Free Drops of Gold by Sarah M. Eden Page A

stairs if the other servants are made to wait upon me.” She gave Caroline another squeeze before rising. “My sitting to dinner with the family, even once, would only widen the gulf I am attempting to span, sir.”
    Layton could not argue with the wisdom of her observation. Then Caroline turned her teary-eyed face up toward him. He wished he could do something. Caroline had no friends, and she considered this redheaded, fiery-eyed governess to be one. How could he allow her to be disillusioned?
    “Perhaps, Miss Wood,” Layton said, extemporizing a proposition, “you would not object if Caroline and I were to bring our cake up to the nursery wing. If she is chosen queen for the night, she would certainly appreciate reigning over the part of the house where she spends her days.”
    “Oh, please, Mary! Please!” Caroline clasped Miss Wood’s skirts in her tiny fingers.
    Miss Wood smiled once more. “I think it an excellent suggestion.”
    An hour later, Layton and Caroline joined Miss Wood in the nursery wing. His knees didn’t begin to fit under the miniature table in the schoolroom, and Miss Wood seemed to find his attempts to force his legs into cooperation particularly funny. She barely bit back repeated peals of laughter.
    “You couldn’t possibly have chosen the taller table, I suppose,” Layton grumbled but without any real irritation as he shifted in his undersized chair.
    He and Caroline had entered the schoolroom to find that Miss Wood had anticipated them. She’d spread a slightly yellowed tablecloth on the child-sized table and created a makeshift table decoration of pine boughs and slightly damp holly berries.
    “Snow,” she’d explained with a shrug.
    Apparently, the indomitable Miss Wood had spent her dinner hour decorating. Her cheeks were still pink from the cold or perhaps embarrassment. Layton couldn’t shake the feeling that she was uncomfortable. With him? And why was that frustrating?
    “Miss Caroline, would you please help me with the cake?” Miss Wood spoke as if addressing another grown woman.
    Caroline smiled quite proudly and nodded. Miss Wood sliced the small Twelfth Night cake into three pieces and laid each one on a nursery-sized plate.
    “Give the first to your father, dearest.”
    Caroline walked carefully, slowly, around the table and laid the tiny plate in front of Layton. “Did I do good, Papa?” she whispered.
    “’Twas perfect, love,” Layton answered in a matching whisper and kissed her on the forehead. She giggled and returned to the cake, pulling one plate in front of her own chair before sitting down, the picture of feminine demureness. Miss Wood had, apparently, been instructing Caroline in her mealtime manners.
    “Can we look for the coin now?” Caroline asked Miss Wood, her eagerness belying her patient demeanor.
    “That would be up to your father, Miss Caroline,” Miss Wood answered gently.
    Miss Wood turned to look at Layton, expectation brightening her eyes. Something akin to mischief showed in the pair of chocolate-brown eyes. Brown. Why had he never noticed that before? It was an unusual combination: red hair and brown eyes. Yet it fit her somehow, surprisingly and unexpectedly.
    “I think we’d better begin our search, Caroline. I’m anxious enough I just might eat the coin and not realize it.”
    “Oh, Papa!” Caroline giggled. “You are funny tonight!”
    “Someone must have put funny pepper in the soup,” Miss Wood said, smiling at Caroline.
    “Funny pepper?” Layton and Caroline said in unison.
    “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of funny pepper.” Miss Wood looked like she knew they hadn’t and found it amusing.
    “I have a feeling we are about to hear another story.” Layton smiled in spite of himself.
    “Not if you are in danger of breaking a tooth on the coin hidden in your slice of cake,” Miss Wood answered.
    “And how do you know the coin is in my slice?”
    She shrugged. “I suppose I don’t, really. You just seemed