A Highly Flattering Solution

Part 1

He wrenched the door open forcefully, without stopping to knock, half convinced she would already have gone. She hadn't, but was clearly in the process of preparation for a hasty flight. She swung around, startled, the books she had just removed from the mantelpiece slipping from her hands.

Composing herself immediately, she continued gathering her possessions after no more than a cursory glance at her intruder. Her face was very white however, and there was the slightest tremble to her hands as she righted the books and reached for a japanned trinket box.

He watched her for a few moments, silently, his dark brows drawn together over scowling eyes, giving his handsome face a more than ordinarily wicked appearance.

"Running away, Miss Tremayne?" the Marquis's voice was rigid with anger. "Without giving two weeks' notice?" She did not respond, and an unfamiliar heat and restlessness burned within him, propelling him into uncharacteristic cruelty calculated to shatter her composure and evince a response. "And helping yourself to some of the silver to ease your flight, I imagine."

Serena Tremayne's eyebrows rose, but she was happy that this at least was answerable. "I don't recall that ever in the years I have worked for you, Lord Delford, you have had cause to accuse me of taking advantage of my position." Answering this foolish accusation steadied her and brought her back to the easy equanimity with which they usually conversed. "On the contrary, you have more than once remarked that I saved you a great deal of money over my harassed predecessor."

"Yes, but she did not balk at my choice of guests." He narrowed his eyes and placed his hands on the table across from her. "When you saw who alighted from my carriage, you turned pale and fled. Whose appearance was it that alarmed you so much? Was it Stafford? Or Rolveston?"

Observing her closely, he noticed that it was the second name that affected her complexion and countenance. "Rolveston." he stated. "What is he to you? A disgruntled employer? Was that why I got you so cheaply? Was it his silver you stole?"

Serena was glad that this absurdity induced a genuine laugh from her. It veiled her anxiety. "Cheaply? I cost you three times what another housekeeper would dare ask."

"Yes, but not half of what any other gentlewoman would command." Enjoying her look of startled amusement, he now laughed himself. "Oh, are you surprised I knew that? You must have windmills in your head if you think anyone of sense would believe you sprung from the servant class."

She did not deny it. "Is that why you settled on me, above the more qualified candidates?"

"I didn't so much as speak to any of them. I was in the employment office that day in search of a groom. I saw you in that corner, looking shabby and determined, and entirely out of place. I knew right away what you were." They had never discussed that day in all the years that had passed since.

Serena had stopped gathering her personal items. "And decided to hire me no matter what kind of servant I was? What if I had turned out to be a governess?"

"I would have invented some entirely fictional children to lure you into my employ."

"How absurd! I would have discovered the truth as soon as I arrived at the manor."

Delford leaned back and crossed his arms, that well-known evil gleam alighting in his eye. "I thought that by that time I would have persuaded you to accept another kind of position in my household."

She gasped, not pretending to misunderstand him. "And when did you discover your mistake?"

"When you stated your conditions, in that wretchedly straitlaced and resolute voice." He shook his head. "I realized at once that you were a green innocent with no notion what she was doing. Don't you know how easily you could have been taken advantage of, had anyone else chanced upon you before me? What sort of a callow widgeon would go off with a strange man, alone in a carriage?"