A Solemn Promise

XXI

"I used to think that I could never lose anyone if I photographed them enough. In fact, my pictures show me how much I've lost." Nan Goldin

----

XXI.

Word spread throughout the house quickly. So much so that by the time the bell rang for Grace to assist Lady Sarah with dressing, all the servants were aware of the duke's illness and the fact that he was to now keep to his room.

Gossip was rampant. Mr Cole and Mrs Hayes could not do a thing to stop it. The death of a duke and the inheritance of his son was always a time of great change, and people hated change. Ashwood House had not known any change in twelve years. Grace wished that she could assure them all that they would be safe with Adam.

Adam would always do the right thing, even at the expense of his own happiness.

Ruby had mended Sarah's spencer coat and had left it perfectly folded in the laundry as Grace had asked her to. Grace collected it and took it back up the stairs to Sarah's bedroom.

When she knocked on the door and entered the bedroom, she found Sarah sitting at her dressing table with Lady Ashley standing at the wardrobe, pulling gowns with a frustrated expression on her face.

Grace quietly placed the coat on Sarah's bed and went to her at the dressing table, pulling the pins from the style that she had fixed that morning. Sarah smiled at Grace in the mirror.

"Do whatever, Denham," she murmured, before turning to her mother. "What's the matter, Mama?"

"None of these gowns now seem fit for a duchess," Lady Ashley complained. "Far too plain, too simple," she added distastefully.

"They are all new this year," Sarah reminded her. "You made Papa spend a fortune."

Lady Ashley scoffed. "On the wardrobe of a bride, not a duchess. My dear girl, this is such wonderful news! You need to be seen this minute as a matriarch, not a girl."

Grace's hands froze over Sarah's head as she heard the words leave Lady Ashley's mouth. She certainly could not mean that the duke's imminent death was wonderful news, could she? Surely her ears were hearing things.

"Mama, please," muttered Sarah, embarrassed as she watched Grace cautiously.

Grace made an effort to control her face knowing that Sarah was aware of her.

"I cannot help that I am excited!" Lady Ashley protested as she finally settled on a gown. She carried it over to the bed and laid it down beside the coat. "It is not every day that one's daughter becomes a duchess. Obviously as you were marrying the heir, I knew it would happen someday. But to have it happen so soon? Oh, Sarah dear, it is all I ever wanted for you! You will be a young, beautiful duchess! Every door in England will be open to you!"

Grace now knew that her ears had not been deceiving her. Lady Ashely was glad about the duke dying. She then wondered if such a feeling was a mortal sin and God would strike her down dead because of it.

Sarah's cheeks were flushed. "Mama!" she exclaimed. "Go and dress! Denham can ensure everything is ready for me in here. I will be fine. Go!" she insisted.

Lady Ashley eventually nodded, coming over to kiss her daughter on the cheek. "Oh, I am so proud of you," she said quietly with a smile, before leaving the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

"I am terribly sorry," Sarah said bashfully. "What an awful thing for her to say."

"You needn't apologise to me, milady," Grace said politely. Really, a lady never needed to apologise to a servant, so she did appreciate it coming from Sarah.