Page 96 of The Lord Meets His Lady

Genevieve pulled a chair from the table. She was tired of being afraid of what Herr Wolf might do. Wiping her apron’s hem across her face, she didn’t believe for a second the Wolf was gone. He’d given up too easily.

“Are you well?” Lily took the cooking pot off its hook over the fire and set it on the table.

Genevieve planted both elbows on the table, her palms cradling her cheeks.

“Miss Abbott?”

“Can you sit with me?”

Lily took the seat opposite her. The maid’s head dipped, her blue-gray eyes rounding beneath her patched mobcap. “What’s wrong, miss?”

Genevieve leaned in. “Can you keep a secret?”

The cottage door banged shut. Both women startled, their attention shooting to the kitchen doorway. Heels slammed the cottage floor before stomping up the stairs. Loud, dramatic huffs accompanied the upward march.

“Ruby.” Lily giggled and rolled her eyes. “Mind you, she’ll be back to her old self by tomorrow.”

“I’m glad. She’s a good worker most of the time.”

“Now what’s this about a secret?”

Beyond the kitchen’s small window, more crows gathered, cawing and flapping their wings. One landed on the windowsill, its beady-eyed stare taking in the kitchen. This running away and having to be nimble about her past and her deceptions had worn Genevieve down. She needed a friend, a woman she could trust.

“What people assume about me and my family is true. My mother was an actress at a bawdy house.”

“Ahhh, miss,” the charwoman said, her hand batting off the revelation. “You’re a decent, hardworking woman. Some will care. Some won’t. I wouldn’t pay them any mind.”

Genevieve’s thumbnail scratched a spot on the table’s wood grain. “As long as they don’t find out what else I did.”

Lily’s eyes rounded again. “Wh-what do you mean?”

“I ran away from my indenture…from Herr Wolf, the foreigner.”

“And he’s come to get you.”

“That’s not the worst of it.” Genevieve whispered, “Lord Bowles married me last night to save me.”

The maid gasped. “Marriedyou?”

“Please. Keep this between you and me.”

“Oh, I will.”

Genevieve folded her arms on the table. “We’re keeping it quiet.”

“Then you went across the river to Coldstream?”

“Yes.”

The charwoman’s face scrunched. “It’ll be hard to keep that quiet with the villages so close. Right now, everyone’s talking about the foreigners. One of them is staying at the Red Swan.” She shivered visibly and hugged herself. “He stares at me sometimes…got strange dark eyes.”

Herr Avo Thade.

“Between the foreigners and the baron’s sister causing a stir, you might escape their notice.” She chuckled. “The baron’s sister is a corky one, very bright and lively…too lively for most if you know what I mean.”

“The baron’s sister?”

“She was married fifteen years. To a shipbuilder in Sunderland. Gossip says she was planning todivorcehim but then he died.”