything else. The upper crust never remarked over members of the servant class. Still, she kept her eyes downcast and her neck bowed ’til her muscles ached from the strain.
Then this morning’s disaster happened.
Beside her the dowager frowned at no one in particular. “Too many people milling about. I look forward to the week’s end, when most of the guests depart.”
“You don’t say?” The statement made perfect sense coming from her recluse of an employer. What didn’t was why she’d wanted to come to Femsworth Hall in the first place, her story concerning Bernadette being her so-called favorite notwithstanding.
Anna mulled the conundrum, swiping up another sandwich—chilled cucumber and butter this time.
Lady Wentworth’s lips twitched. “You’re an odd bird, Anna. A third my age and already more at home with these dry bones of mine and your notebooks than with people your own age.”
Anna regarded her employer who regularly congratulated her on her good sense, touting the two of them birds of a feather. “Takes one to know one.”
The older woman snorted. “Don’t tell me you’re not curious about that dashing young man you saved this morning—”
“I’d hardly call what I did that.”
“As long as I live, I’ll not forget the sight of you charging in to rescue Thurgood.”
“You exaggerate, madam.”
“Hardly. I’ve no doubt he’d like to thank you for your heroics. Any gentleman worth his salt would. It’ll be a wonder if he spots you all the way out here, however.”
“Am I to understand you’d prefer to relocate into the thick of things? As for the man in question, whomever he may be, I’ve no doubt he’s quite forgotten my part in his little misadventure.” Or so she hoped.
Her employer grimaced. “Surround ourselves withthem?” She flicked her fingers contemptuously at the crowd. “Hardly. And his name is Thurgood. Caden Thurgood of Claybourne. Grandfather’s an earl.”
