“I take it you enjoy working here?”
“Oh, yes, miss. Mr. Phipps is a stickler—you have to do your work well. But he’s fair. And the family is kind, even if they are a wee bit...different. There’s some that think their ways are too odd. But the animals don’t bother me, and even if I don’t understand a lot of what she says, I don’t mind when the duchess goes on about voting and sanitation and such. And it’s not fair to say Lady Thisbe blows things up. There was just that one little fire in her workroom.”
“I see.” Sabrina pressed her lips firmly together to keep from laughing.
“You have to be careful not to touch the duke’s old pots and such, of course. And Lord Bellard gets upset if you move his little men.”
“His little men?”
“The toy soldiers he has set up—a terrible lot of them.”
“Lord Bellard? There’s another child living here?”
“Oh, no, miss, Lord B’s old—he’s the duke’s uncle. He’s sweet, really, even if he never remembers your name. For myself, I’m happy not to have to dust all those little things—or the duke’s pieces of plates and cups. Some say the Morelands are too free and easy, but I like it that they don’t have their noses in the air. Everyone here gets a day off every week, not just every other, and they pay more than anyone else. The duchess insists.”
“They have been very kind to me.”
Prudence looked up at Sabrina. “Is it true what they say, miss? That Lord Alex found you and you can’t remember your name?”
“Well, I think I found him, but yes, I don’t remember my name or anything else.”
“My...” She let out a long sigh. “Isn’t that a wonder?”
“A wonder?” Sabrina glanced at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“It’d be grand, wouldn’t it, to be whoever you wanted? Choose your own name, where you lived, what you liked?” Prudence sat back on her heels, surveying her work with satisfaction. “There you go, miss. We can start on the next, if you’d like.”
Sabrina stared at her, struck by the girl’s words. Perhaps she was looking at her situation all wrong. Her slate was wiped clean. It didn’t matter what kind of person she had been in the past. Starting today, she could be whoever she wanted. She and she alone could decide how she wanted to act, what she wanted to be, what she thought and felt and did. She could, in short, create herself.
She should be excited, not scared. What lay before her wasn’t a deep abyss, but a limitless horizon. “Yes,” she said, a smile curving her lips. “Let’s begin.”
SABRINA SPENT MUCH of the afternoon trying on dress after dress while Prudence pinned the hems. However, she was sure the trouble was worth it when she saw Alex’s expression as she walked down the stairs that evening dressed as a woman. She wore a lavender silk gown that belonged to Olivia and hadn’t needed to be hemmed. Though it was largely devoid of ornamentation, it nipped in at the waist and flared to a small bustle in back, showing off her figure to perfection. The wide neckline bared her throat and much of her shoulders.
Alex’s eyes widened, growing suddenly brighter, and he jumped up from the bench where he sat and went to her, reaching up a hand to her as she came down the final two steps. “Women’s clothes become you.”
He leaned in closer, his smile small and intimate, and Sabrina thought for an instant that he was going to kiss her. Fortunately, he did not try, for she had the deep suspicion that she would have kissed him back, and that thought was even more unnerving than the light in his eyes. Kissing, she realized, was not something she was accustomed to doing, no matter how licentious her thoughts had been this afternoon.
Dinner was a small affair, with only Alex and his parents and his small, quiet uncle, Theo and Megan having a prior engagement. Sabrina was grateful. She had been nervous at the thought of meeting a duke, who surely would be more intimidating than a duchess.
However, as it turned out, the duke was a genial man—and very easy to engage in conversation. As long as she smiled and nodded now and then, he was happy to keep up a monologue about Roman and Greek architecture, artifacts, history—indeed, anything to do with ancient Greece and Rome. The fact that she understood only two-thirds of what he said was apparently not a drawback. Uncle Bellard gave her a shy smile and said nothing at all.
When the meal was over, they all lingered around the table, talking, which, memory-less as she was, Sabrina was quite sure was not the normal course of things. None of them even seemed to find it odd when the duchess had a glass of brandy along with the men.
She was grateful when Alex glanced across at her and smiled, then said, “Scintillating as I’m sure our conversation is, I suspect our guest is beginning to flag. It’s been a very long, hard day.”
Sabrina politely protested, but the duchess nodded. “Yes, of course. It’s wicked of us to keep you up, child.”
“I’ll walk you back to your room,” Alex offered.
“Perhaps you should. I got lost coming down to dinner, I’m afraid.” She stood, taking the arm he offered.
“I hope you didn’t get too lost,” Alex said as they left the room and headed toward the stairs.
“No, I wound up in the nursery wing, apparently, and the little girls’ nurse set me straight.”
“Aside from that, I hope you’ve had no problems.”
“None at all,” Sabrina quickly assured him. “Everyone has been most kind.” Even Megan had not been unpleasant about not trusting her. “I’m very grateful. I don’t know what I’d have done if your mother hadn’t taken me in. I’ve tried all afternoon to remember something, but my mind remains a blank.” She looked up at him. “Will we be able to find out who I am? Is it hopeless?”
“Not at all. You mustn’t think that. Megan already called on one of her reporter friends and set that in motion. If they hear anything pertinent, they’ll let her know. And she has other contacts. I’ve set the agency’s employee to checking out the train station, just in case someone has been there searching for you. He’s also looking around in some other areas.”
“Where? How does he know where to look?”
“Oh...well, he’ll hang about where servants might congregate, the market or taverns or such, to pick up any gossip about a lady gone missing.”
“I see.” Sabrina had the oddest feeling he was holding something back. “What can I do? I want to help.”
She expected him to tell her she could not, so she had marshaled her arguments in favor of it. But to her surprise, he merely nodded and said, “Of course. We can talk to Kyria tomorrow, see if she has any idea who you are. She and Mother and Megan are doing something, so she’ll be here in the morning.”
Sabrina realized that they were walking very slowly, dawdling as if they didn’t want to reach her bedchamber. Which was, of course, the truth, at least for her. She sneaked a sideways glance up at Alex and found him watching her.
They reached the doorway to her chamber and turned to face each other. Sabrina was intensely aware of everything about Alex. She wished she could think of something to keep him here.
“Sabrina...”
“Yes?” Did she sound too eager? She could feel her cheeks begin to flush, and her breathing was shorter and faster. His eyes were dark in the low glow of the hallway sconces; she couldn’t read them. But there was a softness to his features, a certain loosening of his mouth, that made her feel both twitchy and achy.
“I, um...” He