Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

" M r. Jenkins!" Caroline called after the head butler of Linfield Estate. "Mr. Jenkins!"

Mr. Jenkins was making his way down the grand staircase that wound into the entrance foyer but paused mid-step when he heard his name called. "Ah, Miss Dowding," he said with an affectionate smile. "You look lovely this morning. And clean."

She rolled her eyes at him, for it was the exact same greeting he had given her every morning for the past two years since the first day she had moved into Linfield Estate. A little inside joke between them both as the first time they had met, Caroline had been covered from head to foot in mud and sludge, looking the very opposite of ‘lovely and clean.'

"Have you seen Esther this morning?" she asked as she approached Mr. Jenkins. "She was not in her room, and I worry that she has gone riding without me."

Mr. Jenkins groaned. "She best not have. The Dowager knows better than to do so."

"Has Esther ever been known to do what she is told?" Caroline chuckled.

"A very good point."

"I'd like to believe that she would not be such a fool as to do that…" Caroline bit into her lip as she considered the very real possibility that the elderly Dowager, in a bid to prove a point, had indeed taken her horse for a ride. "Although she also may have."

Mr. Jenkins rubbed his temples as if in pain. "I shall check the stables."

"And I shall check the library. Hopefully, she has simply lost track of time and forgotten that we had plans today. Plans which most certainly did not involve putting her life at risk by riding atop a horse."

He chuckled. "She never used to be this way, you know."

"When she was younger, you mean?"

"No, no," he sighed. "Before you came along is my meaning. Then, she seemed to understand that at seventy years of age, certain things were expected while others were downright impossible. Why, to look at her then, one might have even called her boring."

Caroline snorted. "I cannot imagine a world where Esther would be considered boring."

"As I said…" He raised an eyebrow at Caroline. "… she was before you came along."

Caroline leaned back and squinted at Mr. Jenkins as she searched out his true meaning. "Is this a rebuke, Mr. Jenkins?"

"Quite the opposite," he said with a wink and a smile. "Boring is as the name suggests, boring. But your presence here has injected the Dowager with a vigor that we all thought she had lost since the passing of His Grace. And assuming she has not fallen off the back of a horse and broken her neck, I dare say that your companionship has added years to her life."

Caroline felt her cheeks blush, and she had to look away for how embarrassed she felt. "The stables, Mr. Jenkins. And I shall search the library."

"As you say, Miss Dowding." A short nod of the head, and he started down the steps.

"Oh!" she called after him. "And will you ask the staff to check that they have not left the hearths burning from last night. It is as hot as an oven in this house!"

Mr. Jenkins indicated that he would do so as he swept through the front door, calling out to a member of the staff to run ahead to the stables in case the Dowager was still there.

Caroline shook her head to herself as the door closed behind him. To think that when she had first met Mr. Jenkins two years ago, he had detested her because he had assumed that she was a street urchin looking to steal her way inside the estate, likely with the intent on robbing from his employer everything that she could get her hands on. And now, well, the two were as close as father and daughter. How things had changed.

Caroline started down the staircase and then made her way quickly to the library at the back of the estate in search of Esther, who she prayed to find there. And as she did, she could not help but ponder these last two years and all that had happened to her, the changes in her life and the happiness said changes had brought.

Mr. Jenkins called her Miss Dowding, for he thought that to be her name. And indeed, the entire staff, as well as the Dowager, thought the same. When she had appeared on the doorstep of the Linfield Estate two years past, Caroline had lied about who she was and her reasons for being here, desperate that they not learn the truth for that would ruin her.

For two years now, she had remained hidden, living at Linfield Estate as the Dowager's companion, committed to this new life in a way she might never have dreamed possible.

The library was empty which struck fear into Caroline. She had only been joking about Esther taking one of the horses for a ride, but Esther was as eccentric as she was unpredictable, and it would be just like her to do such a thing for no other reason than to prove that she could.

"Miss Dowding," a soft voice spoke from the door of the library.

Caroline spun about to see Miss Spencer standing there, one of the few maids who worked for the Dowager. She was older than Caroline's twenty and six years but still young when compared to the Dowager.

"Miss Spencer!" Caroline hurried toward her. "Tell me you have seen?—"

"The Dowager has asked after you," she cut Caroline off. "She is in the cellars at the moment, and she sent me to find you, requesting urgent assistance."

"Assistance?" Caroline frowned while feeling relieved at the same time. "Whatever for?"

Miss. Spencer's expression was flat. "Nothing good is my reckoning, but you know how she gets."

Caroline grinned. "Oh, do I ever."

Relieved to hear that Esther was on her own two feet and indoors where she was relatively safe, Caroline thanked Miss Spencer and hurried through the house and in the direction of the cellars. As she went, she felt herself sweat more than was normal and considered finding another member of the staff to double check those hearths, but she reasoned that could wait as now, her curiosity had peaked regarding what Esther was doing.

She could not help but smile as she tried to picture it: the eccentric elderly woman squirreled away in the dusty cellars, likely making a mess and fussing over she could only imagine what! But that was just Esther's way.

When Caroline had arrived on the doorstep of Linfield Estate two years previously, she had only intended on staying the night. But with nowhere to go and no plans to speak of, Esther had insisted that Caroline stay on as her companion—a role designated exclusively to women of the peerage with no family or prospects or much of anything to support themselves with.

She might have said no if she'd had any other option. And she might have still said no if she hadn't sensed immediately that Esther was special and unique in ways that suited Caroline's own esoteric sensibilities. And in the two years since she had started living here, Caroline would go so far as to say that she was more than the elderly Dowager's companion but her dear friend—a thought that brought a warm smile to her face.

It was two minutes later when Caroline walked into the dingy cellars located beneath the estate. Torches buckled into the walls lit the dank interior so that she immediately spotted Esther in the corner, pulling the lids off a series of barrels lining the walls.

"Esther!" Caroline called her. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Oh!" Esther spun around, eyes widening with glee at the sight of Caroline coming for her. "There you are, dear! I was wondering where you had gotten off to."

"Me?" Caroline shook her head as she came in beside Esther. "I will remind you that we had plans this morning."

Esther frowned. "We did?"

"The pianoforte? You wished to pick up where we left of last night."

"Oh, yes, that." She waved Caroline down. "We can do that later. This is of far greater importance."

"And what is this, exactly…" Caroline peered over Esther's shoulder, able to see now that the barrels Esther was searching through were packed to the brim with salt.

"Well, I woke this morning in a bit of a state," Esther sighed as she turned back around, her hand now pawing through the nearest barrel. "Readying myself for the day, I caught sight of my reflection, and do you know what I realized?"

"Pray do tell."

"That I am old, dear. Frightfully old." Half her arm was buried now. "And while I might not feel it, I look it! Why, I thought it was my own mother staring back at me!"

"Esther…" Caroline sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I do hope that this is going somewhere. And that it explains what you plan on doing with these barrels filled with salt."

"Oh, not salt, dear." She grinned manically at Caroline and then pulled her arm free, revealing a shank of raw meat clutched in her hand. "Meat! I was speaking with Mr. Clancy, and he swore black and blue that raw meat is a most miraculous healing agent for the skin. Said to tighten it up and reduce the effects of ageing." She waved the shank of meat in Caroline's face. "Thirty minutes with this on my cheeks, and I will look ten years younger, I kid you not."

What was there to even say?

Caroline eyed the shank of raw meat in Esther's hand. Then she fixed her with a look that told the elderly woman what she thought of this little venture: that it was as ridiculous as it was insane sounding.

"Oh, do not give me that look!" Esther cried as she put the shank of meat down and then dove back into the barrel. "And make yourself useful, will you? Have a rummage in these barrels and see what you can find?"

Now, just to clarify, Esther was of sound mind and in no way losing her wits because of aging. If that was the case, Caroline might have felt bad for lying to her. She was just eccentric, a little odd, and it was Caroline's suspicion that she often did the ridiculous simply to see what she could get away with.

"I think I will pass," Caroline said.

"What? Some companion you make!"

"But I will happily help you apply said meat to your face, if that is what is needed?"

"I suppose that will do—ha!" She pulled another shank of meat free, looking delighted. "Admit it, when you came to me two years ago, you did not think you would be having as much fun as this now, did you? Imagine it; if that scoundrel betrothed of yours hadn't left you at the altar, who knows what dull, monotonous activity you would be doing today. Something boring, no doubt."

"Aren't I the lucky one," Caroline said with just a hint of sarcasm.

Two years ago, as well as giving a false name, Caroline had told Esther that she had been left at the altar and that was the reason she'd fled her home. Another lie. Another reason to feel guilty. Another instance in which Caroline was forced to wonder if she had made the right decision in all of this and what would happen when the truth came out.

Every day, Caroline was forced to reckon with this eventuality, the only thing keeping her sane being how much she enjoyed her new life. And that was all thanks to Esther.

"There you are!" It was Mr. Jenkins. He stumbled through the doorway, face ashen.

"It is fine, Mr. Jenkins," Caroline sighed. "I found her."

"How are you both still down here!" he stammered as he stumbled toward them. His face was beetroot red, sweat dripping down it as if he was melting. "Surely you have heard!"

"Mr. Jenkins, you look awful," Esther said as she looked at him. "Might I suggest some meat?"

"We have to get out, now!"

"The heat," Caroline said, suddenly noticing how hot it was down here. And not just hot, boiling. "Mr. Jenkins, did you speak to the staff about the hearths? It is so hot down here, one could boil an egg on the ground."

"That is just it! Dowager, I have just been alerted. There is a fire in the northern wing of the estate! And it is spreading! Quick, we must?—"

"A fire!" Caroline cried. "Esther! Hurry!" She grabbed Esther, who looked set on not moving, by the arm.

"Oh no," Esther moaned. "Is it bad?"

"We can talk about it later!" Mr. Jenkins took Esther by the other arm. "Please, we have to hurry!"

"Wait!" Esther wrenched her arms free and snatched at the two shanks of meat she had secured. "We best collect as much as we can, for although Mr. Clancy did not say specifically, I have a feeling that cooked meat will not be nearly as effective. Mr. Jenkins, you start in that barrel, and Caroline, you start in this one!" And then, she spun about and shoved both hands into the same barrel as before, determined to collect another shank of raw meat before the house burned down around them.

To the casual observer, it might have looked strange. Downright bizarre. But after two years of living at Linfield Estate as the Dowager of Thornton's personal companion, to Caroline, it was as predictable behavior as it was boiling hot.