From the Ashes

Chapter Two

"Hello, Mother," Richard said with his hat, gloves, and cape still in hand. How he hated using that word for the woman he saw before him. Never in all the years, he had known her had she ever showed him any motherly kindness or love.

"Richard, Darling. Come here and give me a kiss. Where are your manners, boy? That terribly expensive school should have taught you something."

Richard crossed the drawing room to where his stepmother laid stretched out on her fainting couch in her luxurious morning gown of lavender taffeta. He found her cheek to be cold. "Just like her heart," he thought.

"Well, what news of London?" she asked dying for the social gossip she missed while forced to live in the country.

"As much as I would love to chit chat with you Mother, it has been a long journey and I would like to settle in first."

Pouting ever so slightly she conceded. "We shall talk over tea then," she said warming up to the idea as she thought of it.

"Very well, Mother," Richard said about to take his leave but before he walked through the doorway he stopped abruptly closing the door before him.

"What is it, Richard?" Lady Catherine asked sensing a question coming.

Turning to his mother he asked the one question plaguing him since his ride through the forest. "I was just wondering..." he began but stopped, not sure if he wanted to ask his mother what had taken place.

"Yes?" Lady Catherine encouraged although not liking how he looked at her.

"Well, I passed by the Wadsworth Estate. It is in ruin. What happened to the family?"

Lady Catherine knew eventually he would have questions regarding the Wadsworths. She had been thinking all morning about how to best handle the situation. "Well, my dear I am afraid they are all dead," she blurted out without any tact at all.

Richard's breath temporarily vanished from his lungs and his gut wrenched. He leaned heavily against the door he had closed for support. "All of them?" he asked still finding the reality hard to accept.

"Afraid so, Dear. " Lady Catherine said as if talking of things that mattered little. "Burnt to death in a fire is what your father reported. Thankfully he spared me the details so I am afraid that is all I know about the incident. Now you run along and settle in. I will expect you at two for tea. Should I send a maid to your room to help you unpack?"

"Yes, please do," Richard answered a bit dazed. He opened the door and left for his room.

Juliana could not believe Lady Catherine assigned her to be Richard's chambermaid. She obviously enjoyed doing so because Juliana could hear the wretched woman's cackle all the way down the hall. She only hoped that perhaps he would not be in his room. Then maybe she could sneak in, unpack and leave before he even knew she was there. How embarrassing to be reduced to the state of his servant, but there was little she could do about her status in life.

Absorbed in thought she opened the door to Richard's room and realized her mistake as she looked upon a half-naked Richard. He stood with his back to her. He wore no shirt, only breeches. "Thank God he had not removed them yet", she thought admonishing herself for not knocking.

Richard whirled on the intruder. His mood foul considering what news he had learned of the Wadsworth family. "Bloody hell! Who the hell are you?" he swore looking at the mousy auburn-haired girl, pale beyond belief staring at him with the largest fawn-like eyes he had ever seen.

Being terribly irritated Richard's assessment of the slight servant girl was far from kind. Her looks severe. Her hair pulled tightly into a knot at the nape of her neck. The uniform a drab gray color usurped any tone or color she would have to her skin. She looked startled, like a doe caught by a hunter in the brush.