it seemed a wonder that he was the same man she had encountered before. She wondered anew at just what had actually convinced him to wed her.
Well, she had no desire to have married him either – or his brother. She had been a pawn in a game played by their fathers who were supposed to love and protect their children, but who actually were only looking out for themselves.
She picked up her candle, eager now to return to her room, for the sympathy that was rising within her was causing her to nearly forgive the way Edmund had treated her earlier. He might not have wished to have married her, she reminded herself, but he should still act the gentleman.
Well, all she could do now was to get some sleep and wait to see what the morrow might bring.
As she returned to her room, she couldn’t shake the sense that someone was watching her.
It’s just the house, she told herself, attempting to be reasonable.
But that didn’t stop her from running as fast as she could through the door, slamming it behind her, and jumping under the covers as though they would save her from all the unknown that threatened.
It wasn’t reasonable.
But it was instinct. She had relied upon it when it told her to marry Edmund. She could only hope that she could still trust it. Because right now, it was all that she had.
Chapter 5
Hannah decided that if no one was going to provide her with a tour of her new home, she would just have to embark on one herself. She began in the great hall, where they had found themselves the previous day. Only now, with exploration in mind, she noticed the dragons carved into the arch-braced trusses above, as well as the service wing that was connected to it.
“The little parlor is through here.”
Hannah jumped, bringing her hand to her throat as she turned to find a middle-aged man standing in the doorway across the room. He was rather attractive, his hair a sandy brown just beginning to turn to gray.
“You startled me,” she said, as her pulse began to return to its normal beat.
“My apologies,” he said, though he didn’t seem particularly contrite. “I’m Falton, the butler. Well, butler, groom, footman, gardener – all except housekeeper, cook, and maid, which falls to Mrs. Ackerman.”
“Are there no other servants?” Hannah asked wonderingly.
“No,” Falton said, shaking his head. “Lord Edmund primarily takes care of himself and does much of the work as well. Doesn’t want many about.”
“I see,” Hannah murmured. “Do you happen to know where my husband is at the moment?”
A ghost of a smile played at Falton’s lips. “Not particularly. If it’s not too forward, my lady, I must say that your arrival was certainly a surprise to us.”
“To me as well,” Hannah said, considering that it was Edmund’s place to tell his staff the story of their marriage. “I don’t suppose you could provide me with a tour?”
“I’d be happy to,” Falton said with a nod, holding a hand out toward the room he had named the parlor. “This way.”
Hannah followed him into the small room. Painted paneling that looked as though it had been part of the house for all of its centuries covered one wall, and she walked closer toward it in order to get a better look.
“We believe it was painted to look like marble,” Falton said. “The drawings are crude, but they tell the story of Susanna and the Elders from the Apocrypha.”
“Incredible,” she said, and it was. Hannah tried to picture the hand that had painted these so many years ago, wondering what joy they had found out of this painting upon the wall. She followed Falton through the sparsely furnished parlor, passing another staircase to an adjoining room.
“This is the withdrawing room,” he said, and Hannah stood in the doorway, shocked to find the room completely stark, but for the carved wooden paneling and the wooden ceiling with molded coffering. “Lord Edmund doesn’t see the need for an additional room in use,” Falton said, “so this remains empty.”
“What is through this door?” she asked, crossing over to it, but Falton hesitated.
“Perhaps, my lady—”
But Hannah had already opened the door, her eyes widening when she glimpsed the room within.
Bookshelves covered the walls, with one side nearly bare but for the sizeable bay window with a rainbow of stained glass that would be beautiful when the sun shone through it. A chimneypiece was decorated with female caryatids and the