Page 31 of No Ordinary Lady

“Yes, of course I do. I’m old and throw away nothing of beauty. But so many of my gowns are wasted in the countryside unless you’re willing to stand out.”

Marian frowned. “Why would you not want to stand out?”

“The audience disapproves.” Mrs. Nolan shook her head. “My dear, I’ve much to teach you about the demands made on a proper lady, it’s not at all the life it seems.”

Marian wasn’t sure she needed to know more, but she could humor the old woman for a few days. After all, her stay was only temporary. “Are you sure about this?”

“Never once have I doubted my instincts about young people. That’s how I chose Mr. Nolan to marry, and why I encouraged my daughter to fall for his good friend. I saw the same spark in him I see between you and my grandson tonight.”

“It’s just lust,” Marian refuted quietly. “It happens all the time.”

The old lady laughed. “My grandson never stutters in front of others unless he’s around a woman he really cares about. Just as I don’t swoon unless there’s a good reason to dust off my old acting skills to cause a distraction.”

Marian narrowed her eyes, suspicion dawning. “Was it all an act?”

“If you stay, you might find out,” Mrs. Nolan teased. “Mrs. Paul, put my new companion in the room across the hall for convenience’s sake. I’ll inform my daughter of my new hire myself in the morning.”

“She won’t like it,” Mrs. Paul warned Granny.

“She never accepts change easily, but she will not disobey her mother,” Mrs. Nolan promised. “As for my grandson, well, we will see what she does to his plans when temptation remains so close to hand.”

Marian blushed, though she was surprised she even could. Granny must be daft to want her to tempt her grandson away from making a proper match.

But none of that changed Marian’s decision to stay. She had the promise of payment, new gowns to wear and safety for the time being. Provided Crossman never looked for her here, Marian would be extremely comfortable indeed.

Her eyes settled on the sparkle of gems across the old lady’s fingers, and she heaved a sigh. She’d fallen in with wealthy people, and wealthy people rarely had any sense.

A bit of flattery and a few tall tales could see Marian walk out of this place with more than Mrs. Nolan intended to give in the end. She would probably not even have to steal it. Mrs. Nolan was too much like her grandson. Being too kind and too generous to a stranger would be her undoing, as it had been to him.

“If you’ll come with me, Miss Trill. I’ll show you to your new room,” Mrs. Paul murmured, gesturing Marian toward the door. “Mrs. Nolan needs her rest. I’ll arrange your bath for the morning.”

Chapter Eight

Daniel froze with one foot in midair, halfway up the stone staircase as he heard women talking.

“Now that is something I have trouble believing actually happened,” Granny exclaimed loudly. “Did you really spend a night on the roof of the queen’s carriage inside a trunk?”

Daniel put his foot down as Marian answered, “Well, I couldn’t avoid it. The queen’s men were sleeping all around me, and inside the carriage, too. I recall it was an oddly comfortable night, sleeping on her gowns inside the trunk.”

“So young to be so daring. However did you escape?”

“Someone brought bread for their breakfast, and they all scurried after it,” Marian said, laughing. “I climbed down unobserved while they were stuffing their mouths but with nothing to show for my long night spent in captivity except for one lone garment in hand. I slipped out through the broken window I’d come in through and fled. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wear what I’d taken in the end. The garment was ten sizes too big for me and it made no sense to keep it.”

Granny laughed uproariously. “Now that I can believe. There’s not much of you, is there?”

“I’m still hoping I’ll grow taller one day,” Marian said, with a good-natured laugh.

“I always hoped for that too, but it never happened to me,” Granny confessed.

Daniel didn’t think there was anything wrong with a woman of short stature. Marian more than made up for any lack of height with her bold personality, the same way his granny and mother did.

The conversation died down and Daniel continued on a few more steps and peeked through the open door cautiously. Marian was sitting in his drawing room, sipping tea, and she seemed to be sorting through embroidery threads spread across her lap. She offered an assortment of colors to Granny to choose from.

It was clear Marian had improved her wardrobe considerably from the day they met. At first glance, one might think she’d always belonged in a grand house wearing her pretty orange grown, but he also thought he recognized what she wore. Hadn’t that gown once belonged to his granny?

He should have known better than to trust Granny to keep her word and show Marian the way out the door and off the estate this morning. But he was better prepared to deal with the problem of Marian once and for all. She should not still be here.

He forced himself to move forward, eyes locked on Marian’s pretty face, flushed from laughter, and tried to find something to dislike in her manner. Unfortunately for him, she was still so damn appealing that he found himself tongue-tied again. Something that embarrassed him still.