“I’ll do my best.” This was the first thing I’d said since he’d entered, and my voice sounded small.
He stopped pouring and leaned closer. “You don’t need to be afraid of me. I’d never hurt you, and I’ll never let anyone else hurt you.” He handed me a goblet. “You did something I’ve never managed, and I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life. Here, have some of this cheese.”
He broke off a small chunk and handed it to me.
Taking the cheese, I couldn’t help asking, “What did I do?”
“You wiped that self-satisfied, arrogant expression off Rolf’s face, that’s what you did. I’ll never forget the moment when you picked me. I thought he’d have an apoplexy.” Sebastian smiled. “It was glorious. The daughter of the Chaumonts chose me over the paragon son, right there in front of everyone. You have my undying loyalty.”
Did he hate Rolf so much?
He buttered a piece of bread for me as if I were a child. “Eat this.”
I began to enjoy myself. It was like having a picnic in bed.
“Was this room your mother’s?” I asked.
He nodded, taking a long drink of wine.
“When did she die?”
“When Kai was born. Poor Kai. He blames himself, but none of the rest of us do.”
The house had been without a lady for twenty years. That explained much.
“You can trust Kai,” Sebastian went on. “He may glower and spit a little, but he has a good heart underneath, the best. Stay as far away from Rolf as you can though. He won’t forgive you for choosing me. And don’t ever trust a thing my father says. His only goal is to raise our family’s status, and if there’s a line he won’t cross, I haven’t seen it yet.”
While eating my bread and butter, I appeared to be receiving a rapid lesson on family dynamics.
“I was never intended for marriage,” I offered. “My sister, Helena, was supposed to be here now. She died the same day you all arrived at the manor.”
We’d finished eating, and he put the tray back on the side table. “So this has all come as a bit of a rude awakening to you then, hasn’t it?”
Unbidden tears sprang to my eyes. He understood. I nodded.
He lay down with his head on the pillows, reached out, and pulled me against his chest. Oddly, I wasn’t afraid of him. I settled my head against his shoulder.
“You won’t regret anything,” he said. “I’ll take care of you.”
No one had ever offered to take care of me before.
He kissed the top of my head. “You’re tired. Close your eyes. Tonight we’ll just sleep.”
Right then, I fell in love with him. He was more concerned about me than he was about himself. I’d made the right choice.
The next morning when I awoke, he was gone.
Miriam brought me water for washing, and then she took out the yellow muslin gown for me to wear. With a frown, I thought longingly of my simple blue-gray wool gown. I’d managed to stash it in the chest when my mother wasn’t looking. It was old and had probably been washed too many times, but it was warm and comfortable and made me feel like myself.
Still . . . Sebastian was my husband now, and he seemed to care about appearances.
Without protest, I let Miriam lace me into the yellow muslin. She put up hair and found a small choker of white pearls my mother had sent.
I looked the part of lady of the house.
“Your other chests should be up soon,” Miriam said. “I’ll stay and unpack your things.”
“All right. I’d best go down.”
And so, with that, I headed out of the room, down the passage, and down the curving stairs of the tower. I had an aging keep to try and put in order. I’d only glimpsed the great hall the night before, but I’d seen enough to know it was filthy.
The first things I saw upon entering the hall were Sebastian and Kai, standing by the table. The pack of spaniels wriggled at their feet.
Kai’s eyes were locked on me as I approached. As always, anger seemed to rise from his skin. I couldn’t help wondering about Sebastian’s assessment of his younger brother.
But Sebastian took in my dress and hair and smiled. “You’re lovely.”
Then I looked down at what they were eating. It appeared to be the remnants of moldy cheese. Their mugs held ale.
Kai took a long drink of his ale.
“Is that your breakfast?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “It’ll do.”
I shook my head. “No. It won’t.”
Two women entered to gather up the breakfast tray. I remembered Betty from last night. The other woman was tall and spindly.
“Do you have any instructions for Betty and Matilda?” Sebastian asked me pointedly.
Was this a cue for me to take charge?
I spoke to the women. “I want this hall swept out, and then I want the floor scrubbed. I want all the cobwebs swept down, and I want the walls prepared for tapestries.”
They both stared at me as if they’d not heard correctly, but Sebastian’s face lit up. “Tapestries?”
Kai said nothing, but he wasn’t really given time as Sebastian turned to Betty and Matilda. “You heard your new lady. Get started.”
Did I need him to back up my instructions? I wasn’t sure.
“I’ll get the brooms,” Matilda said.
With the cleaning of the hall underway, I looked again at the remnants of breakfast. “I suppose I’d better go and sort out the kitchen.”
Sebastian nodded. “I’ll come with you. The women in the kitchen aren’t as biddable as Betty and Matilda.”
To my shame, his words brought relief. He’d promised to protect me, and although I knew I should start setting a more authoritative precedent, I welcomed the thought of him standing beside me as I faced down the women in the kitchen—who would most likely resent being ordered about by a seventeen-year-old girl, suddenly foisted upon them as their new lady.
Sebastian and I left the hall and walked down a long side passage. “The entrance to the kitchen is up ahead on the right, and beyond that is a door that leads out to the gardens.”
“Gardens?”
“Yes, at least we boast a decent kitchen garden, although lately, few vegetables have made it to the table. Honestly, I haven’t been down this way myself in some time.”
We walked through the open archway into the kitchen, and there we found three women among the ovens and pots and pans. One of them, the eldest, was quietly kneading bread on a table. She was slender with graying hair pulled back in a bun.
The other two women were barely past twenty, and they sat at a smaller, second table laughing and chatting with each other over mugs of steaming tea and plates of scrambled eggs with strawberries on the side.
At the sight of this, Sebastian went still.
The woman making bread saw us first.
“My lord,” she said in alarm. “Can I help you?”
Then the other two looked up. One of them was strikingly pretty with black hair, pale skin, and a fetching smatter of freckles. The other one was somewhat stocky with reddish hair pulled back at the nape of her neck.
“I thought to introduce my lady to the kitchen staff,” Sebastian said coldly.