by Paula Mabbel
*******
The guests arrived in the late afternoon, and Louisa was happy with what the maids had accomplished in the little time they had. She had ensured that both the main guest rooms had been thoroughly cleaned for the dukes who would be staying in them, and that the small guest rooms had at least been spruced up. She’d also managed to arrange for the local butcher to drop off two joints of beef for the dinner that night, which she was sure would enrage the townsfolk who would be going without for at least a week because of her.
The house had already been thoroughly cleaned in anticipation of her father’s return, so little needed to be done with it. Louisa had made sure that all the floors had been scrubbed and the windows wiped, though, before the dukes had a chance to arrive. Louisa had started to take control of the staff when her mother had passed two years before. It had quickly become apparent to her how much her mother had done in the house, and she had realized that her father did not have the mind for trivial things such as the dusting of shelves.
It was the sound of horses’ hooves against the loose gravel of the path that alerted Louisa to the arrival of their guests. She rushed to the front of the house from the kitchen and quickly straightened her light purple dress, which had been made out of the smoothest silk she’d ever had the pleasure of wearing.
The maids were already waiting by the door so that they could open it before the dukes had time to knock. Louisa smiled when she realized everything would happen just as it should. The sound of footsteps walking up the steps sent sweat to her palms as she tried to remain calm. She’d never been very good at introducing herself as the lady of the house. She was sure that, when people smiled at her greetings, they were secretly thinking her a fraud.
The maids pulled open the doors and revealed the guests to Louisa. Her father had been right about their numbers, which was a relief. She counted five men as they walked through the doors, smiling cordially at the staff who had let them in.
“Welcome to my home,” Louisa said in a bright, warm voice as she stepped forward to greet the men individually. “I’m Louisa,” she added when a tall, brown-haired man took her hand and kissed the back gently.
She watched him carefully as he did it. He had leafy green eyes that were speckled with flecks of brown. His lips were soft and well fitted to his face. His jawline seemed sharp, but on closer inspection it became softened when he spoke or smiled. He was undeniably handsome. From the tailoring of his red jacket he was also undeniably one of the dukes.
“You are very beautiful, Louisa,” he said with a smoldering smile that revealed his interest in her.
“You should see what I look like when I first wake up,” Louisa joked. She frowned as she watched his posture stiffen at her words. The light in his eyes seemed to leave, and in its place there was judgment and a strange sense of condemnation. “Might I ask your name?” she asked when she realized that she’d clearly offended him in some manner.
“I’m Samuel Horseforth,” he said stiffly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sam.” Louisa smile dropped quickly when she saw anger flash up in his eyes. She was clearly saying all the wrong things to him, but she wasn’t quite sure how he could be taking such offense. Was it really such a bad thing for her to have a sense of humor?
He didn’t say anything else to her, and she gestured for him to follow the hallway down into the study where her father was waiting to greet them. She turned her attention to the next man waiting to greet her, and she smiled warmly.
He was just as handsome as the first man, but they looked nothing alike. Sam had been dark-haired and green-eyed, but the man standing in front of her was sandy-haired with bright blue eyes that reminded Louisa of the ocean. She could feel her smile growing more genuine with every second she spent looking at him, and for a moment she forgot her responsibility to introduce herself.
“Welcome to my home. I hope you find it comfortable,” she said quickly when she realized his smile had turned from friendliness into amusement over her stares and lack of speech. She let her eyes flicker down to his jacket and noticed that he too was a duke. “I’m Louisa,” she added with a small curtsy.
“Louisa is a beautiful name, but I’m unsure that its beauty is enough to describe you. I’m most looking forward to dining with you this evening. You look like a girl who can hold a conversation,” he said with a warm look in his eyes.
“I should hope that I can.”
“Then I shall look forward to it with great anticipation,” he said as he took her hand and kissed it slowly.
It was the same gesture that Sam had presented before, but it felt different. Sam’s kiss had been official and stiff, but the other duke had left his lips lingering on her skin as his hot breath took away the icy feeling from her bones.
“Might I ask your name?” she asked quickly, before he had a chance to follow Sam into the study.
“Arthur Jameson.” He bowed and then walked in the direction that Sam had gone, until he reached the study door and disappeared behind it.
*******
The dinner table looked healthier than usual with the extra guests, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Louisa’s father when he walked into the room. He took his usual seat next to his daughter before he mentioned what he had observed. “You know, it’s so good to have young men around the table again. It really does make me look forward to when you have chosen a young man for yourself.”
“I should hope this isn’t going to be the entire theme of their visit,” Louisa replied with a dry tone as she smiled across the table at Sam, who had been taking an interest in their conversation.
“You know that I would never force you into a union. I just don’t see the harm in reminding you about your responsibility to marry,” he said with a gentle but stern tone.
“Do you not think that I’ve already taken on enough responsibility since my mother passed?” Louisa held his eyes as she spoke. She had said very little about the responsibilities that had fallen on her since her mother’s death, but that didn’t mean that she was unaffected by them.
“I never asked you to,” her father pointed out when he realized that she was holding him to blame.
“I don’t think this is a conversation to be held in front of guests,” Louisa said quietly when she realized that Sam was still paying close attention to what was being said.
Her father nodded and turned his attention back to the table. The guests had already started to eat the pea and ham soup that the maids had brought in and from the sound of spoons hitting the sides of porcelain dishes it was being enjoyed.
“I’ve noticed that your wife does not attend tonight,” Sam said to Louisa’s father when no topics were offered in its place.
“She passed away two years ago,” Louisa cut in before her father had a chance to speak. She felt the corner of her lips tug with the desire to smile when she saw the shock in Sam’s face over being addressed by her.
“I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure it was very difficult for you,” he said with a small tilt of his head.
“It still is,” Louisa said with her eyes held firmly on his. She could tell from the way he flinched at her words that he wasn’t accustomed to being spoken to in such a frank manner.
“I’m sure. She must have been a very beautiful woman to create such a beautiful daughter,” he said under the scrutiny of Louisa’s eyes.
“I assume by your frequent remarks about my beauty that you do not have a girl waiting for you back home?” Louisa let her eyelashes flutter just a little and enjoyed the slight pink color that appeared in his cheeks when he saw.
“I’m afraid that I’m not so lucky.” Sam bowed his head and looked downhearted for a moment, before returning to the casual face that he had been holding the rest of the conversation in.
“That’s a terrible shame. I’ve heard that a man fights best when he has something to fight for,” Louisa said as she leaned slightly into the table and poured her gaze onto him.
She c
ould tell that he liked her attentions. She could tell from the way that his eyes wouldn’t leave her, even after other people had started to talk. She smiled coyly when their eyes met and turned her gaze away from him when the pink blush in his cheeks turned to red.
He wasn’t marriage material. She knew that from the moment that they had met. He was too proper and expectant. He seemed to get offended over anything that Louisa said, unless it was a compliment, and that was something that she couldn’t live with. Although she would never tell her father the truth, she wasn’t actually against marriage. She was just against the idea of being tied to a man who didn’t give her the respect that she felt she deserved. She wasn’t even convinced that such a man existed, and because of that she was comfortable screwing her face up whenever the topic was broached.
The dinner ended with happy faces and full stomachs. Louisa stood to leave the men to their drinks and smokes, but found that she was being followed by Sam out of the room. She didn’t stop until she had reached the stairs, and then she turned to him with a curious look in her eye. It wasn’t proper etiquette to follow a woman into privacy and for a moment she wondered whether she had got him all wrong.
“Louisa, my men and I will be in town for two weeks and I would like it very much if we could spend some time together whilst I am here,” he said without looking directly into her eyes.
“I should like that very much,” Louisa said as she continued to eye him up curiously. There was something about him that she couldn’t put her finger on. He seemed to be jumping from great offense to great interest with her, and she couldn’t help but wonder why he had asked for his time to be spent with her. He didn’t seem like the kind of man who would waste his time on hopeless causes, and Louisa was sure that was what he saw in her.
She didn’t wait for him to reply. She started to walk up the stairs, but by the time she had reached the top she could hear his footsteps heading back towards the dining room. Louisa walked back to her room with a head full of confused thoughts and undressed for bed. It had been a long day and, even with the prospect of two handsome dukes at her fingertips, she knew that staying awake wasn’t an option.
******
A week had passed since the dukes had arrived at Louisa’s home, but no day had seemed longer than the one she seemed stuck in. She had thought that it might at least be an interesting experience. She thought that perhaps the duke had a hidden personality that he only let out in private, but there had been nothing. She hadn’t felt anything other than utter boredom, and when their date had finally come to an end, she had to do everything in her power to stop herself from running all the way back to the house.
She walked into her bedroom and closed the door with a sigh. She let her eyes fall closed for a moment as her body started to accept the fact that she was safe, and that death from boredom was no longer her biggest security risk. A shuffling of sheets told her that a maid was already in her room, preparing it for the night, and she opened her eyes quickly to see which one it might.
It was a blonde girl with a sweet smile and deep brown eyes. Louisa had hired her, a couple of months ago, when one of the other serving girls had fallen pregnant to a stall holder on the local market. Louisa had thought long and hard about what to do with the situation before deciding that letting the girl go with a small severance package was for the best.
“I won’t be much longer, Miss. I’m just turning down your sheets now,” the girl said with a quick smile before she turned her attentions back to the chores that she still had left to do.
“It is no problem to me. In fact, I might require your assistance to get out of this dress, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course, Miss,” the girl said quickly and her eyes lit up.
Louisa looked at her curiously. The girl seemed genuinely delighted about being asked to help. “Can I ask you something?” Louisa said, because she couldn’t hold herself back, especially after the afternoon of soul-crushing boredom she had just endured.
“You can ask me anything, Miss,” the girl said as she wiped her hands against her white apron and then started to pull apart the knot that was aiding the corset’s killer grip on her ribs.
“Do you enjoy working here? I mean, don’t you wish sometimes that you had a life like mine?”
The girl didn’t say anything for a moment. Louisa could see her face in the mirror as she continued to pull apart the corset, and she looked surprised by Louisa’s questions. “It’s okay, you can tell me the truth. You won’t be punished for speaking your mind,” Louisa said with a supportive smile.
The girl nodded her head in a shy kind of way and opened her mouth. “I like working here very much, Miss. The last place I worked had a cruel mistress who would beat us daily to ensure that we worked hard. I guess it would be nice to have your life, Miss. I mean you have some beautiful dresses and your dinner always smells so good, but I’m content with what I have. I have my health and friends and a job with a good mistress. I have it better than most, so I think it would be wrong to wish for more, don’t you?”
Louisa didn’t say anything. She was surprised by the depth of the girl’s answer, and she wanted to make sure that she understood it fully before she replied. “I think that is a very good attitude to have, and I’m glad that you’ve found your place here. I’d like to think that our maids consider this their home as much as I consider it my own.”
The girl finished helping Louisa out of her dress and then returned to fixing the sheets. Louisa hadn’t said anything for a short while and a comfortable silence was passing between them. “You know,” she said, breaking the silence, “I had the most awful date with the duke today.”
“Which one?” the girl asked and then her cheeks became flushed. “I’m sorry, Miss, that really isn’t any of my business,” she said quickly.
Louisa chuckled at the girl’s apologetic face. “I told you that you are free to speak your mind with me. You have no reason to apologize. You may ask me whatever you like. It was Sam, by the way, the handsome duke with the dark hair.”
“Oh, I think that Duke Jameson is much more handsome than Duke Horseforth,” the maid said with a small shake of her head and a mischievous smile.
“You might be right. Arthur is very handsome, and quite agreeable, too.”
“Oh, wouldn’t you like to marry a man like him? Can you imagine how beautiful your children would be?”
“I should think they would be quite beautiful,” Louisa agreed.
“Miss, can I tell you a secret? It’s about something that I overheard a couple of days ago. I’m not one to gossip normally, but I think the information could be of some comfort to you,” the maid said with eyes full of longing to gain the permission she sought.
“You may tell me anything,” Louisa said with a curious nod.
“I was cleaning the room of Duke Jameson and I overheard him talking to one of his men. He was talking about you and, from the language he used, I think he’s quite keen.”
“Is that so?” Louisa asked with focused interest.
“I believe it to be,” the girl said with a small smile.
“You are right. That is most helpful. Please, tell me something. I don’t mean to appear uncaring, but I seem to have forgotten your name,” Louisa said as her mind raced around with thoughts of Arthur.
“Claire,” the girl said with a warm smile. She didn’t seem to be bothered that her mistress had forgotten her name, but simply touched that she had bothered to ask.
“Well, Claire,” Louisa said with a smile, “I think that I’m going to reassign your chores. How would you feel about being my personal maid? It sounds like a lot, but if I’m right about your current position then I can assure you that your work will be greatly lessened.”
“I would like that very much, Miss. Thank you,” the maid gushed.
“Think nothing of it,” Louisa dismissed the girl. “I have to go and speak with Duke Jameson. I shall be back in my room after dinner, I should think.”
/> *******
Louisa let her eyes glance over to Arthur, who was riding on the horse next to her. She’d wasted no time after the conversation with Claire in gaining an audience with him, and even less time than that securing a date. They had agreed to spend the next day together, and when Louisa had woken up that morning, she had been relieved to find the day was dry and the sun seemed determined to remain out against the clouds that were insisting on drifting across the sky.
They had been riding for over an hour before they pulled their horses to a stop by a small stream that ran through the woodland that surrounded the village. It was a serene spot with water falling over rocks and wildflowers dancing with the soft touch of the wind. Louisa dismounted her horse and walked over to the stream before crouching down and drinking from the water. It was icy cold, even with the heat from the sun, and it felt great rushing down the back of her wind-dried throat.
“You are an incredible rider,” Arthur said as he joined Louisa by the stream.
“My mother taught me,” Louisa said with a soft smile. “It’s a beautiful day today. I’m glad we chose this one to take a ride. I have no doubt that we will be back to rain and mist again tomorrow.”
“The weather certainly is blessing us today. I was surprised to see you at my chambers last night. I was under the impression that Sam had taken you out yesterday.” Arthur looked at Louisa with big, curious eyes as he waited for her reply.
“He did take me out yesterday,” she replied.
“Then I suppose your outing together did not go as planned?”
“I suppose you might say it like that. I think that Sam is a very admirable man, but I do not believe that he is the man for me.”
“And why do you think him admirable, but not worthy of your affections?”
“He seems appalled by the idea of a woman having an opinion. He seems only interested in my words if they are about him, and unfortunately I do not possess enough words to keep the conversation fresh when the topic is so dull.”