The Lady in Disguise

Chapter Fourteen

Sculthorpe Abbey

Thursday, 7:30 in the morning...

After last night, and her morning adventures with Mopsy, Emilia had thought she might be too nervous to eat, but that proved not to be the case. If there was one consolation in this charade — besides darling Mopsy, of course — it was the food.

Not that she wasn't fed well at Crewe House. Cook made nearly as fine a breakfast for the servants as she did for the family, but meals there were something to be consumed quickly so work could be done.

Here, breakfast was a leisurely thing and Emilia was struggling to slow her fork and enjoy it. With Miss Hartley here now, she would do best to savor the moments without her.

The guests were up and about earlier than yesterday. They drifted in and out, some lingering, some in more of a hurry before going off to find ways to occupy themselves in the rain.

Mrs. Baddeley, surprisingly, had yet to come down, but had been having Higgins inform the ladies that she would like them to gather in the drawing room in the afternoon for tea, embroidery and conversation.

Higgins cringed as he called it a "get to sew you" session, obviously at Mrs. Baddeley's bidding, though Emilia thought it quite a amusing.

Miss Poole hadn't stayed at breakfast long, claiming there was a volume of Robinson Crusoe that called to her on rainy days. Lady Adele seemed miffed at spending the morning reading, at least from what Emilia could glean from their conversation, mostly in French. At the end, it seemed there was some sort of agreement that Miss Poole would meet her for lunch and then find something "moins ennuyant"* to do.

Lord Swinton and Mr. Walford were quite excited about the dreary day, one claiming he wished to observe the gardens and where certain insects congregated in the rain, the other talking of the stonework, wondering how the cellars might hold up under such a deluge. Emilia and Miss Marbury hadn't much to say about either, but nodded politely at their observations.

Miss Marbury had been the only one at the table when Emilia first came in and Emilia had tried not to be disappointed it wasn't him. He was another thing — besides Mopsy and the food — that made her want to carry on this charade just a little longer. But why should she want to see him at all? Hadn't Evie just said something about Mr. Byrne having scores of odd ladies about? Or something like that...

Well, it don't happen much, but Mr. Byrne does have the odd lady about sometimes. Not so many as this...

Very well, it wasn't scores, but he was still likely an artful seducer who could teach Byron a thing or two. His flirtation with her, if one could even call such an odd set of meetings such, was, like as not, one of many and she would do best to remember that. He was probably just as cozy with the others and she simply hadn't seen it.

And she should be grateful for the knowledge since she shouldn't be getting ideas in the first place! Even if he were not a ruthless rake, she was not Prudence Crewe! She was Emilia Finch and she would suffer through this, then settle into a very secure future at Crewe House — after getting her little nest egg from Miss Prudence.

One hundred pounds, she reminded herself. This morning, she'd had to remind herself several times. 

Prudence was still determined to continue on. Despite Emilia trying to tempt her with the notion of a grand speech as she revealed all, she kept waving it off.

"Do you think Mary won't ruin it somehow? And likely torture you after. No. Now that she's got us on her hook, we have no choice but to see what she means to reel in — as I highly doubt this will suffice," Prudence had said, tossing the pile of Mary's mending on the unmade bed, making Emilia's teeth clench. She would never! "Now, I think it's best you go down to breakfast," Prudence said briskly, helping her out of the nightgown and into the pale yellow morning dress Emilia had just plucked from the closet. "You can see if any of the guests suspect anything. And I'll see if I can get anything useful out of Meg. I'll bribe her if I must!"