Sammy was a stable boy, and her first recollections of him were greatly centred around her father’s stables. He was very good with the horses, even though he was so tiny. Or at least he had been tiny then when Georgina was but five or six, and he just a year or two older. But he had that curious confidence in practical matters that seemed to be the way of servants, and Georgina had always been very impressed by it.
She often wished that she would be allowed to stay below stairs with Sammy, the two of them stifling their giggles as they crept into the kitchen to steal a biscuit or a piece of warm bread or anything else that the cook might have freshly baked.
And they knew with that extra sense that small children have that the dear woman was perfectly well aware of their little acts of thievery, and any attempt to chastise them for it was always done in such a warm way that they knew she did not mind at all.
The cook had always been very fond of Sammy, making sure that there was plenty of clearing up for him to do in the kitchen when the weather turned cold. Georgina had always known that Mrs Townley was kindly and had easily seen that she had a great fondness for the little boy.
As they grew a little older, Georgina’s grandmother was less and less tolerant when it came to the friendship that was developing between the children. She often gave the strictest of instructions to Georgina’s governess that the young woman should not take her eye off the child for a moment, or she would be bound to hasten below stairs to seek out the urchin who she ought really to stay away from.
But Georgina’s need for a friend was so great and her care for Samuel White so deep that she often found spirited ways to get around her grandmother.
She had even once feigned a little illness so that her governess would allow her to go to bed for a while and then, as soon as she thought herself alone, she had crept through the house and made her way out to the stables where Sammy was.
He was brushing a horse, a large horse who was one of her father’s favourites, and she watched with interest as he continued in his duties.
“Do you want a go?” Sammy had said as he proffered the grooming brush. “I can tell that you want to. You needn’t worry; it’s easy.”
“Really? But do you think the horse will mind?”
“A horse doesn’t mind as long as he’s being brushed by somebody who isn’t scared of him,” Sammy had said with a chuckle and took her hand, placing her palm flat on the wooden back of the brush and fastening the strap over the top. “Go on then,” he said and watched with interest as she advanced upon the horse and tentatively reached out with the brush.
Immediately the brush made contact with the horse, he began to pad at the stable floor with his front hooves.
“He does not like me, Sammy,” Georgina said, her little heart pounding.
“He does like you, silly.” Samuel laughed. “He can just tell that you’re scared. If you’re scared, he will be scared. Do it like this,” Sammy said and took hold of her wrist, laying the brush with greater pressure against the horse’s flank and drawing her hand down firmly. “You see?”
Georgina had felt the horse relax almost immediately, and she quickly got the hang of things. She was enjoying a pastime that was not learning something of little interest to her delivered by a governess whose enthusiasm was less than infectious.
“Aren’t you supposed to be somewhere, Georgie?” Sammy said as she became more and more engrossed in her occupation.
“Not really, I told the governess that I did not feel well.”
“And she let you come outside?”
“No, she put me to bed.”
“Did you sneak out here, Georgie?” he said excitedly.
“Yes, I did.”
“Well, you had better sneak back in again.” His tone changed a little.
“Why? I do not want to.”
“You might have to in a minute, look,” he said and raised his head to peer out of the stable door.
Striding towards them with a face like thunder was none other than Lady Elizabeth Jeffries herself. It was clear that she had seen Georgina brushing the horse and so she realized there was little point in casting aside the brush and pretending otherwise now.
“Georgina, what on earth are you doing?”
“I am brushing the horse, Grandmama,” Georgina had said simply.
“You will not answer me back,” Lady Elizabeth was clearly furious.
“I did not answer back, Grandmama. I just answered. You did ask me a question, after all,” Georgina said simply and heard Sammy stifling a laugh.
“Get away,” Lady Elizabeth said as she advanced into the stable and shooed Sammy away from her granddaughter. “Go on, move!” she said, her face pinched in an expression that suggested that there was something incredibly unpleasant about the young stable boy.
At that moment, Georgina had felt like crying. Her grandmother was shooing her friend away as if he was covered in lice and dirt, and it hurt her heart.
What was worse, she knew that Sammy had perceived exactly the same thing, and he looked crestfallen and ashamed in front of his only friend.
“Please do not do that, Grandmama. Sammy is my friend.”
“He is not your friend, you stupid girl,” Lady Elizabeth said with a snarl. “He is a servant and an orphan, he is nothing.”
“He is not nothing, Grandmama; he is a person. He is just like you and me.”
“He is nothing like us, Georgina Jeffries. And I have told you before that I do not wish you to consort with him. He is just a servant, and he will never be anything better than that. But you are the daughter of a baron, a very fine young lady, and you should remember that.”
“But I am not a fine young lady, Grandmama. I am a girl. I am not yet ten years old, and Sammy is my friend.”
“He is not your friend; I have told you already.”
“He is my friend, and it does not matter how many times you tell me he is not because he is. I like Sammy better than anybody in this house, and I always shall.”
“Do not raise your voice at me, young lady,” Lady Elizabeth had said in a low and dangerous voice. “Do not disobey me. You are not to speak to this servant again.”
“I will!” Georgina said defiantly. “I do not care what you say, Grandmama, I will always be Sammy’s friend.”
Within a breath of her finishing her sentence, Georgina had been startled by an incredibly hard slap across her face. Her own grandmother had struck her in frustration and struck her harder than she ought to have done. In truth, the blow almost sent Georgina backward.
“No, leave her alone!” Sammy said and was suddenly back with them.
Georgina realized that he had heard every word of their exchange, and the tears began to roll down her face. Sammy was her best friend in the world, and she would not want him to think that she thought of him as nothing more than a servant, a nobody. He was everything to her, and she decided that she would never show her grandmother another moment’s love as long as they both lived.
“Havers,” Lady Elizabeth called to the stable master. “Take this child away before I return him to the orphanage where he ought to have been left years ago.” And then she turned to look at Sammy. “And you need not look at me like that, young man. After all, had it not been for my kindness, you would have grown up in very different circumstances. Children like you do not fare well in this world, and you should remember that. What is more, you should be grateful to me, not defiant as you seem to be.”
“Come on, lad,” Havers said and gently led Sammy away.
Georgina had known that her punishment would not only be severe but would likely be very lonely indeed. She was sure that she would be banished to her own chamber for a good long while but knew that she would survive it. And not only that, but as soon as she was free, she would seek Sammy out and tell him that he would always be her friend. She would tell him that she loved him much better than she loved her grandmother, that was certain.
When Georgina came to the end of her
recollection, tears were streaming down her face. When Sammy had disappeared without trace just a few months later, the young Georgina had been truly heartbroken. Try as she might, she had never found any evidence that Sammy still lived and breathed on the earth, and it had always played on her mind, even as a fully-grown woman.
But had he really gone so far away? Could the Samuel White she had known all those years ago really have made it all the way to Devonshire and a life so different from the one he had that it truly seemed impossible?
But why on earth, if it was not so, would the Duke of Calder have referred to her as Georgie? Any man in polite society would not even have referred to her as Georgina, especially when they were so barely acquainted.
But for a Duke to have done it, for a Duke to have addressed her so informally, seemed almost as impossible as the idea that Sammy White could have come so far.
And there was, of course, the question of the ease between them, that immediate feeling she had of recognition when she had first seen him up close at the garden party at Calder Hall. The feeling had been not only memorable but had been repeated at every meeting. But could that really account for it? Was she so at ease with Emerson Lockhart because he was, either then or in the past, really Samuel White?
One way or another, Georgina Jeffries intended to find out.
Chapter 9
“Fleur, may I speak with you?” Georgina said the following morning when she popped her head around Fleur’s chamber door.
After another sleepless night, Georgina knew that she must do something. She had fully decided to go to the Duke of Calder and speak to him face-to-face on the matter, for there was nothing else for it. But she quickly realized that she would not be able to absent herself from the family at Winton house without causing a great deal of concern, and even suspicion.
In the end, there was nothing else for her to do but take Fleur into her confidence and hope that she would help her to get to the Duke without any of the family being aware of it.
“Yes, of course. Do come in, Georgina.” Fleur smiled brightly as she ushered her cousin in.
Fleur’s chamber was small but pretty. It was the first time that Georgina realized why her cousin had picked such a small room for herself; it caught the very best of the early morning sunshine.
The room was so full of sunshine that it looked almost yellow, although Georgina knew it to be predominantly pale cream.
It was not only well lit by the sun but seemed somehow able to capture that peculiar quality of light that is unmistakably morning. For all the wonderful view that Georgina had of the lake and the daffodils, there was something about the morning sunshine in Fleur’s chamber that seemed to do something to the inner being.
“Are you feeling better, Georgina? How is your head?”
“Oh, my head is greatly improved, thank you.”
“I am bound to say that you look very concerned about something. Tell me, what is troubling you?”
“How very perceptive you are, cousin, for something troubles me greatly.”
“Come and sit down by the window, my dear, and tell me,” Fleur said, taking her cousin’s hand and leading her over to the broad window seat where the two women sat side-by-side but facing one another.
“Before I begin, Fleur, I must swear you to absolute secrecy.”
“Of course, my dear. Believe me, anything you wish to tell me will be closely guarded.”
“I am sure that I need not have said it, and I apologize if I have caused any offence, Fleur. But believe me when I tell you that this is a matter of such seriousness that I cannot begin to comprehend the ramifications if it is all found out.”
“Goodness me, you have me on a piece of string.” Fleur’s blue eyes were wide. “Really, I think that I am perhaps a little frightened.”
“There is no need to be frightened, Fleur.” Georgina laughed a little. “Although I cannot blame you, for it seems that I have built the thing up to such a degree. Perhaps I ought to get straight to the telling of it all instead of teasing you any further.”
“Yes, just tell me,” Fleur said.
“You must forgive me for the length of this tale, but it is necessary to begin many years ago when I was a child for you to understand the full thing.”
“Yes, alright.”
“When I was a girl, there was a young boy who lived at Ashdown Manor. He was not a part of the family, rather he was a servant. He sometimes worked in the stables and sometimes in the kitchen, not having a particular role because of his youth. I do not know when he first came into our home, except that I always remember him being there.”
“What was his name?” Fleur said quietly.
“His name was Samuel White. I always called him Sammy because our cook, Mrs Townley, always called him Sammy. We were great friends, Fleur.”
“Oh, how very lovely,” Fleur said genuinely. “But that is the way with children, is it not? They do not see the divisions.”
“No, they do not. And I most certainly did not see any divisions between myself and Sammy. We were quite isolated at Ashdown Manor, and I did not have any other friends but Sammy. My mother and father did not make any complaint about it, and I am sure that my mother was simply pleased that I was not made lonely by my isolation. My grandmother had the strongest objections to it all, always seeking to disrupt any game that Sammy and I were playing. She was most intent that we should not be friends, and she never wasted an opportunity to remind us both that Sammy was nothing more than a servant.”
“I am bound to say that your grandmother would appear to have been extraordinarily harsh. I do not wish to offend, but I cannot imagine great Aunt Belle ever having behaved in such a way.”
“You do not offend me at all, and you are quite right. I can hardly believe that my grandmother and great Aunt Belle were sisters, they are so very different. It is true that both would seem possessed of a disposition to speak their minds freely, but it is the contents of those minds that strike me as so very different.”
“Does Sammy still work at Ashdown Manor now?”
“No, he has not been there for many, many years. He disappeared quite suddenly when he was eleven years old and I but nine. It was never properly explained to me where he went or why, he simply was not there one day, and I never saw him again.”
“Could he not have run away?”
“Yes, I was certainly told that that was the most likely explanation.”
“By your grandmother?”
“No, my mother and father. By that time, my mother had already passed away, just a few weeks before.”
“But do you have any reason to think that Sammy did not run away? That something else became of him?”
“I do now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Fleur, I am as certain as I can be that I have seen Sammy again. He is a fully-grown man now, obviously, and there have been the changes which come along with such growth. But I was certain that I had seen the man somewhere before, that I knew him. And now I am sure.”
“But where? Do you mean here in Devonshire?”
“Yes, although I am bound to say that you will think me a little deranged when I tell you the identity of the man I suspect of being my old friend.”
“You must not leave me in suspense a moment longer, cousin, you must tell me.”
“I firmly believe that the Duke of Calder, Emerson Lockhart, is my old friend and former servant, Samuel White,” Georgina said and winced a little, realizing just how ridiculous it sounded out loud.
“The Duke of Calder?” Fleur said, her mouth remaining open when she had finished speaking.
“I know, I know. I realize that this sounds perfectly ridiculous, and you must think me the most dreadfully fanciful person on the earth, but I truly believe it.”
“But why do you believe it? Is it some scar or mark of youth that is still carried by the man? What has convinced you so absolutely?”
“It was something he said.”
“But what?”
“When we went to afternoon tea at Calder Hall, I once again had that curious feeling that I knew the Duke from somewhere but could not quite place him. In truth, I have had it at every meeting, although I have dismissed it time and again. But as we were leaving Calder Hall, as we were descending the stone steps, I dropped one of my gloves out of the pocket of my cloak, and the Duke stooped down to retrieve it. He called me by name quite by instinct, I believe, and that was when I knew.”
“He called you by name? What do you mean?”
A Damsel for the Mysterious Duke Page 7
