Page 159 of A Very Bellamy Christmas

“Yes. Lady Kathryn is with her.” She paused before opening the door and pulled a face. “She’s…in a mood.”

When was she not?

Stacia nodded and they entered the apartment.

“Where have you been?” the countess shrieked.

“I’m sorry, my lady. I had difficulty locating Mrs. Nutter.”

“No doubt she was behaving like a fool just like all the others.” Lady Addiscombe gestured to the small, corked jug Stacia held. “Well, go ahead!”

Stacia removed the stopper, decanted a small amount, and re-corked the jug.

Lady Addiscombe scowled and took the water glass from Stacia, raising it to her lips.

Stacia’s gaze slid to Lady Kathryn as the countess drank the posset.

The younger woman gave her a guilty smile.

Kathryn had come to Stacia’s room the day after she’d been released from the priest hole and had apologized profusely while her older sister, the duchess, had looked on.

It had not been difficult to forgive the younger woman for the best two days of Stacia’s life.

“Oh, do stop looming, Martin,” the countess snapped.

“I’m sorry, my lady.” Stacia went to sit in the chair beside Lady Kathryn.

“No, not there. Just—just go,” Lady Addiscombe said. “My daughter has insisted she will remain with me. Despite my desires.” She pressed her lips tightly together and glared at Lady Kathryn, who returned her look with a cool, almost challenging, one of her own.

The countess made a feral snarling sound and then, looking as if she would prefer to chew out her own tongue, turned to Stacia and spat, “I do not require the two of you cluttering up my bedchamber. Send Ackers away, too. I cannot bear her accusatory stare at being denied her night of fun. Tell her she may attend this idiot function until eleven o’clock.” Her jaws worked hard, as if she were chewing gravel. “All of you may attend for a few hours.”

Stacia heart leapt. “Thank you, my la—”

“Do not thank me.” She fixed her daughter with a look of loathing. “Thank my interfering son-in-law. He has insisted that every servant—not only his own—be allowed to take part in his asinine function.”

“Er, Lord Needham?”

“Who else?” the countess snapped. “Now get out, Martin!”

Stacia curtsied. “Yes, my lady.”

“One more thing, Martin.”

Stacia stopped, her hand on the door, and turned. “Yes, my lady?”

“I may have been forced to comply with Needham’s demands, but you will be back here no later than midnight. If you are not, then you can find yourself another position. You may pass that along to the others.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Stacia shut the door and then looked left and right to make sure nobody was watching and did a little dance.

She would get to waltz with him! And order him around like a servant!

Just wait until she told Ackers.

The woman herself emerged from the stairwell as Stacia hurried toward it. “Ah, I was looking for you.”

The maid rolled her eyes. “Lord. What does she want now?”