Downstairs Rules Read Online Free PDF

said. “Very much.”

    He picked up a book. “Do you like Housman?”

    “I do.”

    He handed her the book. “So does her Ladyship. You can read to her tonight if you’d like.”

    Ella curtseyed. “Thank you, Mr. York.”

    He smiled down at her and she could feel him watching as she fled the room.

    Lady Baxter got home a short time later. She told Ella all about her dinner party - the boring guests, the dry conversation, the lecherous host who stared at her through the whole thing - as she was helped out of her clothes.

    “You’re quiet tonight,” she observed. Lady Baxter sat on the edge of the bed and patted it. “Come sit and talk with me.”

    Ella hesitated and then walked over. She sat down, trying not to wince, but couldn’t help it.

    “Oh dear…” Lady Baxter sighed. “York got you, didn’t he?”

    “Is it so obvious?” Ella asked.

    “Why?”

    “My lady, I don’t know what to do,” Ella replied miserably. “I feel caught in the middle. I want so much to be your maid, but I want to go home after what’s happened. York sought to make me aware of the consequences of not influencing you towards behavior your husband will find suitable. It seems much to ask of a maid. I’m here to serve; I’m not comfortable interfering with your free will…”

    Ann Baxter’s eyes sparkled with tears. “They do ask much, my husband of me and York of you. And I feel responsible for what’s happened. I deliberately provoked my husband earlier today when we first met. I would not have if I’d known York would have ended up punishing you for my actions.”

    “He didn’t really punish me for what you did, but apparently to make me aware of the consequences of doing nothing to discourage it.” Ella looked at her mistress. “He told me afterwards that what I endured was but a pittance of what you endure, and made me feel personally responsible should Lord Baxter punish you.”

    Lady Baxter frowned. “I should have expected something like this from York. I do not think he is a bad man, but he and my husband are like-minded. They are both very stern. I do not want to put you at risk, Ella. But I don’t want you to leave either.” She smiled a sad smile. “I am just selfish enough to consider your company the bright spot in my life.”

    “Do you love your husband?” Ella asked the question before she could stop herself. “Forgive me,” she said. “I should know better than to ask something so personal.”

    “Don’t apologize,” Lady Baxter said. “I do love him. I was smitten with him the first time I saw him. I was seven…” She laughed. “He was already a grown man then, and married. He’d just moved here, to Baxter Hall. My father invited him to come for a hunt. He looked so grand on his big horse. When they returned he put me up in the saddle in front of him and rode me around. He told me I was the prettiest little thing he’d ever seen.”

    Lady Baxter lay back on the bed and stared up at the canopy, as if watching images from her past play out above her head. “After that, every time he came to the our home I made sure I positioned myself where I could be seen. Oh, I knew he was married, but there’s no reasoning with an infatuation. I saw us together in my mind, pretended when I was walking alone that he was by my side. In the spring of my thirteenth year, I stood in the garden arbor and made believe he was at my side as we took our marriage vows. Of course, I knew my parents were already shopping for mates for me, and I knew parents of potential suitors were eying me - and my huge dowry. We couldn’t have a dinner party without some hungry-eyed matron thrusting her son at me, or without my being subjected to some man facing financial ruin trying to parry a method to claim my money, and me. With each passing year I knew I was growing closer to marriage to a man not of my choosing. I pined for Lord Baxter, but was rational enough not to make a fool of myself from want, even