From the Ashes

Chapter Four

Thoughts of Richard and what to do about the situation still plagued her the following morning. Thankfully she managed a few hours of sleep, however she could not find safety even in slumber. Images of Richard filled her mind to where she thought he invaded her very soul. So she woke knowing she must avoid him, whatever the cost.

Asking to be reassigned was out of the question. Lady Catherine would never allow it. Juliana wondered if Lady Catherine had some purpose for this arrangement, as it seemed to make very little sense. Why would she keep my identity hidden from Richard? She does so delight in torturing me? Perhaps Lady Catherine's cruelty has escalated to a higher level and she figured it hurt me more to flaunt in front of me what I can never have. It puzzled Juliana exceedingly.

Juliana remembered a conversation she overheard between her father and Lord Bentley. They were discussing the idea of possibly making a match of the two of them, Richard and herself when she came of age. Her father willing to give a large dowry to secure a promise of betrothal for his daughter but Lord Bentley hardly felt it necessary. He felt his son rather fancied the quaint little girl with the opalescent skin and the dark auburn hair, but told Wadsworth he would consider his offer.

"Her and Richard," the thought produced a choked laugh that half sounded like a sob, but Juliana refused to be the weeping kind. In fact, she had not really cried since they buried her mother. Her Father's remains were never found. He never made it out of the fire sacrificing himself in hopes that they, her and her mother might live.

Not even at Lord Bentley's funeral did she cry although her heart had somehow managed to break all over again. Shaking her head from her wandering thoughts, Juliana knew what she must do. She must learn his routine and avoid the new Lord Bentley at all cost. It would be perilous to do otherwise.

"How is it that she can avoid me at every turn?" Richard asked although there was no one in his room to answer him. It drove him mad how his chambermaid Anna, managed to anticipate his every whim and have everything he could require ready for him without actually being present. His clothes were laid out and freshly pressed every morning before he awoke. His morning tea arranged quite nicely to be ready by the time he finished dressing. Even his bath would be drawn for him when he returned home from a ride. It had been nearly two weeks now and if he did not catch a glimpse of her throughout the manor as she set about her duties, or when she was in the service of his stepmother, he'd never see her. She was deliberately avoiding him and it was making him most irritable.

At afternoon tea, with her stepson, Lady Catherine noticed the same thing as she sat perched on the loveseat stroking her cat that lazily slept in her lap. Richard thought the cat the only thing that ever got any real attention from her. Not even her own daughters could intrigue her longer than two minutes.

"I am thinking of throwing a dinner party, this Thursday evening here at the Manor as a way of welcoming you home. I of course expect you to be there."

Richard scratched the back of his head and quit pacing the room when he realized his stepmother had spoken. "Sorry Mother you said something?" he asked tapping his foot not being able to keep completely still.

"What is it Richard? You seem most distracted since you came home?"

Richard mumbled something incoherent and his stepmother shrugged as it mattered not, however he did not care for her overtly sweet smile or how her eyes danced with a knowledge that should not be hers.

Lady Catherine repeated what she requested of him, "A dinner party here on Thursday evening... of course some of the guests may wish to stay over but...."

Richard had interrupted her musing. "Mother I despise those things. I see it as highly unnecessary and in very poor taste.  None of my friends have returned from the fighting." Some he knew never would. "If I had not been wounded I would have been there still. We may have won against Bonaparte in Egypt but I do not believe that will be the end of him."