The Housemaid's Scandalous Secret

by Helen Dickson

  Banging his hand on the arm of his chair, the old man’s eyes swung to Ross, madness and desperation in their milky depths. ‘Who is this woman anyway? A nobody by all accounts. A woman who had to work for a living before she married Jamie. She is not fit to call herself the Dowager Marchioness of Hatherton. I will not acknowledge her. I am still a powerful man. I have ways and means to get what I want, and a position such as hers offers me numerous ways and means.... You understand me?’

  Both Giles and Ross understood him—and with the understanding their fear grew. He was right; he had the power to take the child from Alicia. Of late he had become possessed of only one idea, and that was to have Jamie’s child under his care. He had even gone to the extraordinary lengths of ordering Mrs Stratton to have all the nursery floor redecorated, setting the whole household agog. It was plain to both his son and his nephew that His Grace would have his grandson by fair means or foul.

  ‘The courts don’t always do what is expected of them,’ Giles pointed out.

  There was a slight constriction in His Grace’s throat. He moved his thin blue lips, one over the other, then looking at Giles with hard eyes, he said, ‘Which is why it would be wise to have this matter settled once and for all—quietly and without fuss. I want you to send a letter to this woman, informing her that I wish to see her—and her son. I expect you to respect my feelings.’

  Giles nodded. ‘I will write directly.’ His father was still very much the master of the house and the family and his wishes must be obeyed.

  * * *

  It was a deliriously happy, shiny-eyed Araminta who greeted Lisette on her first morning as a wife. In fact, she was so caught up in her own happiness she failed to notice her maid’s unusually quiet manner. It was when Araminta went to join her husband in the breakfast room to bid farewell to the guests who would be departing after breakfast that Mrs Stratton appeared to inform Lisette that Mrs Landes-Fraser wished to see her.

  Lisette knew why she was being summoned into the presence of the great lady. She expected the worst.

  Mrs Landes-Fraser gave Lisette a cold stare. Normally she never interfered with the hiring or dismissal or discipline of the household staff. She usually left that sort of thing to Lumsden and Mrs Stratton, but her loyalty to the Montagues was never in doubt, and if anyone threatened any one of them her stoic nature turned to steel and she became a lioness defending her cubs.

  Her instinct told her that this extremely beautiful girl was such a threat. However, she grudgingly admitted that she was certainly presentable. She had the colouring, the carriage and the neck most young women of class would envy. She drew herself up, looking down her long patrician nose, making no bones over her disapproval. In her day all young ladies had known the rules, had been inducted from birth in the rituals of their world. But this young woman was from a different world entirely.

  ‘I understand you wish to see me, ma’am.’

  ‘Most certainly. You can be at no loss to understand the reason. Your own conscience must tell you. A report of a decidedly vulgar nature has reached me.’

  She went on to berate Lisette on her unacceptable conduct, leaving Lisette in no doubt that her employment as Miss Araminta’s maid was indeed at an end.

  ‘The Montagues are descended from a noble line, Miss Napier—respectable, honourable and ancient. It is clear you have a clever head on your shoulders so you will know what I am saying.’

  Standing straight and proud, Lisette raised her head and looked the superior lady in the eye. If she’d had any hopes at all of forming some kind of life with Ross, then Mrs Landes-Fraser’s voice now attacked them with the cutting knife of reality.

  ‘Perfectly.’

  ‘Then if you have any sense of propriety and delicacy you will walk away.’

  ‘I am aware of the embarrassment I must have caused and I would like you to understand that I am not aiming to claim anything more than an acquaintance with Colonel Montague. You need not trouble yourself that I will take advantage of our encounter. Colonel Montague has done nothing wrong. I assure you his sterling reputation is constituted by a keen observation of all the proprieties and a more than ordinary measure of honour. I hold him in the highest regard. I understand your concern, ma’am. I will leave at once.’

  Without another word, with her head held high, Lisette turned and walked away. After packing her few things together she went to say goodbye to Araminta.

  * * *

  Araminta was astounded by Lisette’s disclosure. ‘You and Ross?’ A smile curved her lips. ‘I have to say that it comes as no great surprise to me. I knew from the very beginning that my brother showed an unusual interest in you. Why else would he have suggested that you be my maid?’

  ‘You...don’t disapprove?’ Lisette asked tentatively.

  ‘As a bride I feel so happy today that I would like everyone else to feel the same as I do, and if you make Ross happy, then why should I mind? It certainly explains why he was reluctant to encourage my sister-in-law into forming any kind of relationship. But must you go so soon? Please, Lisette, wait for Ross to get back from Hatherton.’

  ‘I cannot. I am doing this for Ross. It is because I love him that I have to leave.’

  ‘But—but if you love each other, he surely will ask you to marry him.’

  ‘He has made no indication that he will. He must think of his future. One day he will meet someone he will be proud to introduce as his wife and to bear his children.’

  ‘No, Lisette. If you loved him you would not put him through this torment.’

  Lisette turned to go. ‘Just ask him to forgive me.’

  She next went to say goodbye to members of the staff who had become her friends—others slanted their eyes in her direction, all judging her, all condemning her.

  Faith was genuinely upset by her dismissal and hugged her close. ‘I’m sorry you’re leaving, Lisette. I, for one, will miss your friendship sorely.’

  ‘And I yours, Faith.’

  ‘Whatever the truth of it, if it makes you feel better, Nancy with that treacherous tongue of hers has also been dismissed. She was idle and lazy to boot.’

  ‘It doesn’t make me feel better, Faith. But it doesn’t matter now.’

  ‘I am sorry for your situation, Lisette.’

  Lisette smiled and embraced her friend. ‘You are very kind. Be happy, Faith, and don’t wait too long before you marry your Sandy.’

  ‘I won’t. Now you’d better go. John is waiting to take you to Buxton in the carriage.’

  On arriving in Buxton, Lisette boarded the coach for the first stage of her journey. She intended travelling to Oxford to see Mr Sowerby and then on to London where she would book a passage on the first available ship bound for India. Clinging to a lifeline, she felt her life, which had slipped precariously since she had left Ross’s bed, right itself for a moment in the emptiness of her heart which held all her love for Ross Montague.

  * * *

  Ross arrived back hardly half an hour before sunset. His happiness shattered the moment Araminta told him what had transpired. Entirely unprepared for the announcement, incapable of any kind of rational thought, what he felt at that moment was raw, red-hot anger. The possibility that Lisette might leave at once had never occurred to him. Araminta saw the colour drain from his face and a white line show about his mouth.

  ‘What time did she leave?’

  ‘Midmorning. I’m sorry, Ross. There was nothing I could do. You know what Aunt Wilhelmina’s like. She draws blood. Why must she be so savage?’

  ‘That’s Aunt Wilhelmina. She’s never more righteous than when she’s in the wrong.’

  ‘But she isn’t, is she? At least not to her way of thinking. She saw Lisette as an obstacle that had to be removed and was adamant that she should go immediately.’

  ‘It wasn’t Aunt Wilhelmina’s business to take Lisette to task.’

  ‘She likes to hold all the reins. But Lisette had already decided to leave before that.’

&
nbsp; Ross stared at his sister with eyes that were almost black with anger. ‘Leave? Why in God’s name did no one think to tell me?’

  ‘I wanted to, but Lisette was adamant that you should not be told.’

  ‘How did she seem when she left?’

  ‘Upset—although she tried not to show it,’ Araminta said quietly, remembering how she had wanted to go to Lisette and clasp her hands and bring comfort to her in some way, for her eyes had looked so deeply sad, entirely lost.

  ‘You say she intends to return to India?’

  ‘That’s what she told me.’

  ‘She cannot afford it. She does not have the means.’

  ‘Apparently her father left her a legacy—his lawyer wrote to her informing her of the fact. She no longer has any need to work for a living. Ross, what do you propose to do?’

  ‘Go after her,’ he said tersely. ‘It’s too late to do anything today.’

  Araminta looked at him steadily. ‘It’s true, isn’t it? You and Lisette... You’ve fallen in love with her, haven’t you?’

  Ross smiled bitterly. ‘Is that such a bad thing, Araminta? Or are you of the same opinion as Aunt Wilhelmina and consider her too far down the scale of things to marry the nephew of the Duke of Rothermere?’

  ‘I’m not sure that sort of thing matters much to me. I have your happiness at heart, you know that, and if you and Lisette love each other, then I am content.’

  ‘I would love her however, whatever, whenever, dear sister.’

  ‘As much as that.’

  ‘More than that.’

  ‘Then find her. Antony and I are to leave for Cambridgeshire the day after tomorrow. You no longer have to worry about me. Go after Lisette, find her and marry her and take her back to India. It’s what you both want.’

  * * *

  With the knowledge that Ross was to leave Castonbury the following morning, it was a subdued family that met in the drawing room before dinner, with only the duke absent. Seated next to her husband on one of the four huge blue damask sofas that matched the walls, Araminta, who was already missing Lisette and dreading the moment when she would have to bid farewell to her beloved brother, was noticeably quiet. It was inevitable that the dismissal of her maid was raised, and by Ross, who was furious that his aunt had taken it upon herself to dismiss a member of his household’s staff.

  ‘I’m sorry I did not get to speak to Miss Napier, Ross,’ Kate said, seated next to Phaedra. ‘I would have liked to meet her.’

  ‘I’m sure you would, Katherine,’ Mrs Landes-Fraser remarked, ‘and no doubt you would have made her your bosom friend, which would have been ridiculous—laughingly so—and given her ideas way above her station.’

  ‘In other words, Kate,’ Phaedra chipped in, ‘Aunt Wilhelmina is reminding you that ladies of our social position are allowed to visit the deserving poor, to take broth and blankets to the old and infirm who would be obligingly grateful, but not become friends with them.’

  ‘Precisely,’ her aunt uttered coldly, taking a sip of her dry sherry.

  ‘There’s more to charity work than feeding them broth, Aunt Wilhelmina,’ Kate said. She gave Ross a conspiratorial glance, noting that his jaw was clenched tight, his chin jutting and ominous as he struggled to remain calm. He bore little resemblance to the laughing, gentle man she remembered before he’d become a soldier and gone to India. Today, he was an aloof, icy stranger who was regarding Aunt Wilhelmina with glacial eyes and every word he spoke had a bite to it. ‘Did you meet Miss Napier before she became Araminta’s maid, Ross?’

  ‘We met in India. I saved her from drowning in a flooded river.’

  ‘How very romantic,’ Phaedra commented.

  Ross omitted to mention that at the time he’d believed her to be a native girl and that he’d failed to recognise her when he’d encountered her in England.

  Mrs Landes-Fraser sniffed disdainfully and tossed her head, the feathers in her purple turban swaying precariously. ‘An encounter she has clearly taken advantage of—a schemer if ever there was one.’

  Fury ignited in Ross’s eyes and he had to struggle to subdue his temper. ‘A schemer—’ he retorted, then he bit back the rest of his words, clenching his jaw so tightly a muscle jerked in the side of his cheek. ‘You’re wrong about her. She’s not hard enough or brittle enough or ambitious enough to be accused of scheming. Lisette is without guile or greed. She is a rare jewel and I am going to marry her.’

  ‘Then you will be making a grave mistake,’ Mrs Landes-Fraser said in glacial tones. ‘In suitability she will be on a par with the maids in the kitchen.’

  Ross’s eyes darkened with anger. ‘Say no more. Lisette will never be on a par in any way with the kitchen maids. She is the daughter of an academic, a highly intelligent man and a gentleman. My decision to marry her does not stem from a flash in the pan.’

  ‘Your ideas are quite unorthodox and I can see it’s no use arguing.’

  ‘No, it is not.’

  ‘Then I am most disappointed in you and I cannot pretend otherwise. I cannot imagine what Crispin will have to say.’

  ‘I don’t think Father will have much to say on the matter,’ Giles remarked, his expression grave. ‘At this present time his mind is taken up with other things—namely Alicia and his grandson. Having the child brought to Castonbury is his one thought and concern.’

  Kate gave him a sharp look. ‘And is it true that Father intends to offer Alicia money in the hope that she will go away so he can raise the young boy himself?’ she asked.

  ‘So it would seem.’

  ‘That is quite atrocious and I, for one, will not stand for it. I cannot understand this irrational hostility he has for a woman he has never met—a woman whom I hope will speak for herself.’

  ‘Having met her I am sure she will,’ Ross remarked. ‘If my opinion of her is correct, she will not be parted from her child.’

  ‘I sincerely hope not and Father is quite mad to suggest such a thing.’

  ‘He has shown irrational tendencies of late, which, when all is considered, is understandable. I assure you I shall do all in my power to dissuade him from this action. I have written to Alicia inviting her here,’ Giles informed them. ‘You will be able to judge for yourselves when she arrives.’

  ‘Then I suppose all we can do is wait for her to turn up,’ Mrs Landes-Fraser said stiffly. ‘I don’t expect you will be here to welcome her, Ross.’

  ‘I shall be leaving tomorrow. I am content that Araminta is in good hands and that you, Giles, have things at Castonbury under control. As for Alicia—I shall write to you. I shall be most interested to hear how things turn out. As far as Lisette is concerned, I think I have made my intentions clear, Aunt Wilhelmina,’ Ross said. ‘I have thought deeply on it and I will not welcome any interference in my personal life. If anyone feels the need to try to dissuade me from forming any kind of alliance with her, then I will not listen. The matter should be left to me and Lisette—and fate.’

  ‘And Miss Napier...what does she say?’ she enquired.

  ‘I have yet to find that out.’

  ‘But the girl will be halfway to London by now.’

  ‘She is returning to India. If I fail to meet up with her on the road, then I shall do so in London.’

  Epilogue

  With money of her own Lisette had purchased some dresses that made her look less like a servant and more like a young lady of substance.

  She stood at the rails as the ship got under way and she watched London slip away. She did not come up on deck again until they had reached the English Channel. It was much the same as the ship she had sailed on from India with a mixture of ordinary citizens and soldiers, but now the soldiers on board were returning from leave to take up their duties with their regiments.

  The swaying deck beneath the creaking and flapping of canvas was a patchwork of shadows and vivid orange-coloured light from the oil lamps. A burst of laughter added itself to the noises of the night and Lisette turned to see
a group of men who had imbibed too much liquor over dinner and were in high spirits. Smiling softly she turned away, drawing the shawl tighter about her shoulders when the cool wind blew off the water. The sun had set and the moon had risen, hanging pale and large above the shining levels of the Channel like some enchanted Chinese lantern.

  There were footsteps and someone stopped behind her. She turned. It was Ross.

  Lisette stared at him, feeling her heart give a joyful leap. Her mouth was dry and her eyes were burning. She couldn’t believe that he was standing there—handsome, dark and authoritative in his scarlet and gold regimentals. His face was inscrutable, and after a long moment, with a groan he pulled her roughly towards him, wrapping his arms around her, and with a raw ache in his voice, he said, ‘You little fool. You adorable, beautiful little fool. Did you really think you could escape me—that I would let you go?’

  Lisette was startled. She had expected cold rage, for him to chastise her for leaving him, not this. Never had she known a man so perplexing. ‘Ross! I think I must be dreaming and any minute I will wake up and find you aren’t here.’

  ‘I assure you I am flesh and blood. If you love me, Lisette, at least say you are glad to see me.’

  The dryness was going out of her eyes, the moisture was filling them. On a whisper she said, ‘I am glad to see you.’

  ‘Just glad?’

  She swallowed before she could utter the words, More than glad.

  When the tears welled in her eyes, his arms went about her once more, and with his mouth on hers he kissed her with heart-rending tenderness, all the love that had been accumulating over the months he had known her contained in that kiss.

  Lisette swayed a little, for she felt the dizzying, heady aura of his masculinity, his vigour, the strong pull which she now knew quite positively was his love for her, wrap itself about her. While she had vainly set herself against the carnal forces Ross inspired in her, something deeper, something dangerously enduring, had been weaving its spell to bind them inexorably together.