Read Fascination -and- Charmed for Free Online

darkening with worry. “I was afraid o’ this.”
    “Of what?” Already Grace felt herself warming
    to this girl.
    “Ye’ll not want someone who’s not a real maid. I was afraid to come, but I did, an’ now you’re not so fearsome.” She caught a quick breath and sat on the very edge of her seat. “Not so fearsome at all. Ye might find me quick to learn, miss. Honestly, ye might. I’ve always learned quickly, everyone says I do. Why, even Grumpy says I sometimes do some-thin’ right an’—”
    “Of course you do,” Grace interrupted hastily.
    “I so hoped ye’d let me stay, miss. I’ve not much o’ a place o’ my own with father. He’s a new wife these past years, and she’d be glad o’ the space I take up. If I had a place here with ye, it’d be a blessin’ for sure.”
    Grace shook her head—then nodded. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re my maid, Mairi. Don’t concern yourself for another moment.”
    “Och, thank ye!” She bobbed up from the chair, made to embrace Grace, but pulled back. “Thank ye. They’re to give me a room o’ my verra own if I suit ye. So I’ll start now. Would unpackin’ the trunks be the first thing ye’ll be needin’?”
    “No!” Grace gripped the arms of her chair. “No, thank you, Mairi. I’d prefer to do that myself.”
    “Ye would?”
    “Yes, I would.” At the bottom of those trunks, carefully packed in oiled cloths, lay another part of Grace’s plans for the future. No one could be allowed to touch them. “If I tell you a secret, will you promise not to laugh and not to tell anyone else?”
    “I promise,” Mairi whispered. She bent to bring her honest face close to Grace’s.
    “All right.” Grace whispered, too, and put a finger to her lips. “You’ve never been a maid, and I’ve never
had
a maid. What do you think of that?”
    Mairi’s blank expression slowly changed to amusement. She grinned broadly. “Ye never have?”
    “Never.”
    “Then who’s to tell who about it?”
    “We’ll just have to tell each other,” Grace said, and they laughed together. “Do sit down again. I’m so glad you’re here. You can start being my maid by telling me all the things I need to know about this place.” And about the marquess, she thought, although that subject must be carefully approached.
    “We all live well enough,” Mairi said seriously. “Though Father tell o’ how it used to be before ... It used to be different here. There was laughter and balls and the gentry comin’ for parties.”
    “That would be before the marquess’s, mm, sickness?”
    “Aye, ye could call it that.”
    Poor man. Now he was reduced to seeking the aid and company of a woman he didn’t even know. How quickly friends could desert one when grave illness occurred.
    “D’ye think there’s any reason to be afeared, miss?”
    Grace screwed up her eyes. “Why should there be?”
    “Well. At night, I mean. With what goes on an’ everythin’.”
    A slow thud, thud, made Grace very aware of her heart. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    The girl glanced nervously at the door.
“
Him.
”
    Grace lowered her head encouragingly.
    “Ye know.
Him. Is
it true that ye’re to marry him?”
    Was it? “It appears so.”
    “Are ye not afeared?”
    Such lack of understanding in the face of illness was very sad. “No, I’m not afraid.”
    “Och, ye’re verra brave. D’ye know all about him, then? And do ye still not fear for yersel’?”
    “Why don’t you tell me what you think I should be afraid of? Then I’ll tell you if I am.” Despite her resolve, Grace had to swallow around the tightness in her throat.
    Mairi looked over her shoulder again, and into the dark recesses of the room. “He’s never seen by day.”
    Grace nodded. “I’m sure he’s not.”
    “But the lights are on all night.”
    “Are they?” Of course, a poor, sick man’s lights might be needed at night.
    “There are terrible stories, ye