The Lady's Maid (16 page)

John leapt to his feet, slipping his arm around her waist in order to steady her. ‘You must take things slowly, my dear. Allow me to help you to a more comfortable seat.’

She could feel his breath warm against her cheek and the touch of his hand on hers was not unpleasant. She had a ridiculous impulse to lay her head against his shoulder, which only went to prove that she had been away from the real world for far too long. It was definitely time to go home.

‘Josie. Oh, my goodness, are you all right?’ Kate stood in the doorway, gazing at them in consternation. ‘Are you ill?’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me,’ Josie said irritably. ‘I stood up too quickly, that’s all. Thank you, John. I’m fine now, really.’

He released her and moved away to stand by the fireplace. ‘Good. I mean, I’m glad you are all right.’

‘And I’ve got some splendid news for you,’ Kate said, smiling. ‘I’ve just seen Ethan and he told me that the axle has been repaired. If you feel up to it I could drive us home this afternoon.’

‘So soon?’ John’s brow creased into a frown. ‘Shouldn’t Josie consult the doctor before undertaking such a journey?’

‘That man is dying to bleed me and I won’t have any of it.’ Josie tempered her words with a smile. ‘Kate, go upstairs and pack our bags. And John, be a dear and ring for Mrs Trevett. We need to give her the good news. I’m sure she will be delighted to have her household back to normal.’

He tugged at the bell pull. ‘I can’t speak for Mary, but I shall miss your company. The old house won’t seem the same without you and Kate.’

Josie met Kate’s disapproving glance with a toss of her dark curls. ‘I daresay you’ll find plenty to keep you occupied in the parish, vicar. I’m afraid we’ve kept you from some of your duties during the past week.’ She regretted the words the moment they left her lips. His pained expression only made things worse. ‘But I’m truly grateful for all your kindness.’ She turned her head away. Guilt was not an emotion she felt very often and it was as unwelcome as it was unusual. Why did people have to be so sensitive? For the first time, she almost welcomed Mrs Trevett’s arrival on the scene.

An hour later, Josie was perched on the driving seat wrapped in a travelling rug borrowed from the vicarage. Kate held the reins while Button moved
restlessly
in the shafts, as if eager to be off after a week of enforced idleness. John stood by the garden gate with Mrs Trevett at his side. Despite his smiles, Josie sensed his genuine sadness at their departure. It flattered her vanity, but it was also disturbing – she had not deliberately set out to charm the Reverend John Hardy, he had just taken a harmless bit of flirting much too seriously. Smiling, she waved. ‘Goodbye John, and thank you once again for everything.’ At least old Ma Trevett was not bothering to hide her relief that they were leaving. She would, no doubt, be delighted to rule her small empire once again.

John raised his hand, acknowledging her thanks with a faint smile. ‘You will be most welcome to come and visit us at any time, won’t they, Mary?’

‘Yes, sir. Of course.’ Mrs Trevett’s tone was meek but Josie was quick to note the look of satisfaction in her steely eyes.

‘Perhaps one day you might venture as far as Kingston Damerell,’ Kate said softly. ‘I’m sure my pa would be glad of the opportunity to thank you for taking care of us.’

‘I’ll do that, Kate. I know my good friend, Harry Challenor, speaks very highly of your part of the county.’

Josie stared at him in disbelief. ‘You know Harry?’

‘Copperstone is within my parish, Josie. I visit the castle at least once a month and take a service in the chapel. Had you been able to stay longer you would have been able to accompany me there next Sunday. It’s certainly worth a visit.’

At a loss for words, Josie nudged Kate in the ribs.
‘Drive
on.’ She bared her teeth in a smile, waving automatically as Button obeyed a single command and surged forward. ‘Why didn’t the silly man tell us that in the first place,’ she said angrily. ‘A whole week wasted. If I’d known he was Harry’s friend I would have stayed on longer and might have met Harry in his home surroundings. I would have had a chance to charm him and show myself off to my best advantage.’

‘Then it’s just as well you didn’t find out until too late.’ Kate flicked the reins and Button obligingly broke into a trot. ‘I’ve got eyes, Josie. You were flirting outrageously with poor John. You had him quite bemused and I’m sure that he is head over heels in love with you.’

‘Poppycock! He is a crusty old bachelor who isn’t the slightest bit interested in women except to save their souls.’

‘If you say so, Miss Delilah Damerell.’

‘I do say so, and you were extremely accommodating yourself. I think you have a soft spot for our clerical gentleman.’

‘I admit that I like him immensely. I think John is one of the nicest men I have ever met – too nice for you, Josie. You would tear his poor heart to shreds.’

Kate was smiling but Josie sensed an underlying seriousness in her words and an inescapable truth. She turned her head away. ‘I am not that cruel, Kate. And we are not likely to meet again, so your holy man is safe from my evil clutches.’

‘It was just a pity that you chose to overturn the trap outside the vicarage. Now if you’d been really clever, you would have had the accident in the grounds
of
Copperstone Castle. We could have spent a week in Mr Challenor’s magnificent home.’

‘That would have been my idea of heaven.’ Josie wrapped her mantle a little more tightly about her as a spiteful wind brought showers of dead leaves down around them and ominous clouds rolled across the sky.

It was late afternoon by the time they reached the home farm. Sam was crossing the farmyard, heading towards the milking parlour, but he stopped and his face split in a grin of delight when he saw them. He helped Kate down to the ground, hugging her and planting a smacking kiss on her cheek. ‘Well I’m blowed. This is a turn-up for the books. We wasn’t expecting you until next week at the earliest. Welcome home, Kate.’ He lifted her small case from beneath the seat. ‘I’m glad to see you’re fully recovered, Miss Josie.’

Josie eyed him warily. She felt the air charged about them as though a thunderstorm were about to break. His words were bland enough but there was a fire in his eyes that sent her pulses racing. She curved her lips in what she hoped was a casual smile. ‘I’ve brought Kate home to you, safe and sound. Although I hear you blamed me entirely for the accident.’ Try as she might to remain aloof, she could not resist goading him. She had always enjoyed provoking Sam until his eyes flashed with anger. She would keep on and on until he forgot his subservient position and fought with her on equal terms.

Sam’s smile was replaced by a frown. ‘You could both have been killed.’

‘And you would have been proved right,’ Josie shot
back
at him. ‘That would have made you very happy, wouldn’t it?’

‘You’ve no idea of the fuss and bother you caused, have you?’

‘I’ll thank you to remember your place, Sam Loveday.’

Kate threw up her hands. ‘Stop it, the pair of you. We’re home now, and that’s all that matters. I must find Pa and make my peace with him. Where is he, Sam?’

His expression softened. ‘I think you’ll find he’s visiting the Grange, Kate. But I’m not in his confidence, so I can’t say for certain.’

‘You mean he’s calling on Miss Stamp?’

Josie seized the horse whip and flicked it at Sam. ‘Hold your tongue, you stupid fellow. If you don’t know for sure, then keep silent. Farmer Coggins could have gone to see the squire.’

Sam reached out and snatched it from her. ‘Don’t never do that again, Josie Damerell, or I’ll forget that you’re supposed to be a lady and put you over my knee.’

‘Touch me and I’ll show you what a good whipping feels like, you country bumpkin.’

Kate moved between them, grabbing Sam by the hand. ‘You’re acting like a pair of spoilt children.’

His angry expression melted into a smile. ‘Don’t take no notice of me, Kate. Go indoors out of the cold.’

‘I will, but only if you promise to stop fighting with Josie and see her safely home.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Josie said, slithering across the seat to take the reins. ‘I can drive myself. Let Loveday get back to his cows.’

‘No, I won’t hear of it.’ Kate stood her ground. ‘I want to be certain that you’ve arrived home in one piece, and he doesn’t mind a bit, do you, Sam?’

He pushed his cap to the back of his head. ‘But the milking, Kate. It has to be done.’

‘And I’ll be glad to get back to work. I’ve missed my dear old cows, and I expect they’ve missed me too.’ She gave him a gentle shove towards the chaise. ‘Go on, Sam. I’ll be fine, really I will.’

Reluctantly, Josie moved over and allowed him to take the reins. Her heart was pounding inside her breast and her pulses raced. She stifled the urge to claw her fingers and attack Sam like a tigress, if only to feel his strong arms holding her to him so that their bodies fused into one. She struggled to push such dark thoughts from her mind as Sam urged Button from a steady trot to a canter. ‘Steady, Sam. Thoroughbreds only need the lightest hand on the reins.’

He shot her a sideways glance. ‘Are you talking about yourself or the horse, Josie?’

Responding to the mischievous gleam in his eyes, she moved a little closer. ‘You are an impertinent rogue, and you forget your place.’

‘I’m very well aware of my lowly position, but I recall a time when we played together as equals.’

‘That was long ago.’ She reached up and touched the blue jay’s feather stuck in his hatband. ‘Do you remember when we found the poor dead bird?’

‘And you cried as though your heart would break.’

‘I did not.’

‘You did too.’

‘We buried it by the lake, all but one feather; I gave it to you as a token of our everlasting friendship.’

‘And I’ve worn it ever since. It will go to the grave with me.’

She laid her head on his shoulder. ‘Do you remember how we used to climb the great oaks in the park, daring each other to reach the highest branch?’

‘I do, for I always won.’

A gurgle of laughter escaped from her lips. ‘Kate always said you were half monkey.’

‘I might have been half monkey but you were no mermaid. I remember pulling you from the lake, very nearly drowned and wearing nothing but a cotton shift.’

‘I was ten years old and you’d dared me to swim the length of the lake in the dark.’ She shivered as she remembered the cold water closing over her head and the finger-like fronds of the pond weed clutching at her bare legs. ‘We were just children then.’

‘Aye, I know. Now we’re grown up and you’re the fine lady and I’m the farm labourer. I do know my place, Josie, but I sometimes wonder if you know yours.’

She glanced up at his strong profile and the determined set of his jaw. Sam was right, of course, they were no longer carefree children, and he was her social inferior, but something remained of their old unquestioning devotion to each other, even though it had recently undergone a subtle change. She had seen the way he looked at her when she and her friends had joined in the dancing at the harvest supper. She had pretended to ignore him, for he was just a clumsy yokel, especially
when
compared to the elegant Harry Challenor, but she had been only too aware of Sam’s strong physique and handsome, suntanned face. Her society friends were pale and insignificant in comparison. She felt his muscles tauten as she huddled closer to him, and she was even more conscious of the strange stirring inside her that had nothing to do with courtly love or genteel flirtation. She had been kissed by ardent young gentlemen who had somehow managed to extricate her from the clutches of her chaperones, but their embraces had been exciting only in the fact that they were illicit. Her heart had never been touched by any man, not even Harry Challenor. It was slightly alarming, but being this close to Sam she found herself longing to feel his mouth on hers and to taste his lips. She nestled closer. ‘I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean all those things I said before.’

He laid his work-roughened hand over hers as it rested on his sleeve. ‘I know, maidy. You and I are one and the same. It were always so.’

They continued on in silence until they reached the avenue of trees leading up to the manor house. It was almost dark now and the windows were illuminated by the soft glow of candlelight. Above their heads, the naked branches of the copper beech trees were interlaced and Sam drew the horse to a halt in their shadow. Josie held her breath; she knew what was going to happen even before he took her in his arms. Closing her eyes she inhaled the intoxicating male scent of him as she clasped her hands behind his head, drawing him closer until their lips were almost touching. His kiss was everything that she had imagined it might be
and
more. It was tender and yet savage in its intensity, sending fireworks exploding in her breast and eliciting her passionate response. She ran her fingers through his thick dark hair, parting her lips and tasting the sweetness of his tongue as it explored her mouth. She nipped his top lip with her teeth and he cupped her breasts with his hands, causing her nipples to form hard peaks of desire. She moved beneath him, pressing her body against his, half fainting with the need for him to take her here, in the open air like the beasts of the field, but he drew away from her suddenly, leaving her shivering with frustration. ‘How dare you,’ she hissed, but it was disappointment rather than outrage that fuelled her anger. She should never have allowed this to happen, and her cheeks burned with shame.

He said nothing. Taking the reins, he urged the horse into movement. He did not look at her and she slapped at him with the flat of her hands. ‘You are an uncouth brute, Loveday. You shan’t take liberties with me and then just drive on as if nothing has happened.’

He turned his head to meet her furious look, but his eyes were in shadow. ‘I am everything you say I am, and it won’t happen again.’

‘Set me down now. I won’t travel another inch with you.’

‘I’ll take you to the door and see you safe inside.’