it met the house on this side. Not an entrance or an opening, but there was a faint, muddied spot in front of it that suggested use. Surely the family didn’t expect the servants to enter through the hedges?
With nowhere else to go, she plodded forward. Patience was thin, but as she eyed the slight opening, she wasn’t sure she would fit. She pushed one hand through first and then her arm. When her shoulder entered the hedge, the fabric on her sleeve caught on a thorn and pulled. A tearing sound made her heart sink. This was her one dress, her only dress. She stopped and considered her options. She could go home, change, and pretend this never happened. No one ever would have to know that she had run away to try to grow up a bit before being saddled with a husband.
Or she could push forward.
She pushed forward. The tear kept growing, and the thorn that caused it bit into her skin.
A small price to pay for proving Nicholas wrong.
She pushed farther, and more thorns pressed into her back and arms. The price of her pride was going up every second. She winced but was more than halfway through now. She continued on. She was able to push aside the bushes once her arms were both in. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any more tears in her dress. A few minutes more wrestling with the shrubbery and she wriggled her way into the back garden. She took in the large oak trees and manicured flower beds as she rubbed her scratched hands and face. She stared at the back of the large red brick home. There, at last, was a very unobtrusive-looking white door. The servants’ entrance.
She had finally found it. She tucked a stray curl back into her borrowed muslin cap and tugged on her too-short dress.
“What are you doing?” a deep masculine voice asked from behind her.
She spun. A man with sandy blond hair and impeccable clothing stood rigidly at attention, watching her. His shoulders were thick, and he was taller than Nicholas by several inches. He was built like a ruffian, but his clothing was fine, too fine for a footman or groom. Who were all the members of the Woodsworth family? There was General Woodsworth, but this man was much too young to be the general. Not to mention, he wasn’t wearing a uniform. She wracked her brain trying to come up with any memory she had of the general’s family. He had two sons and a daughter, but one of the sons had died in battle at Kabul. The shock of it had hit the whole country, especially since—before that disaster—it was had been a time of relative peace. She knew plenty about General Woodsworth; she felt almost as if she knew him intimately, thanks to her brother’s ramblings about how unforgiving and strict the general was but also how he brought out the best in others through their trials. She knew next to nothing of the rest of the family. But if this was a son, he would have been in the army as well, surely. Perhaps he was a steward or some other person come to do business with the household.
Well, she would never know without asking. She cleared her throat. “I might ask you the same,” she said in her practiced imitation of Rebecca’s accent. “What are you doing here?”
The man pulled a pocket watch from his inner pocket and flipped it open. “It is 11:15. I always walk in the garden at 11:15.”
That was the least helpful answer she had ever received.
He returned his pocket watch to his breast pocket. “And now you know what I’m doing, and yet I still don’t have a clear picture of why you are climbing through our bushes.”
Our bushes? He must live here. He must be the other son then. The one that hadn’t fallen. She had spent so much time plotting how to get here. Why hadn’t she looked into the family?
“I was on my way to the servants’ entrance.”
“Through the bushes?”
“It is quite preposterous, isn’t it? If my brother hadn’t expressly recommended this house to work in, I would turn around and find another place of work.”
He glanced once again between the bushes and her. His frown deepened. “You are looking for work?”
“Yes.”
“Well then, I would suggest removing the leaves from your hair and straightening up. Mrs. Bates only hires the most upstanding staff.”
Patience immediately ran her fingers through her hair.