Page 20 of Falling for a Footman

She told Miss Walker that she wanted to rest, then waited with her door slightly ajar until she heard Miss Walker's footsteps disappear down the hallway. She rested on her bed for a moment with her hands folded over her stomach and her nerve endings trembling. After what felt like at least an hour but a timespan that her clock only measured to five minutes, she sneaked to the door again and looked up and down the hallway once more before she ventured outside, hoping that luck would be with her now.

Her best bet if she wanted to learn more about James would probably be to look through the belongings in his room. The service quarters should be empty at this time of day and she could go through his room undisturbed.

Slowly Charlotte made her way to the service stairs at the end of the family hallway and opened the door, listening for anyone going up or down. She could not hear steps and hastily ventured the two floors up to the rooms under the roof where the servants stayed. She knew that there was a female and a male hallway.

She had only ever been in the female hallway once when she and Lucy had snuck in there as children, excited by doing something that they were not allowed to do. They had been caught by Mrs. Higgins, the housekeeper, and had been given a proper scolding by their mother. She had stressed that their servants worked hard to provide the family with every luxury and comfort they needed and the least they could do was pay them decently and allow them their privacy in their own rooms. Charlotte had been embarrassed and had not wanted to come along the next time Lucy had wanted to sneak in there.

Now she had to in order to know whether James was the thief. Hopefully, she would find evidence in his room although she doubted that he hid stolen goods there.

Charlotte looked at the two doors on either side of the landing at the top of the stairs. She knew from her previous visit that the right one led to the women's hallway which obviously meant that the left one led to the men's hallway. Charlotte held her breath as she opened the door and peaked down the hallway. No one was there.

She hurriedly went inside and closed the door to the landing. The hallway was narrow and only made more so by the angle of the roof, but it was well-lit with several windows on one side. On the other side was a plain white wall with wooden doors. Now all she had to do was figure out which door led to James's room.

The room closest to the landing most likely belonged to Mr. Curtis. At least if it mirrored the women's hallway where Mrs. Higgins’ room was the one closest to the landing. That would mean that she only had to try about five rooms or so. Charlotte tried the second door. Two beds stood at each wall, both neatly made. There was a tallboy, a washstand with a mirror hanging over it on the wall and not much else. By each bed she could see that a few letters had been pinned to the wall.

"My dear Jeffrey," the first line on one of the letters read. No, not James. It took her a bit more time to figure out who the other footman was. She supposed that he was unable to read since there were no letters but only about five or six cutouts of horses. The stable boys lived above the stables, so the cutouts had to belong to a footman with a passion for horses.

Charlotte pulled out the battered trunk under the bed and saw the KD marking on it. Kenny Driscoll was the name of one of their footmen. So, Kenny and Jeffrey were sharing a room, Charlotte thought as she placed the trunk under the bed again and closed the door. She was similarly able to identify the footmen living in the next room – who was not James either – and had started on the third one where William lived, she could tell by the size of the livery jacket that was hanging on a coat hook on the wall. William was by far the largest of their footmen; luckily for him her father did not demand that the footmen were all the same size or height.

She pulled the trunk out from under one of the beds and felt as if the bottom fell out of her stomach. The trunk - that was surprisingly good quality considering that it belonged to a footman - was marked JW. She had no idea what James's last name was but beside him they only had one other footman whose name started with a J, and she had already located Jeffrey’s room.

So, this was James's trunk. Charlotte sat back on her haunches, her heart pounding fiercely in her chest as she unclasped the hinges of the lid and slowly opened it. She was not certain what she had expected but as she looked at the content, she realized that she to some extent had expected that it would be filled with silverware and her mother's jewelry.

In reality it contained a pair of black leather shoes, again a surprisingly good quality for a footman but not suspicious in itself, and four or five books. A letter was used as a bookmark in one of the books.

Charlotte pulled the letter out. There was no return address on it and it had been franked by the Marquis of Riplingham. Although James had said that he had served in the house of the Marquis of Riplingham, Charlotte saw no reason why the marquis would frank letters to him. She unfolded the letter and began reading.

"My dear James

Everything is well with Papa and I..."

Charlotte managed to read before she heard footsteps in the hallway. She quickly returned the book and letter to the trunk but did not have time to make certain that the book lay exactly as she had found it. She pushed the trunk back under the bed, looking for a place to hide even though she did not know whether the person was going to enter the room and despite knowing that there was no place to hide. The room was simply too small.

Holding her breath, Charlotte rose and stood in the middle of the floor, ready to bolt from the room, the moment she was able to. The footsteps stopped right outside of the door and the doorknob was turning. She still had not decided whether she would rather that it was James or William when she met James's bewildered blue gaze. His mouth opened as if he wanted to say something but did not know what. Charlotte's gaze dropped from his bewildered gaze to the front of his seafoam green livery jacket that was soaked through.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded and then as an afterthought added: "Lady Charlotte."

There was no way that Charlotte could let him know that she suspected him of being the thief. If he was not, it would be deeply hurtful to him and if he was it would give him time to flee before she could find evidence against him.

"I came to surprise you," she blurted out, hoping that a reasonable explanation might magically appear to her as she spoke, but nothing happened.

A smile seemed to play around James's mouth as he repeated: "To surprise me?"

Charlotte nodded unable to say anything. She felt her stomach stir and she knew that there was only one way to be able to throw him off. She quickly stepped up to him, before she lost her nerve, put her arms around his neck and placed her lips on his.

Never having kissed anyone before, she had no idea how to proceed from here. The lips had to be touching but what else? The heat from his lips and his body in general was intense and she could definitely see how this could be pleasant. Her breasts seemed to be overly sensitive pressed against his chest and she felt a warm curl deep in her belly at the thought of him deepening the kiss. Somehow, she instinctively knew she would like that. But as the seconds ticked by and he still did not move or do any other thing, it started to become awkward. Charlotte made to step away from him, when his hands landed on her waist holding her in place against him.