Free To Walk in the Sun (Wiggons' School for Elegant Young Ladies - Book 1) by Jane Charles

one of us, in the dark of the night. Well, most of you
anyway. Don’t vampires need maidens? I suppose I am safe.”
    “Stop,” Tess insisted. “One of the girls
could hear you and we already have enough troubles without dealing
with their overwrought emotions, and imaginations, as it is.”
    Natalie slumped back on the settee and
shrugged her shoulders. “Still, it is a wonder. One would think he
would have at least one friend who came to call.”
    She knew her face must have gone white for
now it was no longer hot, but cold. Atwood did have at least one
friend that she knew of. How could she have forgotten Percer in all
of this? She just placed herself in the most dangerous, or almost
most dangerous, place to be. What if Percer decided to renew his
friendship with Atwood? What if he called while they still resided
here, before the school was done? What had she done by agreeing to
this? What kind of danger had she just put everyone in? Herself?
What of the reputation of the school? If she showed up here, Mrs.
Wiggons need not bother rebuilding for she would be as ruined and
possibly charged with harboring a fugitive.
    Tess placed a hand over her mouth and ran
from the room, ignoring Natalie who called after her. She was going
to be sick.
     
     

 
     
    “ I need not deliberate; what I demand of
thee, is which
    thou hast promised me – that which will prove
my bliss. Or dost
    thou but mock me? if so, hence from my sight,
lest I be
    tempted to lay my hand on thee.”
     
    Wake Not the Dead
    Johann Ludwig Tieck
     
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    “Oh, please do be quiet,” Tess pleaded in a
whisper. She stood just outside of Atwood’s door and knew he
slumbered within. She could only hope that he was a sound
sleeper.
    A headboard banged against the stairs.
“Shhhh,” she admonished.
    The plan had seemed sound at the time. Move
the belongings in and get the girls settled, all without Atwood
realizing the disruption to his household. Once the rooms above
were prepared, it would be harder to ask them to leave.
Unfortunately, they were not even halfway completed and five pieces
of furniture had banged on the hall outside his door.
    Something dropped on the floor above. Tess
scooted around the servants carrying a bed and rushed up the
stairs. An older man had one end of a wood frame and seemed
strained by the weight, so much that she thought his eyes would pop
out. Another man stood at the opposite end reciting words that made
her blush. Perhaps the man had been a sailor prior to his
employment within the household. Thank goodness the girls were not
up here.
    The older man none too gently set his end of
the bed on the floor and walked to the other where he picked up the
footboard so the younger servant could retrieve his foot. The man
hopped over and fell into a still cloth-covered seat.
    Tess rushed to his side. “Are you
injured?”
    The younger man glared up at her and she took
a step back.
    “I’ll find Mrs. Zobard, or a maid, to help
you.” Tess rushed from the room before he said something she would
regret.
    She waited at the top of the stairs while
another item was maneuvered over the railing. Goodness, she never
really realized how heavy the furniture was in the school. When
they passed, she rushed down the stairs while they were clear and
exited onto the main hall once again. A headboard fell against the
wall. Just when she was about to admonish the servant for not being
more careful, and to be quiet, the door of Atwood’s room flew open
and hit the wall inside.
    “What the hell is going on?”
    All activity stopped and everyone turned to
look at him. Tess wished she had not been one of them. His black
hair was tussled and a curl fell over his left eye. He wore a deep
maroon dressing gown, open at the chest but tied at his hips. At
least the lower half of him was covered. The upper part was
difficult enough to take in. She had never seen a man’s chest
before and wondered if they were all as firm, almost