Page 4 of A Devilish Element
“What happened?” Having drunk her fill of the view, Eliza took a step back from the edge.
“A fire, some fifty years back. You’ll have to ask Linfield if you desire the full particulars. I don’t know them and don’t care to. I believe the last Lady to live here died in the inferno.” She shivered and drew her shawl more tightly around her shoulders.
So Caroline’s tales of Cedarton’s terrible past weren’t entirely unfounded. “It must have been an inferno indeed. It’s a wonder the rest of the castle was spared.”
Jane shrugged, as if she’d given it no thought, which was practically confirmation that it had weighed on her mind, but Eliza saw no sense in pressing her. Jane would reveal her thoughts in her own time, at her own pace, as had always been her way. She’d never been one to bleat about a matter until it suited her to do so. “It won’t give you sleepless nights, will it? I would spare you that at least, given Cedarton’s lack of comforts.”
“Jane, you are being too hard on the place. It’s a little gloomy, but far less bleak than you’re making out. In any case, I’m not given to flights of fantasy. A dark history will not disturb my rest. Come now, show me my room.” She refastened the bolts, then let Jane lead her into the bedchamber. “See, this is quite delightful.”
The room was large, with a low ceiling fashioned with plasterwork embellishments. A large, open hearth dominated the centre of one wall. The fire was lit and cast a pleasing glow over the room. There was an armoire, and a grandly dressed window with a sill wide enough to be used as a seat, and a writing bureau beside it that she might use to write to her sisters as promised. The bed, an old-fashioned canopied affair, sat square and central, its drapes of grey and green Kidderminster stuff, which also covered the lower half of all four walls. If the house had been more recently occupied, the Kidderminster would surely have been banished to the room of a minor servant by now and replaced with more fashionable paper hangings. Still, it had been thoroughly aired, and was to Eliza, so used to doubling up, both pleasant and expansive.
“So much space,” she observed.
Jane drew her attention to a door she had presently overlooked, presuming it to be a closet. “Look, through here is where I am. We shall have ever so much fun. It will be like school all over again.”
School had not always been a particularly pleasant affair.
“Linfield?” she enquired. Surely the adjoining rooms were intended for husband and wife.
Jane knotted her hands and dragged her teeth over her lower lip. “His rooms are in the other wing.”
A knock prevented her from saying more.
“The tea you asked for, milady.”
“Good, yes. Bring it in.”
Two plainly dressed servants carried in a tray, along with the smaller valise Eliza had brought.
“This is Mrs Honeyfield,” Jane introduced the older of the two women before she could make her escape, “Who has been so good to us in seeing that Cedarton was made ready.”
The housekeeper appeared to be barely a year or two Eliza’s senior, making her far younger than was typical for a housekeeper for a house of this size. She bobbed a curtsy, prompting the maid, who wasn’t above thirteen if she was a day, beside her to do the same. “Eliza, you must ask Mrs Honeyfield if you need anything, for I know she will find it. Now, Mrs Honeyfield, this is my very dear friend, Miss Wakefield whom I’ve been telling you about. I wish her to stay as long as possible, so we must do everything we can to make her stay perfect and not frighten her away with Cedarton folktales and its eternal draughtiness.”
“Good day, Miss Wakefield. There’s warming pans aplenty, an’ we’ll keep fires stoked. If you want owt, be sure to ring and we’ll be reet on it.”
“Mrs Honeyfield is very efficient. Whereas you, my dear friend, are being overly dramatic. I’m sure I’ll be very comfortable without any sort of fuss being made.”
The housekeeper winced.
“I’m sorry, are you all right, Mrs Honeyfield?”
The housekeeper cupped her cheek. “Aye, Miss. It’s nowt. A spot of toothache, that’s all. If you don’t need owt else, milady, we’ll be off.”
“I think we’re all set,” Jane said.
“Perhaps I might look at it, if it’s painful.” Eliza’s offer stopped the servant before she’d taken more than a step. “I have some skills in that regard. You’ve a still room, haven’t you, Jane? It won’t take me a minute to mix a remedy.”
Jane, who had already settled at the tea table, paused, teapot in hand. “I quite forgot about you and your potions. You were forever patching us up at school. There is a still room, and very impressively stocked if you can believe it, though I can’t take any credit for it. It’s not my doing. It’s Linfield’s. Leastways, it’s a benefit of him having his personal physician in attendance.”
“Linfield employs a personal physician?” Eliza said at the same time Mrs Honeyfield made another anguished gasp. “I suppose he is too high and mighty to see to a servant’s comfort, or is it that he doesn’t see teeth as a necessity to a body?”
“Eliza, you are so hard on men of learning. I’m sure if Doctor Bell is made aware of the matter, he can prescribe something.”
“I shall be very surprised if it’s for anything with any efficacy,” Eliza retorted. “My remedy, on the other hand, works a treat.”
“Old family recipe?” Jane enquired.
“The basis of it, but I’ve modernised it some. I never found that the honey helped do anything other than sweeten the patient’s temper. Tell me the way to the still room, and I’ll make it up right away.”
