before.
“We call this the blue salon, Miss Gray. Mother uses it on visiting days,” Finn pushed open the door.
The room was light and airy with a high, coffered ceiling and elaborate wainscoting. The tops of the walls were decorated with plaster friezes with swags of laurel leaves. Tall mullioned windows overlooked the terrace and garden where Pip had played the day before. The walls were a chalky robin’s egg blue and the moldings and frieze details painted a creamy white. It was elegantly cozy with overstuffed chairs and dreamy landscape paintings on every wall.
“What a lovely room!” Jane exclaimed.
“Thank you, my dear,” the duchess said from behind her. “It is my favorite.”
“Good evening, Your Grace,” Jane said with a curtsy.
“Good evening,” the duchess smiled warmly. “I have ordered tea and hot chocolate. Peckham showed me the beautiful cake you brought. Did you make it yourself, Miss Gray? So much work must have gone into those little butterflies and birds. However do you do it?”
Jane blushed at the compliment. “I have had a great deal of practice and I confess that I enjoy the more creative aspects of my profession. Your granddaughter is quite a talented cake decorator in her own right, aren’t you Pip?”
“One time Mama and I made a cake that looked just like a beehive with honey dripping down the sides with bees all over it. They weren’t real bees, though, just frosting bees,” she said. “Mama, can we make another one to show Grandmother?”
“We will have to ask her cook’s permission to invade the kitchen,” Jane laughed and gently caught Pip’s wrist to hold her still. “You are in fine fettle. I’m surprised you aren’t in bed already after the busy day you’ve had.”
“I took a looooong nap,” Pip explained. “The bed is so soft it’s like sleeping on a cloud. It is much softer than my bed at home. The room is ever so much nicer, too.”
Jane exchanged an amused look with the duchess. Children were frightfully honest. “I can’t disagree with you, love. It is very soft indeed. Don’t forget I slept in it last night.”
She sat in one of the inviting armchairs with plump floral cushions. Pip climbed onto her lap, wrapping her arms around Jane’s neck.
“Oh yes, I did forget,” Pip said, then talked for fifteen minutes straight about the modiste who had measured her for new clothes. She described the fashion plates from which she had chosen her new dresses and the little shop on Bond Street where her grandmother had taken her to shop for shoes. Jane listened and interjected the appropriate number of “Oohs” and “Aahs,” but Pip was so excited she would not have noticed if Jane had remained silent.
For the next week, Jane’s days followed a similar pattern. There were no more surprise visits from Lord Wallace, but he did join her and Pip for a few minutes each evening. While he was always cordial and scrupulously polite, Jane often caught him looking at her with an expression she found both thrilling and alarming. There was something irresistibly dark and dangerous in his eyes that spoke of craving and possession. She felt him calling to her and Jane very much feared that if he did, there was nothing she would deny him.
Chapter Seven
Finn studied Jane’s face as Pip regaled her with the day’s adventures. She gave the child her undivided attention, her eyes sparkling with amusement and affection. Every now and then she tucked an errant lock of hair behind Pip’s ear and fondly touched the side of her face. His niece had been fortunate indeed to have such a loving surrogate mother. Maura’s guardian angel had been hovering above her shoulder the afternoon saintly Jane Gray noticed her sitting on a bench in Russell Square.
Saintly? Without a doubt, she was that.
He, however, could not lay claim to such virtue, remembering the intensely erotic dream he had enjoyed the night before in which he had taken her
“We call this the blue salon, Miss Gray. Mother uses it on visiting days,” Finn pushed open the door.
The room was light and airy with a high, coffered ceiling and elaborate wainscoting. The tops of the walls were decorated with plaster friezes with swags of laurel leaves. Tall mullioned windows overlooked the terrace and garden where Pip had played the day before. The walls were a chalky robin’s egg blue and the moldings and frieze details painted a creamy white. It was elegantly cozy with overstuffed chairs and dreamy landscape paintings on every wall.
“What a lovely room!” Jane exclaimed.
“Thank you, my dear,” the duchess said from behind her. “It is my favorite.”
“Good evening, Your Grace,” Jane said with a curtsy.
“Good evening,” the duchess smiled warmly. “I have ordered tea and hot chocolate. Peckham showed me the beautiful cake you brought. Did you make it yourself, Miss Gray? So much work must have gone into those little butterflies and birds. However do you do it?”
Jane blushed at the compliment. “I have had a great deal of practice and I confess that I enjoy the more creative aspects of my profession. Your granddaughter is quite a talented cake decorator in her own right, aren’t you Pip?”
“One time Mama and I made a cake that looked just like a beehive with honey dripping down the sides with bees all over it. They weren’t real bees, though, just frosting bees,” she said. “Mama, can we make another one to show Grandmother?”
“We will have to ask her cook’s permission to invade the kitchen,” Jane laughed and gently caught Pip’s wrist to hold her still. “You are in fine fettle. I’m surprised you aren’t in bed already after the busy day you’ve had.”
“I took a looooong nap,” Pip explained. “The bed is so soft it’s like sleeping on a cloud. It is much softer than my bed at home. The room is ever so much nicer, too.”
Jane exchanged an amused look with the duchess. Children were frightfully honest. “I can’t disagree with you, love. It is very soft indeed. Don’t forget I slept in it last night.”
She sat in one of the inviting armchairs with plump floral cushions. Pip climbed onto her lap, wrapping her arms around Jane’s neck.
“Oh yes, I did forget,” Pip said, then talked for fifteen minutes straight about the modiste who had measured her for new clothes. She described the fashion plates from which she had chosen her new dresses and the little shop on Bond Street where her grandmother had taken her to shop for shoes. Jane listened and interjected the appropriate number of “Oohs” and “Aahs,” but Pip was so excited she would not have noticed if Jane had remained silent.
For the next week, Jane’s days followed a similar pattern. There were no more surprise visits from Lord Wallace, but he did join her and Pip for a few minutes each evening. While he was always cordial and scrupulously polite, Jane often caught him looking at her with an expression she found both thrilling and alarming. There was something irresistibly dark and dangerous in his eyes that spoke of craving and possession. She felt him calling to her and Jane very much feared that if he did, there was nothing she would deny him.
Chapter Seven
Finn studied Jane’s face as Pip regaled her with the day’s adventures. She gave the child her undivided attention, her eyes sparkling with amusement and affection. Every now and then she tucked an errant lock of hair behind Pip’s ear and fondly touched the side of her face. His niece had been fortunate indeed to have such a loving surrogate mother. Maura’s guardian angel had been hovering above her shoulder the afternoon saintly Jane Gray noticed her sitting on a bench in Russell Square.
Saintly? Without a doubt, she was that.
He, however, could not lay claim to such virtue, remembering the intensely erotic dream he had enjoyed the night before in which he had taken her
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