He was certainly a pretty young man and one too slight for the heavy physical work of gardener, but Laura would not have called him effeminate and, having observed his gaze shyly following Nell, one of the maids, she did not think his sexual inclinations were towards men. His father’s bigotry was not even founded on fact.
‘But what if I let Flynn down? Let his lordship down? They took such a risk on me and were so kind. But my father was right and I am clumsy and useless and his lordship’s engaged to be married now and what if his wife takes against me?’
‘Don’t talk like that,’ Laura said. Theo is betrothed. Of course he is. What difference does that make to you, you fool? The fact that she cared made her snappish. ‘Don’t you dare weep at me. This is sheer self-indulgence.’ Pitkin gaped at her and she felt a brute, but she pressed on. ‘You are simply preparing for the worst, which is a very good way to make certain that it happens. Flynn would not have risked his reputation and Lord Northam would not risk appearing less than perfectly turned-out, so they must have confidence in you.’
‘They have?’
‘Of course. Neither of them are a charitable institution. And you will perform much better if you believe that and don’t dither about. Now, on your feet. Shoulders back, head up and repeat after me: I am an excellent valet and my lord is very pleased with me.’
‘I… I am an excellent valet and my lord… I hope he is…’
‘And my lord is very pleased with me. Go on.’ She stuck at it for almost quarter of an hour by which time Pitkin looked three inches taller, revealed that he actually did have a chin and could repeat, I am highly skilled and very competent, without more than a token protest.
‘Now, before you next go in to Lord Northam take a moment to check your posture and say one of those phrases we have been rehearsing and everything will gradually become easier.’
And I know this because it is what I had to learn. She had enjoyed staying with her father’s sister and his family for occasional holidays, but once she was living there permanently and once her uncle had discovered just how much she had inherited, everything had changed. I am not afraid of my uncle, I am capable of winning against him. I am going to secure my rights – and if I say it often enough I might come to believe it.
But she had escaped, she had a plan. I am not afraid.
‘Is that someone in the front hall, Mrs Albright? I think both Terence and Edward are out at the back fixing the new washing line that Cook wanted put up and the maids are in the wash house.’
‘I’ll go.’ Laura tweaked her cap into place, went through and opened the baize door from the servants’ area. ‘My lord?’ There was Lord Northam. The very much betrothed Lord Northam who still, for
some reason, made her feel like a giddy seventeen year-old.
‘The front door was open.’ He stood there windblown and a trifle muddy around the ankles and shrugged apologetically. ‘I rang.’
‘I know.’ And there was no-one to answer the door as they should in a gentleman’s house. Which was why she was feeling so flustered, of course. It was absolutely nothing to do with the proximity of a large man with that disarming half-smile. Betrothed, she reminded herself again.
‘I do apologise, my lord. The footmen are both at the rear of the house, which should not happen. I fear things have become rather slack with the master away. And as for the door, you are in residence here and must come and go as you please, not wait on the front step like a caller.’
‘Speaking of which,’ he said, turning to look through the half-open door, ‘here comes a genuine one.’ He opened the door wide as the sound of hooves on the drive grew louder. ‘Giles Swinburn, I recognise the horse. He has a dinner invitation for –’
Laura did not wait for him to finish. She picked up her skirts, ran for the kitchen, flung open the cellar door and, wrenching the key out as she closed it, locked herself in.
‘Mrs Albright!’
How long had she been standing there in the dark, her back pressed against the door panels? Five minutes? Ten? Laura told herself that Lord Northam was not going to invite Giles Swinburn into the kitchen in search of an errant housekeeper. But just that one glimpse of Giles’s nervy chestnut cantering towards her had knocked all her courage and resolution into a pile of spillikins. I must do better if I am going to win this fight.
She unlocked the door. ‘My lord?’
‘He has gone.’ Lord Northam stood by the table, arms crossed, eyeing her as though she was a skittish mare in the training ring and he was not certain whether she was going to bolt or kick him. ‘Do you want to tell me what that was about?’
‘Um.’ Laura studied a chipped blue and white jug on the dresser just behind his left shoulder. His very broad left shoulder. ‘No, not really.’ That was the honest answer. She did not want to tell him, had no idea how he would react to the truth.
‘I see.’ He did not sound angry at her refusal, merely puzzled. ‘Then it is nothing I can help with?’
‘No. Thank you, my lord.’
‘But you would rather Giles Swinburn was not in the house? Is he a problem around women?’
‘Yes.’ That was true, although not why she had run, but it would do as an excuse.
‘Then you may be quite sure that if he, or anyone else for that matter, troubles you, I will deal with them.’ His shoulders shifted slightly and she glanced down to see that his fist was clenched.
‘Thank you, my lord.’ Why should he care about her? But he doesn’t, she realised. He’s a gentleman with decent chivalrous instincts and he would protect any woman.
‘It would be my pleasure,’ the chivalrous gentleman was saying. ‘We have a slight problem, however. He brought an invitation to dinner tomorrow night, which I have accepted, which means that I should return the hospitality and there does not appear to be an inn suitable for a respectable dinner party within several miles. Can you tolerate him in the house if I issued an invitation but no female member of staff has to appear?’