Free Justine Elyot by Secretsand Lords Page A

chat with the maids but I hear you’re from London. Is that true?’
    ‘Yes, ma’am.’
    Lady Mary threw herself into one of the chairs – one that did not seem designed for having bodies thrown into it.
    ‘Wish to God I was there,’ she muttered.
    ‘Ma’am?’
    ‘Oh, it doesn’t concern you. I’m desperate for a trip to town but pa’s being a crashing bore about it. He has the most abominably old-fashioned ideas about everything. I keep telling him these are the 1920s but I’m sure he mishears me and thinks I’ve said the 1820s.’
    ‘I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am.’
    Lady Mary mimicked the bland phrase then kicked the leg of the chair.
    ‘Do you have a fellow?’ she asked.
    ‘Excuse me, ma’am?’
    ‘Oh, you know what I mean. A young man, a swain.’
    ‘No, no, I don’t.’
    ‘Then get one. And make it quick, before my brother makes love to you. He will, you know.’
    Edie twirled her feather duster round in her fingers, at a loss for words.
    ‘If you’ll excuse me, ma’am,’ she said.
    ‘Oh, God, he already has.’ Mary let out a bark of laughter. ‘There’d better not be another little Deverell bastard on the way. Pa’s spleen won’t stand it.’
    ‘You’ve no call to make assumptions about me,’ said Edie coldly.
    Mary drew herself up in her chair and stared.
    ‘Oh, don’t I, madam? Well, I stand corrected. But speak to me in that tone again and you needn’t expect lover boy Charlie to come to your rescue. Because he never does, you know. He doesn’t really care about anyone except himself.’
    Edie nodded, sick with nerves now.
    ‘If you’ll excuse me,’ she muttered for a third time.
    ‘Oh, go on, then. Thought you might be fun, but you’re a mouse like the rest of them. Scurry along.’
    Edie passed a wary, strung-up day listening for footsteps and peering around corners. When Sir Charles was seen getting into his motor, she was able to gain relief from her suspenseful state for an hour or two, but his return brought the butterflies back to her stomach.
    Twice she crossed the path of Lady Deverell, who had nothing to say to her, but watched her intently as she passed. Of Lord Deverell she saw almost nothing, and she dreaded that he might have gone away again, and Charles would pay his stepmother another visit that night.
    Enquiries in the servants’ kitchen confirmed that this was not the case, however – he had been out preparing for the following day’s shoot, that was all. To her even greater relief, Carrie had recovered from her illness and Edie was not called to serve the family at dinner that night.
    Instead she sat by the kitchen fire and tried to darn a stocking, though the skill was not one that came easily to her. One of the footmen played the fiddle, and folksy tunes drifted through the servants’ quarters while the scullery maids danced.
    Ted cut through the frolicking, taking one girl gallantly by the waist and swinging her around until she squealed, before dropping her and coming to sit opposite Edie.
    ‘Raw weather for summer, ain’t it?’ he said. ‘Autumn’s come early. This fire’s never usually lit at this time of year.’
    ‘At least it’s stopped raining,’ remarked Edie, biting off a length of thread.
    ‘How did you get on today? Any more disasters with the polish?’ Ted grinned and stretched his long legs out in front of him.
    ‘No, at least, I hope not. I had a run-in with Lady Mary, though.’
    He leaned forwards, his cheek muscles twitching.
    ‘Oh? What happened?’
    ‘Nothing really. She just seemed to want to needle me. She was put out about some trip to London that had been cancelled. I suppose I was the nearest body to take out her frustrations on.’
    ‘Yeah, that’d be it,’ said Ted, settling back in his seat. ‘There were a few whispers about her behaviour last time she was up in town. Burning the candle both ends. Out and about with people His Lordship wasn’t so keen on.’
    ‘She’s a young woman. She’s