I sat in the darkened maze for several minutes and wrapped the night around me. I wanted to inscribe every second of what had just happened into my memory. The way his hand inched up my back and traced over each vertebra and sent a shiver racing over my limbs. The heady scent of the jasmine as lassitude seeped through my body. The taste of his lips and tongue as he urged me to play a new game. Every teeny tiny detail had to be etched into recollection before I could rise from the seat, so that I might carry it with me always.
Besides, I needed time for my bones to knit back together and support my weight.
By the time I returned to the car, Stewart was looking for me.
"We've been summoned," he said and we walked back to our gleaming motorcar.
Frank waved us off, and I swear he knew something had happened with the way he winked conspiratorially at me.
The excited chatter on the way home hurt my ears. I tried to block them out, letting my gaze drift over the passing countryside. Thankfully, it was a short ride back to our house. Even so, by the time I climbed from the car, my ears ached as though I had stood too close to a screaming siren.
Elizabeth clapped her hands and congratulated her daughters on a night well done. Apparently the wedding invitations were practically ready to be sent out. She commandeered Alice to help her undress, leaving me to wrangle Charlotte and Louise. It struck me as quite ridiculous. We were in the twentieth century; grown women should be able to undress and climb into bed on their own. Biting my tongue on revolutionary thoughts of overthrowing the aristocracy, I caught discarded items of clothing as the sisters talked non-stop. Or more correctly, Louise talked non-stop, while Charlotte kept her own counsel.
From the few moments I glimpsed, I think Charlotte had caught a suitor or two and was keeping that knowledge close to her chest. Or was she thinking about Hubert, her pen-pal? It didn't matter that Louise was fixated on Seth, she didn't want her sister to have a man of her own. She would ruin Charlotte's chance at happiness just because she could, like the scorpion that couldn't help but sting the frog helping it across the flooded river.
"He just couldn't bear to be parted from me. All night he held my arm, as though he feared I would slip through his grasp like an ethereal goddess." She fanned herself and arched an eyebrow, waiting for us to draw the obvious conclusion.
A giggle bubbled in my throat at Louise's interpretation of the evening and I had to hold it down. I saw him hiding in the maze, trying to escape from the predators. There was no ethereal goddess, only a snake trying to devour a mouse. I coughed and turned my head to hide my laughter. Poor Seth. He probably thought he would have to amputate his arm to escape her clutches.
She droned on and on, thankfully allowing me to work without insulting or slapping me. Soon they were both tucked up in their beds, and I flicked the last light off on my way from the bedroom. Alice emerged from across the hall and shot me a glance. She grabbed my arm and pulled me close.
"Kitchen, now, and spill everything." She dragged me toward the stairs.
My feet ached, and we had to be awake and about our chores in a few all too short hours. "It's after midnight, I just want to crawl into bed."
"Don't be hideous. You were the only one there and I can tell something happened."
Oh, something had happened all right. I touched a hand to my lips. Could she tell that he had embraced me in the maze? That I tasted his lips and my tongue danced with his? Heat flared up my neck. Luckily, Alice still tugged on my hand. One glance backwards and I would have given myself away.
I followed her down the back stairs and we pushed into the darkened room. Magda, Stewart, and Henry all sat around the kitchen table. In the middle of the table was a small frosted cake illustrated with a brilliant yellow daisy smiling from a deep blue sky. A candle stood in the centre of the flower, a tiny flame dancing to an unseen drift of air. Mother loved daisies, and I used to pick bunches of them to place in the vase next to her side of the bed. I froze. Smiles lit their faces.
"Happy birthday," Alice whispered from next to me.
"I thought no one remembered." Moisture dampened my eyes. I would not cry. I would not.
Alice squeezed my hand. "Of course we remembered, we just had to wait until they were abed."
Gruff old Stewart folded me in a brief hug. "Happy birthday, love. It's not every day a girl turns eighteen."
Magda hugged me tight and kissed my cheek. "Happy birthday, Ella. Your mother would have been ever so proud of the woman you have become." She ruffled my hair as only someone who has known you since you wandered around in a nappy can do. Then she set the kettle on the range.
Henry rose and wrapped his arms around me. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek against his shirt. He smelt like the stables, his clothing infused with warm horse and wood smoke. I breathed deep of it until he pulled back. The tiniest smile flicked over his mouth and he nodded. To see him in the moment with us, the glimmer of the boy he once was poking out from deep in his serious gaze, was the greatest gift.
All right, I might cry just a little.
Henry pulled out a chair and pushed me toward my seat.
"Make a wish," Alice said as she pushed the cake closer.
I looked around at my family. A wish was easy, for there was one empty chair amongst us that I wished to see filled. I wished father would wholly return. I held those words in my heart as I blew out the candle. Everyone clapped, and then Stewart cut cake while Magda poured tea. When her back was turned, Henry winked and tipped a small measure from a hip flask into each cup. The fellow really was creeping out of his shell-shocked state this evening.
Alice elbowed me. "So, what happened this evening? Did you see him?"
I broke off a piece of icing and popped it into my mouth. "I may possibly have found him hiding in the maze trying to escape Louise's clutches."
Laughter burst from everyone around the table. Alice's eyes danced with mischief.
"Don't tell Louise that, she fancies her chances as the next duchess. She might choke on her own tongue if she thought you would beat her to it."
My heart stuttered at the thought. Then I looked around. This was where I belonged, in a cosy kitchen, drinking brandy-laced tea with my fellow servants.
"I don't know what you and Frank are planning, but please leave it, Alice. He is a wonderful man and he deserves to find happiness. Don't draw him into any game, you will just hurt both of us."
Alice took my hand and shook it. "No games, honest. Just keep an open mind. Sometimes people don't recognise their match when they see them, and they need a good prodding."
"The duke and the kitchen maid." I laughed. "Alice, you have read one too many romantic novels."
We chatted for another half hour and then said our goodnights to each seek our beds. We had only a couple of hours before we had to rise and begin the day all over again. I contemplated falling to my bed fully dressed because it would save valuable minutes of sleep.
"Nightgown," Alice growled, pointing at the linen garment lying on my pillow before continuing with her bedtime routine.
I heaved a hard-done-by sigh and stripped off my gown in exchange for the cotton shift. At least there was less to remove tonight. I climbed between cool sheets, and Alice blew out our lantern. Electricity was reserved for where our betters lived.
"What happened, Ella? When you sat with him in the maze?" she whispered. We were so close in our room, like two small mice in a snug hole. There was no need for a loud tone. A small shaft of moonlight found our sliver of a window and danced over the rafters.
"He held me in his arms and he kissed me." I couldn't help it, I sighed as the words broke free.
"So he likes you, then?" a soft chuckle came from the other bed.
"He called my eyes breath-stealing beautiful and compared them to a masterpiece stained glass in a great cathedral." She probably thought it sounded a bit daft, but at the time it made my stomach plummet and my toes curl.
"Oh," she whispered.
Well, maybe it didn't sound daft to her either. I curled my toes again as the moment replayed in my mind, the way he said that just before he drew me close and my lips touched his. I might just be a serving girl, but that evening it was as though a magic wand brushed our ceiling, turning it to liquid silver, and I floated above the world.