Read Anne Barbour for Free Online Page B

look her best, she realized with a start.
    For her butler?
    No, not even a butler. A ne’er do well who had appeared out of the sunrise, dressed in a shabby shirt and breeches and who had lost no time in insinuating himself into Ravencroft. What was his purpose? she wondered, and a flutter of panic caught at her throat. Who was this man, with hair like night and eyes like a winter morning? And wasn’t there something oddly familiar about him? She frowned. Yes, he definitely reminded her of someone, but who? She knew no one who moved with that fluid, yet disturbingly masculine grace, nor was she acquainted with anyone whose gaze was open and guileless yet somehow intimate.
    From the depths of the cupboard, she pulled a sarcenet gown of a deep, rich amber. She had not worn it since early in her marriage, in the time when she still tried to please her husband. She dropped the gown over her head, aware of the sensual caress of the silk as it settled over her body. She caught her own glance in the mirror and hastily arranged her hair in a plain knot atop her head. She prepared to leave the room, but on impulse, turned back to the glass, and in a swift motion, pulled a few tendrils of dark gold to curl about her cheeks.
    Not long afterward, Claudia entered the dining room, her aunt on her arm. Without volition, her glance flew to her butler, who opened the door and ushered the ladies into the room with great dignity. He seated them silently and ceremoniously at the enormous mahogany table, burdened under the weight of several heavy candelabra and assorted epergnes that marched down the center of the board like an advancing army.
    As the meal commenced, Claudia was intensely aware of her new servant standing at a discreet distance behind her chair. She felt that he was aware of her as well. It was as though waves of intensity emanated from him, washing through her in a warm current. She turned to her aunt, but found herself unable to initiate conversation. Aunt Augusta, it appeared, labored under no such restraint.
    “I have,” she began prosaically, “prepared the green and blue bedchambers for Thomas and Rose. I assume they will be bringing servants to see after the children, but perhaps we should bring in a girl or two from the village, since they always seem to generate a great deal of extra work for the staff here.”
    Jem, standing erect near the door leading to the kitchen, folded his hands behind his back and prepared to glean some much-needed information during the half hour or so that the ladies would be at table.
    He had been surprised to discover, in his earlier meeting with Cook and the rest of the domestic staff, that the two women not only dined at an unfashionably early hour, even for the country, but spent remarkably little time in consuming their meal. The frugal repast usually consisted of one of the humbler portions of lamb or mutton, or pork, or possibly some species of poultry, accompanied by whatever vegetables were in season or could be found potted in the jars lined neatly in rows in the still room.
    Claudia frowned. “I suppose you’re right, Aunt, although I begrudge the expense. Perhaps Annie Sounder and her sister will come. Do you think we need put on another footman?”
    “I think not, even though I suppose Thomas will be affronted. The man’s a veritable squeeze-turnip, but when he visits others, he expects to be treated like traveling royalty. Thank the Lord, “ she continued abstractedly, her iron-gray curls stirring about her cheeks, so that one almost expected the sound of clinking metal to issue forth, “we’ll have plenty to feed them. The kitchen garden is in full spate. What about meat, Claudia?”
    “Hmm,” replied her niece, brows drawn together. “We’re not butchering yet, of course, but we have chickens on hand,” She lifted a hand, unconsciously counting on her fingers. “We have several pigs ready for the chopping block, and there’s always mutton.”
    Ah, sheep,