If the Slipper Fits by Olivia Drake Page B

caused His Grace to become so quiet and shy? Or has he always been rather timid?”
    The two girls stared blankly at her. “Timid?” Moira said, pausing in the act of reaching for an unpeeled potato. “His Grace is some fine, weel-behaved lad.”
    “He’s most polite and mannerly,” Livvy added in his defense. “We’re proud t’ serve him, we are.”
    Their allegiance to the duke apparently prohibited even the slightest whiff of criticism. “Oh, I meant no complaint,” Annabelle said hastily. “I merely wondered if perhaps he might still be grieving for his parents. So that I can better assist him, you see.”
    “Ah,” Livvy said with a sage nod. “Well, Elowen says he’s the very best o’ lads. She’d be sure t’ tell us if he was forlorn.”
    Elowen, the nursemaid, seemed a rather dull-witted woman who wouldn’t notice a fly if it sat on her bulbous nose. Not that Annabelle intended to voice that opinion.
    “Thank you,” she said, “that’s good to know. Any information you can give me about the duke and his family is a tremendous help.”
    The maids smiled. They looked more relaxed now, their hands busy at peeling and slicing potatoes. “We’re most always in the kitchen,” Moira said. “But we do hear things from time t’ time.”
    Not wanting to appear a rumormonger, Annabelle paused to savor a spoonful of creamy porridge. “I understand that Lord Simon became His Grace’s guardian last autumn. It must have been a comfort to the child to have someone familiar in the house during his time of grief.”
    “Oh, but his lordship din’t know His Grace a’tall,” Livvy said. “They’d ne’er before met.”
    Annabelle dropped her spoon. “Never?”
    “Aye,” Maura confirmed. “His lordship was a captain in the cavalry. For many years, he was away fightin’ in foreign lands.”
    Annabelle hadn’t thought Lord Simon the heroic sort. Now she saw him in uniform on horseback, barking orders to his men and leading a charge into battle. Perhaps the news explained his brusque manner, for he must be accustomed to strict obedience. Then another picture entered her mind: Nicholas clutching the toy cavalryman in his hand. Was it possible that he admired his uncle as much as he feared him?
    She would have to find out. The notion made her all the more determined to see if the rift between nephew and uncle could be bridged.
    “Why does no one address him as Captain Lord Simon?” she said.
    “The master thinks it too formal, seein’ how he resigned his commission,” Livvy said. “Mrs. Wickett told us so.”
    “She’s the housekeeper,” Moira added, then blushed. “But I’m sure ’ee’s already met her.”
    “It’s difficult to believe he didn’t return home on leave from time to time,” Annabelle said. “Nicholas is eight and that’s quite a lot of years to be absent from the family.”
    The two maids exchanged a look. A silent communication passed between them as if they were debating how to respond to her comment.
    “His lordship had good reason fer stayin’ away,” Moira said while glancing at the door. “But ’ee mustn’t think me a gossip fer sayin’ so.”
    Too intrigued to finish eating, Annabelle pushed her bowl aside. “Please, do tell me. It’s important that I understand everything going on in His Grace’s life. I shan’t betray your confidence.”
    “Well,” Moira said, “I know some that say his lordship was sweet on the duchess afore she was wed. They say the duke stole her away.”
    “Lord Simon couldn’t bear t’ see his true love married t’ his older brother,” Livvy added. “’Tis said he enlisted in the cavalry and left England so he wouldn’t have t’ go t’ the weddin’.”
    Annabelle sat back in her chair and tried to absorb the revelation. Lord Simon had once been madly in love with Nicholas’s mother. Was that why he wanted nothing to do with Nicholas? Because he couldn’t bear to look on the child who reminded him of his lost