A Christmas Kiss (8 page)

“But that wasn't necessary,” Evalyn said. “I would have been most happy to take charge of them.”

“Now, my dear Miss Pennington, that would have been most unsuitable. You are a guest here, as I am. I certainly would not have permitted … I could not so impose on you,” Martha said.

“It would have been no imposition. I most desire to make myself useful. However, I'll not trouble you further on this matter. Please remember, Mrs. Covington, that I should be glad to be of service to you and the children whenever you have need of me.”

The men had left for their day of shooting early, and the house seemed quiet and somnolent. Sally had made no appearance, but Clarissa knew it was her wont to remain in bed until well into the afternoon. Noting that young Marianne was drifting about the corridors aimlessly, Clarissa suggested that the ladies take a drive. Martha and Marianne agreed eagerly, but Evalyn declined, saying that a novel she had started the night before was engrossing her. When the others had left, she found her way up to the nursery. It was not a difficult place to find. Here, as in most of the great houses, the nursery was hidden away on the top floor of one of the wings. There she found the twins happily playing at spillikins on the floor before a cheerful fire. On a rocking chair nearby sat a wizened old lady knitting an already overlong muffler.

“How do you do, ma'am?” Evalyn greeted her. “Are you the lady who had been governess to James Everard?”

“More of a nanny I was,” the woman said, looking up with a smile. “And to his father before him.” She rose from the rocker with surprising grace and agility and came toward Evalyn with a firm, if slow, step.

“Really?” asked Evalyn in surprise. “To Lord Gyllford himself?”

“Yes, indeed. And a fair handful he was in those days. He kept me hopping, I can tell you. Mrs. Noakes, I be.”

“And I'm Evalyn Pennington. I, too, am a governess.”

Mrs. Noakes bobbed a curtsey. “And a much better than I, I have no doubt. You're a lady with learning. I could tell that the moment you opened your mouth. As for me, I could only watch over my boys and play with 'em. My boys had tutors enough to teach 'em their Latin and such.”

“My charges do not learn much Latin from me either, I'm afraid. Tell me, Mrs. Noakes, do you not find it difficult to take care of two such lively boys as the twins here?”

“Not me,” the old woman chortled. “It puts a spring in my step, it does, to be in the company of children again. As I told his lordship this morning, when he rode over to take me up, I'd rather be up and doing than lying about on my bed.”

A voice came from the doorway. “What she said was, ‘Better to wear out my shoes than my sheets!'” The ladies looked up to find Lord Gyllford smiling at them. “I see you and I have come on the same errand, Miss Pennington.”

“And what errand is that, sir?” Mrs. Noakes asked.

“To see how you fare with those young jackanapes,” he answered, loud enough for the boys to hear.

“We're fine, Uncle Philip,” said one of the twins, not bothering to look up from the game. “We've been very good all day, haven't we, Mrs. Noakes?”

“Like two angels,” she answered promptly.

“Since it still lacks an hour to midday, it won't do to praise you yet,” Philip told the boys. “I'll expect a full report at your bedtime.” Then, turning to Evalyn, he asked quietly, “Well, my dear, are you satisfied?”

She flushed and turned to Mrs. Noakes. “Good day to you, ma'am. I hope you'll not hesitate to call on me if you should have any need of my assistance.”

She turned, and, finding Lord Gyllford holding the door for her, she left the nursery, her cheeks burning in embarrassment. Lord Gyllford walked beside her down the hall. She glanced up at him timidly. “I'm sorry, Lord Gyllford, if I seemed to be concerning myself unduly in the affairs of your household, but I had so hoped to make myself useful.”

“There's no need at all for you to feel embarrassment, my dear. I quite understand your feelings. However, Jamie has invited you here for a holiday, and a holiday you shall have. You may as well resign yourself to it.”

“Jamie is … I mean, your son is very kind, but I have no wish for him to put you in a position of such … inconvenience on my behalf—”

Lord Gyllford stopped her with a gesture of impatience and grasped her firmly by the shoulders, turning her so that they faced each other squarely. “Try to understand, Miss Pennington, that Jamie's wishes exactly match mine in this. We—both of us, and my sister, too—have invited you to be a guest in this house. A
guest
. It is, and will continue to be, a pleasure for us to make you happy during your stay. Do you understand? Can you not accept the trifling steps we've taken to make you comfortable?”

Evalyn shook her head. “I am more grateful than I can say, but—”

“You ‘but' me too many ‘buts,' young lady. Just say yes.”

Evalyn looked up at him. His face was close above hers, his eyes looking compellingly into her own. Again, something she saw back in his eyes made her words stick in her throat. Her heart pounded and her chest heaved with emotions completely new to her. She nodded. “Y-yes, my lord,” she managed, and dropped her eyes.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, and his hands fell from her shoulders. They turned and walked down the corridor without speaking. At the top of the staircase he turned to her again. “My guests all call me Philip,” he said pointedly, “and I hope you will permit me to call you by your Christian name. Evalyn is a lovely name. It suits you.”

“Of course you may, my lord,” she said.

“Not ‘my lord,'” he corrected. “Philip.”

She looked up at him, her cheeks crimson. “Oh, I don't think I …”

“Yes, you can. Say it. Philip.”

His eyes still held that look. She took a breath, gasped, “Philip,” and fled like a schoolgirl down the stairs.

Philip looked after her until she disappeared. Then he went down to his study and pulled the door shut behind him. As he crossed to his desk, he caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror over the mantlepiece. A smile—a rather foolish one, he thought—still lingered on his face. He stared at his reflection as the memory of his misgivings of the night before flooded into his mind. He had promised himself to avoid her, to keep his feelings fatherly and cool! “Oh, that was well done, Philip,” he said aloud, in a tone of sardonic self-disgust, “very well done indeed!”

Evalyn forced herself to walk down the hallway toward her room slowly and with, she hoped, one last shred of dignity. She had behaved like the silliest chit of a schoolgirl, and how she was to face Lord Gyllford again she didn't in the least know. Yet something inside her was bubbling with suppressed joy, and a smile hovered at the corners of her mouth. If she were sure no one would see, she would have liked to waltz down the length of the hall. She could almost hear the music—
Philip-tah-tum, tah-tum, Philip-tah-tum
. Heavens, what was wrong with her? She'd never waltzed in her life!

But fortunately, before she made a complete fool of herself, she noticed two figures at the far end of the corridor near her room. One was Miss Trevelyan, wearing a diaphanous robe over her nightclothes, her hair still dishevelled by sleep. The other—goodness, it was Nancy!

Evalyn hurried down the passageway, to be greeted by Miss Trevelyan. “Ah, there you are, Miss Pennington. You must really speak to your abigail, you know. She's kept me out here in the hallway arguing for at least five minutes. She has no idea how a maid should go on!”

“I'm sorry if she's done something out of the way. What seems to be the problem?”

Nancy sniffed in a decidedly truculent way and spoke up quickly. “She asked me to do 'er 'air, and I won't,” she said, sticking out her chin stubbornly. “Lord Gyllford said I was to work for you ex-clu-sive, didn't 'e?”

Evalyn suppressed a smile. “Yes, indeed he did, Nancy, and you were quite right to wait to ask my permission,” she said tactfully, trying to smooth things over.

“Well, I ain't asking yer permission, Miss Evalyn. She's got 'er own maid to do for 'er.”

“Did you ever hear the like?” said the scandalized Miss Trevelyan. “How can you put up with such insubordination? I only asked her because my Annette is nowhere to be found. How dare this impertinent minx refuse me? If I were you, Miss Pennington, I'd pack her off this instant!”

“I think you must leave the handling of Nancy to me, Miss Trevelyan. Nancy, dear, you have been rude, and I think you must tell Miss Trevelyan how sorry you are for speaking so.”

Two large tears welled up in Nancy's eyes. “I d-didn't mean to be rude, t-truly. But 'er m-maid, Annette, would explode l-like a firecracker at me if I was to go n-near 'er m-mistress's 'air! And me bein' the n-newest on staff, it'd be for sure a slap at 'er pride! And the m-master did say I was to work for you ex-clu-sive, didn't 'e? 'Tain't right to go disobeying him on me very f-first day! So what'm I t-to do?” And she wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“There, there, Nancy,” said Evalyn soothingly, putting an arm around the girl's shoulder and putting a handkerchief into her hand. “Wipe your eyes and go down to the hall to see if you can find Miss Trevelyan's maid—what's her name? Annette? Yes, tell Annette she's wanted right away.”

Nancy wiped her eyes. “Are ye goin' to pack me off, Miss Evalyn?” she asked, her underlip quivering.

“No, of course not. Now go along.”

Nancy cast her a thankful look. “Yes'm. I'll run right down and do me best to find 'er.” And she ran off down the hall.

“It seems to me, Miss Pennington, that you have much to learn about the handling of servants,” Sally Trevelyan said coldly.

A pointed retort to the effect that Miss Trevelyan herself had something to learn in that regard—seeing that her Annette was nowhere to be seen when she was needed—occurred to Evalyn, but she did not express it. It would not be pleasant for Lord Gyllford and Lady Steele if their guests were at each other's throats. So she bit back the retort and said politely, “Would you, perhaps, like
me
to do your hair?”

Sally, expecting an angry retort, was disarmed by the gentle reply. “Oh,” she said in surprise, “do you think you could?”

“I could try,” Evalyn answered. Sally smiled and led the way to her room. It was panelled and furnished in a manner quite similar to Evalyn's, but she noticed with some surprise that it was smaller than hers and the bed hangings not as rich. Why, she wondered, would the Everards give a governess a more elegant bedroom than they gave to Miss Trevelyan? The Everards certainly had strange ways of doing things.

Sally sat down at her dressing table and handed Evalyn her brush with a conciliatory smile. Evalyn began to brush the long, golden hair with trepidation. She knew nothing of hairstyles or the proper way of dressing a lady's hair. But before she had to admit her inexperience, a knock at the door stayed her hand.

“Yes?” called Miss Trevelyan.

“It's Clarissa, Sally. May I come in?”

There was a moment's hesitation, and Evalyn noticed an uneasy flicker in Sally's eyes. “Yes, do come in, Clarissa dear,” Sally sang out in a tone of false eagerness.

Clarissa came directly to the dressing room but stopped in surprise at seeing Evalyn—and with a brush in her hand. She looked from Evalyn to Sally with a puzzled, almost troubled, expression. Then she smiled politely. “Oh, Miss Pennington, here you are! I tapped at your door not a moment ago and wondered where you'd gone. But Sally, what on earth is going on? Surely you haven't asked our Miss Pennington to do your hair?”

“Well, I didn't exactly … that is, I …” Sally began.

“Her Annette seems to have disappeared, and I volunteered,” Evalyn put in quickly.

“Oh, I see,” Clarissa said, but it was clear that she was not pleased. Fortunately for Evalyn's peace of mind, a breathless and contrite Annette made an appearance at that moment. Evalyn excused herself and made her escape.

“Will you wait outside a moment?” Clarissa said to Annette after Evalyn had left. Annette closed the dressing-room door behind her. Clarissa looked at Sally in the mirror of the dressing table. “I must ask you, Sally, not to play any of your … tricks … while you are here.”

“Tricks?” Sally asked, all innocence.

“She may have been a governess, but all that is at an end, as you will learn in due course. While she is here and under my roof, I expect you to treat Miss Pennington like a member of the family. I trust I'll not have to speak to you on this head again.” And she walked from the room, leaving Sally staring at her retreating back in both anger and embarrassment.

Annette came back into the dressing room in considerable trepidation. The petite French maid knew her mistress well, and her expression as she sat staring at the mirror boded no good. Miss Trevelyan was obviously seething with suppressed fury. “I'm so sorry to be late, Ma'm'selle, and not to have been here when you awoke, but it is so early still. I did not expect you to call until two or three. Please do not look so angry at me.”

But all Annette got for her pains was a box on the ear.

Clarissa tapped again at Evalyn's door, several gowns thrown over her arm. “Come in,” Evalyn called, and looked up in surprise as Clarissa entered with some hesitation.

“I … I'm not disturbing you, am I?” Clarissa asked a little nervously.

“Oh, no, of course not. I was just staring out the window at your lovely grounds.”

“You shall see them in the spring, when all the shrubs are blooming. It's quite lovely then.”

“I hope I may be invited back some day to—but what is that you carry, ma'am?”

Clarissa felt the color rise in her face. “My dear,” she said haltingly, “I hope you won't take this amiss. I know you can't have much to wear, given your circumstances, and I have so many gowns that were purchased when I was much slimmer than I am now. No, please. Miss Pennington, don't refuse until you've heard me out. Believe me, my dear, when I say that I don't care what you wear. But all these lovely things are going to waste and taking up room in my chests and cupboards, and it would give me such pleasure to see you wear them.”