Justine Elyot by Secretsand Lords Page A

Hall. He drove a little way past the gatehouse, although the estate manager must surely still be at the shoot, before stopping around the first bend of the driveway.
    Edie wondered how one ended an afternoon like this. Should she just get out of the car and go? Or …?
    Charles stubbed his cigarette out in the dashboard ashtray and reached for her.
    ‘Desperate to get away from me, eh?’
    ‘No, just … you know. Nervous.’
    She looked up the road as if expecting company.
    ‘It’s all right. Everyone’s busy. But you’re sensible to think about it. We have to make sure nobody suspects, or you’ll be out on your ear.’
    ‘Perhaps, after all, it’s too risky.’
    ‘It’s risky, but worth the risk. I think it is, anyway. As for you, that’s between your strange desire to protect Ruby Redford and your own conscience.’
    There’s more to it than that.
    ‘I don’t see when we’ll get the chance.’
    ‘Oh, we will. I can’t say when. But I’ll let you know when the time comes.’
    ‘Will you?’
    ‘Yes. Wait for me. You will wait for me, won’t you?’
    His fingers were on her cheek, and he looked so serious, or as close as he came to it, that her heart contracted.
    ‘You sound as if you’re going off to war,’ she said.
    He shut his eyes at that, then, when he opened them, leant in to kiss her.
    ‘Go, before I have to take you here in this car,’ he said, with a rasp.
    Edie opened the car door abruptly and began to march along the path, not waving at Charles when he drove slowly by, his eye upon her.
    Once he was out of sight, she collapsed on to the verge, buried her face in her knees and burst into tears.
    She had never meant for this to happen, but the taste of him still on her lips, the memory of his arms around her had changed her. Everything was different now. She felt as if the tenderest thing could wound her to the core.
    Damn that man, but perhaps he really could make her love him?
    ‘You’re just scared and confused, a stranger in a strange land,’ she told herself sternly. ‘You’re bound to feel a little adrift. Chin up, girl. Keep your wits about you.’
    The little pep talk gave her fresh impetus to continue the long walk back to the house.
    If only servants were able to enter without having to pass through the kitchen. The last thing she felt like doing was walking past all their inquisitive eyes. What if they knew somehow? Or even if they did not, it would be easy enough to guess. Charles would have been missed at the shoot, even if he had made it back in time for the dinner. And Ted! He would know what a girl looks like after she’s been kissed.
    Her thoughts troubled her all the way around the side of the house, but they were interrupted by the rather strange sight of Giles emerging from the rhododendron shrubbery with his jacket buttons half-undone and his hair falling over his brow.
    He stopped short when he saw Edie and looked behind him in a panic-stricken kind of way.
    ‘Cat,’ he explained breathlessly. ‘Ran off with a good steak in its mouth. Gave chase. Gone, though. No chance.’
    He shook his head vigorously.
    ‘Oh, dear.’
    Giles held up his hand, excusing himself mutely before running off in the opposite direction.
    Edie squared herself, ready for any line of questioning that might be fired at her on her return. As it happened, she needn’t have bothered.
    The moment she set foot in the building, cook cried, ‘Thank God you’re here, Mrs Munn needs a word.’
    She hurried to the office, grateful for the absence of Ted, and was told that a staffing crisis had arisen due to two more maids falling foul of the contagion that had laid Carrie low. It was her evening off, Mrs Munn understood that well, but would she consider rendering assistance?
    ‘It’s all hands on deck, I’m afraid,’ said Mrs Munn with a sigh.
    ‘Oh, of course. I don’t have any other plans. I’ll go and get into my uniform, shall I?’
    ‘Thank you. I’m very much obliged,