her hand captured in a surprisingly firm grasp, Katherine had little choice but to accompany the housekeeper up a rather handsome wooden staircase to the upper floor. If the servant still retained doubts about her respectability she certainly kept these reservations to herself, and by the time Katherine had helped to put clean sheets on the bed, and had returned to the kitchen to fill a pitcher with hot water herself, the housekeeper was positively beaming with approval and evincing every sign of being very pleased at having another female residing under the roof.
Once Katherine had returned to the bedchamber, she took stock of her surroundings, while making herself appear more respectable by donning clothes which, she suspected, had once belonged to Daniel’s mother. The furniture, elegant and well made, was undoubtedly French in design, and had more than likely belonged to the former occupant of the room. Although the primrose bed-hangings and the drapes at the window were slightly faded, as was the delicately patterned wallpaper, it was a pleasant bedchamber, tastefully decorated and comfortable, and Katherine was more than happy to make use of it for the duration of her stay.
Not that she had been given much choice in the matter, she reminded herself, as she began arranging her hair in a simple style by making use of the combs, brushes and pins which most likely had also belonged to the room’s former occupant. Daniel, in his usual highhanded fashion, had insisted that she remain in his house until such time as Sir Giles could be apprised of their return. She didn’t object in the least, but she was determined, for the duration of her stay, not to be idle. That part of her life was now well and truly over. She was resolved not to spend the years ahead living an unproductive existence where she had nothing better to do with her time than indulge in fruitless socialising with that large circle of people in Bath with whom she had very little in common.
Once satisfied with the arrangement of her hair, Katherine did not delay in returning to the large kitchen, where she discovered both Janet and McGann companionably seated at the table. She would dearly have loved to see over the whole house, but decided that that could wait until later, and that it was more important for her to become better acquainted with the two people whom she strongly suspected had come to mean far more to Daniel than mere servants.
‘No, please do not get up,’ she adjured them as they both made to rise. ‘Would you mind very much if I joined you?’
Her polite manner instantly won her a further warm look of approval from the housekeeper, though the glint easily discernible in masculine eyes stemmed, Katherine strongly suspected, from something quite different. It was no difficult matter to induce them both to talk about the master of the house who, she quickly discovered, was upstairs in his bedchamber, changing his attire.
It swiftly became apparent that both held him in the highest esteem. Janet, who had come to work in the house shortly after Daniel’s father, Edwin Ross, had purchased the property some forty years before, had been present at Daniel’s birth. She had been present too on that sad day, two years later, when his lovely mother had died after giving birth to a stillborn child, and had remained throughout those years when his grandmother, a woman of immense character, who had escaped from France with her daughter at the time of the Terror, had taken charge of the house and Daniel’s upbringing.
‘I have to say that the house has never been the same these past ten years, not since his grandmother passed away,’ Janet admitted solemnly. ‘It’s been a sad and lonely place, nothing like the happy home it once was.’
‘But surely you didn’t remain here alone whilst Major Ross was away in Spain?’ Katherine, somewhat surprised, was prompted to ask. The house might not be on the scale of even a small mansion, but it was far too large for just one servant to maintain, and one who, moreover, was definitely not in her first flush of youth. ‘Surely there are other servants here to help you?’
‘Well, there’s McGann here now, and a stable lad who does the heavy lifting. Then there’s Mr Prentiss, who’s been the land manager for many years. He always sends men over to the house to see to repairs and chop logs for the fires.’
‘But isn’t there any other female employed here to help you with the general household chores?’ Katherine persisted, and was appalled when Janet shook her head. ‘That really is too bad of Daniel! This house is too big for only one person to manage.’
‘Now, there’s a considerate soul!’ Janet beamed. ‘It would take a female to appreciate the work a woman has to do. And I cannot deny I could do with some help about the place now that Master Daniel has returned. I do have one of the village girls come up once a week to help clean the place. But when the master was away fighting in Spain, and most of the rooms in holland covers, there weren’t really any need for extra permanent help. I did intend to mention the matter at the beginning of the year, but then the master upped and spent some time in London, and was back only a few days before he went off again.’
‘Well, don’t you worry, Janet. I shall ensure the matter is brought to his attention before I leave here,’ Katherine promised. ‘It’s unthinkable that you should be expected to manage the house by yourself. I wonder that your master didn’t see to matters long before now.’
‘He’s had other things to think about in recent years,’ McGann put in, not hesitating to come to the Major’s defence. ‘I don’t think his thoughts dwelled too often on his home back here when he were out in Spain.’
‘Understandably not,’ Katherine responded, striving to be fair. ‘Have you known the Major long?’
‘Six year, or thereabouts. I were his batman and sergeant, Miss Katherine. He were a Captain when we first met. Won his majority after Badajoz. And no one deserved it more!’
‘I’m sure you’re right,’ Katherine agreed softly, her mind’s eye having no difficulty in conjuring up an image of those telltale scars. ‘You were no doubt involved in many battles together.’
‘That we were, Miss Katherine, and all of them hard-fought,’ McGann confirmed, needing little encouragement to reminisce. ‘The “grasshoppers” were always the ones picked to go out on skirmishes.’
‘Grasshoppers?’ Katherine echoed, bemused.
‘Ahh, bless you, miss! That’s what the Frogs called us on account of our green uniforms, but they had a grudging respect for us too, I reckon. The 95th had some of the best shots in the army. And there were none better with a Baker rifle than the Major. To be sure we’ve been in some tough spots, me and the Major. Talavera was one of the worst. I thought at one point we’d be singing with the angels before that battle was over.’
Katherine’s eyes glinted with unholy amusement. ‘Or in the Major’s case possibly crying, “Hell, it’s hot!”
‘I heard that, young woman!’
Whilst her companions dissolved into laughter, Katherine swung round in the chair to discover Daniel framed in the open doorway. ‘Oh, are you here?’ she remarked, totally unmoved by his unexpected appearance. ‘Well, you know what they say about eavesdroppers, don’t you, Daniel?’
‘I’ll give you eavesdroppers, you impertinent baggage!’ he threatened, though the unmistakable flicker of affection in his eyes didn’t go unnoticed by any one of those seated at the table.
Janet exchanged a swift glance with McGann before hurriedly rising to her feet. ‘Well, I haven’t time to sit about gossiping all day. I’ve the dinner to prepare.’
‘And I shall help,’ Katherine informed her, rising also and catching a look of distinct disapproval taking possession of Daniel’s features.
‘I
