Page 36 of How to Lose a Lord in Ten Days

‘I – I …’ She did not know what to say.

Slowly, Pip reached his hand into his pocket for his pencil.

‘How,’ he said, opening his notebook to a fresh page, ‘does one spell betrayal?’

‘Oh, don’t do that!’ Lydia snapped. ‘I did not mean… the situation is so precarious right now, Pip, for both of us. If I cannot rid myself of Ashford, then our plan – our life together – it will be ruined. I cannot leave you alone.’

‘I do not need you to protect me, Lydia,’ Pip said.

Yes, you do, Lydia wanted to shout at him. How can you not see that? But of course he did not, because that was Pip. Too open, too unselfconscious, too himself in a world which would only punish him for it.

‘I am the elder,’ Pip reminded her. ‘Stands to reason, I do the protecting.’

She stared at him helplessly. ‘I—’

A soft knock interrupted them. Lydia turned, just as Jane poked her head round the door.

‘Miss Lydia, are you—’

She halted when she saw them. ‘Oh good. You are both here.’

Lydia frowned. ‘Is everything all right, Jane?’

Jane did not usually appear in Lydia’s bedchambers until morning.

‘No, it is not.’ Jane pushed the door open. ‘No, I – well we – need your help.’

She walked inside, leading by the hand another young woman, dressed in maid’s uniform.

‘This is Elspeth,’ Jane said. ‘Lady Phoebe’s lady’s maid.’

As the light of Lydia’s candle illuminated their faces more fully, Lydia say that Elspeth’s face was tear-stained, her eyes puffy.

‘Are you hurt?’ Pip rose from his seat.

Elspeth turned to Jane. ‘Please, I did not think I can …’

‘They can help,’ Jane encouraged, squeezing her palm.

Lydia looked from one girl to the other and frowned. ‘Help with what?’

Elspeth shook her head, fresh tears springing to her eyes.

‘Feel better in a moment,’ Pip encouraged.

‘No, I won’t,’ she choked out. ‘Not when I’m like to be killed.’

‘Killed?’ Lydia repeated, alarmed.

‘Killed?’ Pip repeated, excited. ‘Whatever for?’

‘I cannot say, miss,’ She turned again to Jane. ‘I ought not be speaking to them at all.’

‘You can trust them,’ Jane promised.

Lydia thought she might know what was going on here. ‘Has Lady Phoebe been cruel?’

She could not imagine that her ladyship was the world’s easiest mistress and house parties did put such pressure on household staff. All of their grandmother’s worst stories were from events such as this.