it clear it was a beautiful space and Jillian had been eager to see it in person. But the idea of venturing anywhere alone with Grace was much less appealing.
Jillian eyed the woman carefully, trying to keep the wariness off her face. Grace was as impossible to read as ever, something Jillian was starting to find more and more unnerving. Jillian suspected Grace wasn’t the only one who’d known about the passageways. Chances were everyone at Sutton Hall who’d worked here for years had. But Grace was the only one who’d known for sure, and who’d lied about it, and Jillian couldn’t help but view her with extra suspicion.
Not that she could afford to show it, of course. She mustered a smile. “That sounds great. Thanks.” There was no way to decline the offer, and no plausible reason she could. If anything, this might give her a chance to crack the woman.
“Thank you for breakfast, Rosie,” Jillian said. She started to rise from the table, picking up her plate as she did.
“Leave it,” Rosie ordered, gesturing toward the plate. “I’ll get it.” She glanced back at the windows, her gaze far away as she took in the rain, as though she’d already forgotten Jillian was there.
Doing as Rosie had asked, Jillian followed Grace out of the kitchen, through the dining room and back out into the main hall.
The ballroom was on the second floor in the west wing. Jillian fell into step beside Grace as she led the way up the staircase. She could imagine partygoers in all their finery making this very walk, through the entryway, up the curving staircase and on to the ballroom.
“I’m sorry about yesterday. With the tunnels,” Jillian added when Grace shot her a look. “I hope I didn’t get you into trouble.”
“It’s my own fault. I should have realized that with so many new people here now it would be impossible to keep some things private.”
Jillian couldn’t help but wonder if Grace had more in mind than just the tunnels when talking about things she’d wanted to keep private. “You didn’t think even the Suttons needed to know about them?”
“It truly never occurred to me to tell them before. I’d all but forgotten about the passageways. No one’s used them in years. They were hardly needed when Mr. Sutton was alive and there were only four of us living here.”
Jillian honestly couldn’t tell if she believed her. Before she could decide, they’d reached the second floor. Grace didn’t slow for an instant, immediately moving down the corridor.
“After all those years of it just being the four of you, it must be strange for you having people like me coming in and being given the run of the place.” Out of the corner of her eye, Jillian carefully watched Grace’s reaction to the subject.
There was none. Not a single muscle moved on her face. “Sutton Hall is a magnificent building,” she said. “It really should be shared with people. It deserves to be better known.”
“You really do love this place.”
Grace nodded. “I do,” she said dispassionately.
“You must have been relieved the Suttons decided to keep you on.”
For the first time, a trace of emotion cracked the woman’s cool facade, the flash so brief Jillian wasn’t sure what it was. Irritation? Anger? Pain? “Yes. This has been my home for so long I can’t imagine where else I could go. Mr. and Ms. Sutton have been quite generous to allow me to stay.”
“But that doesn’t make it any easier having new people come in and take over a house that feels more like yours than theirs, does it?”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” She smiled slightly, with a trace of sadness. It was the first genuine emotion Jillian could remember seeing from the woman, and made her seem much more human. In an instant, Jillian’s perspective shifted and it was as if she was seeing Grace with new eyes. Outwardly the woman projected cool competence, but beneath that chilly exterior was a real woman with a deep well of sadness.
Even as Jillian felt a twinge of sympathy, the sad smile began to fade, the woman’s mask falling back into place. “Things change, and not everything works out the way we like. And we all have no choice but to adjust to that. I suppose the biggest mistake one can make is to try to hold on to something that can’t be kept.”
Before Jillian could decide how to interpret that, they stopped in front of a set of