Shattered Dreams (5 page)

He tried
to soften his words; he really did, but could find no other way to
impart the bad news.

If at
all possible, she grew even paler, and he wondered briefly if she
was going to faint on him.

Tilly
stared at him in horror. It took her a moment to absorb what he had
just said.

“
But it’s there, on the letter,” she stammered, and she
pointed to the parchment he held. “It says that I have been given
the job as a housekeeper, and should come here at my earliest
convenience,” she finished weakly.

Harry
was already shaking his head. “I am sorry, but I wouldn’t engage
any housekeeper I didn’t meet with first. No employer would,” he
assured her gently. “Most employees have interviews first, and are
then offered a job.”

He
wondered if she even had any kind of previous employment
experience.

“
You seem too young to be a housekeeper,” he declared
thoughtfully when it appeared that she was struggling to keep her
tears at bay.

Tilly
tipped her chin up. “I have been a housekeeper to Lady Attingham,
at Attingham House, in Lincolnshire, for the last three years,” she
replied proudly.

“
How old are you?” Harry challenged.

He quite
liked the rather spiky side to her. It hinted that there was far
more to this young woman than timidity and a life of service. She
had spirit and backbone, and he liked that in her, especially right
now because that brief flash of fire in her eyes had helped to
eradicate the worst of the paleness in her cheeks.

Tilly
frowned at him. She wanted to tell him that it was rude for a
gentleman to ask a lady her age, but reminded herself that she
needed this man to employ her in some way, so couldn’t afford to
offend him.

“
I am five and twenty,” she replied firmly. The ‘why’ remained
unspoken, but hovered in the air between them.

“
Why are you looking for a new job?”

Although
a part of him wanted to hustle her out of the door before he did
something disgraceful, he was intrigued, and just had to know more
of her story.

Who was
she? Why was someone as beautiful as Tilly not married with a
house-full of children?

“
My previous employer passed away suddenly. One of her friends
suggested that I apply for the position of housekeeper
here.”

Harry
thought about the advertisement they had put into the local
broadsheet in Tooting Mallow to lure the Dandridges’ to work at the
Rectory. Had the woman seen it, and recommended it to Tilly, to try
to help her? Was this really an innocent
misunderstanding?

That
being the case, where had Tilly’s letter gone, and why had someone
replied on his behalf with a bag of lies? He quickly dismissed any
idea of this being an ‘innocent’ mistake, and turned his attention
back to the woman seated opposite; who looked about to shatter into
a thousand pieces.

“
You said that you wrote here to enquire about the
job?”

“
Yes,” Tilly sighed.

“
The woman who told you about the job; what’s her
name?”

“
Mrs Bolsworthy.”

“
Is she from around here, do you know?”

Tilly
hesitated. “I don’t know,” she whispered.

Harry
shook his head. “I have never heard of her.” He pierced Tilly with
a hard look. “What kind of job did you do for Lady
Attingham?”

“
I was her housekeeper.”

His
brows lifted in astonishment. “Really?”

Tilly
felt a little defensive. “My mother was the housekeeper. I grew up
at her side, and learned the job through her. Unfortunately, she
passed away a few years ago. Because I already knew what I was
doing, Lady Attingham gave me the position.”

“
Then Lady Attingham died, and you needed to find something
else,” Harry murmured thoughtfully.

Tilly
nodded, but couldn’t think of anything else to say to him. She felt
as though the chaos she had encountered back in the coaching yard
had remained with her because her thoughts had scattered in all
directions, and now her mind refused to settle on anything that was
of any real use to her.

The only
thing that mattered right now was one horrifying fact: there was no
job in Tooting Mallow.

Panic
immediately began to set in, and she stared at the floor while she
battled tears.

What was
she going to do?

Where
was she going to go?

She
looked at him and swallowed harshly. “There is no job?” She asked
again, just in case she had misheard him.

Harry
slowly shook his head.

CHAPTER
THREE

When he
couldn’t stand the desolate look on her face a moment longer, Harry
poured her a liberal shot of brandy. He pressed it into her
reluctant fingers and then leaned his hips against the desk so that
he could study her.

“
When did the letter arrive?” Harry knew that he had to gain
as much information as he could from her while she was there. Once
she had left, she would go – somewhere. He couldn’t help but wonder
what was going to happen to her now, and frowned while he waited
for her to answer.

“
Last week,” she replied. “We were told that we had to close
Attingham House because the new owner didn’t want to live there. It
has been put up for sale, you see, so we were all out of work. The
timing of this job was perfect.” She looked at him sadly. “Or so I
thought.”

Throughout his time with the Star Elite, Harry had become a
fairly good judge of character. To him, it was plain that this
delightful woman before him, who had so unwittingly turned his life
on its head, had absolutely nothing to do with what the Dandridges’
were up to.

If it
wasn’t bad enough that they were trying to steal money from him,
they had already stolen various ornaments from around the house.
Now, for some reason only known to them, they had also stolen the
use of his seal, and written a fraudulent note to Tilly to offer
her a job that didn’t exist.

Harry
took one look at the panic she tried, and failed to hide, and
promised himself that when, not if, he found the proof of the
Dandridges’ crimes, they would feel the long arm of the law, and
experience their dreams being shattered too.

His
heart went out to the young woman before him and, although logic
warned him to keep his distance, he simply wasn’t callous enough to
turn a blind eye to her predicament.

“
Can you tell me how you got to hear about the job? I mean,
who gave you the actual address?” He knelt on the floor before her,
and looked at the tears that hovered on her lashes. Thankfully, she
hadn’t succumbed to a fit of the vapours yet, and for that he was
extremely grateful. The last thing he wanted as a hysterical female
on his hands, so he tried to keep his gaze as reassuring as
possible while he waited for her to reply.

“
One day, about a week before Lady Attingham passed away, one
of her friends arrived, a Mrs Bolsworthy. I was showing her out
because the butler was busy with Lady Attingham. Mrs Bolsworthy
told me that she didn’t think Lady Attingham had long to go because
her health was so poor. She, Mrs Bolsworthy, said that if I found
myself out of a job, I should consider taking the job here. She
handed me a note with your name and address on before she
left.”

“
So when Lady Attingham passed away a few days later, you did
exactly as Mrs Bolsworthy suggested and wrote to me.”

Tilly
nodded. “In my letter, I explained what I had been doing at
Attingham House, and said that Mrs Bolsworthy had instructed me to
write.” She pointed to the parchment still on Harry’s desk. “I
received that about ten days later.”

Harry
shook his head. So the Dandridges’ had been helping themselves to
his mail as well? He set that matter to one side for now, and
forced his attention back to the current problem -
Tilly.

“
What was wrong with Lady Attingham, do you know?”

Tilly
shook her head. “One minute she was fine. The next thing we know,
she took poorly. She faded really quickly.”

Harry
frowned at that.

“
Had you known this Mrs Bolsworthy long?”

“
I didn’t know her at all,” Tilly replied. “She was Lady
Attingham’s friend.”

“
I am sorry,” Harry sighed. “I meant; had you seen this Mrs
Bolsworthy at the house much, prior to Lady Attingham taking
ill?”

Tilly
shook her head. “No. She certainly wasn’t a regular visitor at
Attingham House in the years that I grew up there.”

“
How many times did she visit Lady Attingham before she passed
away?”

“
Oh, about three or four times over the period of about six
months. Why?” Tilly frowned at the rather thoughtful look on his
face.

Harry
didn’t answer her for a moment, and studied the rug beneath his
feet while he contemplated how much to tell her.

“
Did Lady Attingham ever seem worried, or distressed after Mrs
Bolsworthy’s visits?”

Tilly
thought about that for a moment.

“
Not really, although I didn’t serve her, Harrold did.” She
noted the blank look on his face, and explained. “Harrold was Lady
Attingham’s personal butler. He never mentioned to me that Lady
Attingham was distressed in any way.”

He
picked the parchment up off his desk and studied it. “When you
received this, you hopped onto the next post chaise as instructed,
and came straight here.”

“
I had no choice. If I don’t have a job, I have no home. It’s
as simple as that. Lady Attingham’s solicitor instructed us all
that we had to find alternative employment.” She sighed and looked
at the floor sadly. “I used all of my savings, and the last of my
wages, to get here.”

Harry
watched a shiver sweep through her, but suspected that it had
nothing to do with a chill. He studied her closely, and knew from
the look of pure honesty in her eyes that what she had just told
him was the truth. He mentally cursed whichever Dandridge was
involved, and tried to decide what to do now.

“
I am sorry. It is just a shock.” She lifted her worried gaze
to his. “Who would do such a thing? Why? I have come all the way
from Lincolnshire for the job. It’s cruel.”

Harry
had to agree, and wished he could give her some answers.

He could
see no reason to mention the fact that it was the Dandridges’ who
had brought her here, because then she would start to ask him
questions he couldn’t answer. To him, it was obvious that the
Dandridges’ were responsible because they were the only ones who
had access to the house, his mail, and the seal in his desk
drawer.

“
I am just sorry it has happened to you,” he replied
quietly.

Especially someone so young and beautiful,
he thought. He studied the fine sweep of her
brows over eyes that seemed to draw him in. The world-weary sadness
he saw hidden in those beautiful moss green orbs made him wonder
just how harsh her life had been.

“
Do you not have family in -” he squinted at her as he tried
to remember, “- Lincolnshire?”

Tilly
shook her head. “The only relative I had was my mother. She has
passed away.”

“
So you are all alone,” he murmured thoughtfully. He didn’t
mean to emphasize just how desperate her situation was, and cursed
his stupidity when she physically winced at the harshness of his
words.

He
suddenly wished that he had kept his mouth shut, but rather
suspected that if she had no family to turn to in her hour of need,
then she most probably didn’t have the funds necessary to get
another post chaise somewhere else. He struggled to know how best
to help her. She probably wouldn’t be inclined to accept charity.
Nor was he in a position to offer her a place to stay until she
found work somewhere else because he couldn’t risk her presence in
his house damaging his investigation. The last thing he needed was
to tip the Dandridges’ off that he was on to them. He studied her
thoughtfully.

Tilly
felt a cold hand of something undefinable sweep down her back and,
for the first time in her entire life, she felt vulnerable, alone,
and very, very, frightened.

In spite
of her dilemma, she was painfully aware that this man, in spite of
his kindness toward her, was as much of a victim of this cruel
prank as she was. He had been minding his own business, only to be
visited by a complete stranger who expected him to give her a job.
Aware that he was studying her, she straightened her shoulders, and
looked at him a little defiantly while she tried to quash the small
voice that silently screamed at her to ask him for help.

“
I am fine,” she declared firmly, not entirely sure whether
she was trying to reassure herself, or him. She glanced around the
room and wondered if she could get out of there before she started
to cry.

“
Look, I know it is none of my business, but I wonder what you
plan to do now. I can assure you that I didn’t write the letter you
received. However, because it has been sent in my name, I cannot
help but feel responsible.” He pierced her with a warning look that
made her shiver anew. “I promise you here and now, Tilly that I
will find out who sent you this letter, and they will be suitably
dealt with.”