Page 7 of Falling for a Footman

Four

Damnation! This wasjust what James needed. A doe-eyed daughter of a duke making calves’ eyes at him. Wait, there was something wrong with that sentence but no matter, James had no time to make up sentences that was the least bit eloquent. He was already hurrying away from Lady Charlotte’s room and down the stairs to help carry more of the family’s luggage.

Who would have thought that being a footman required so much strength? He had believed that he would mostly be standing around, pulling out chairs and opening doors. The last week had showed him that there was significantly more work to the role than he had expected. He had already started to question Harrowby’s idea to have him pose as a footman. He understood the need to be able impersonate practically anyone in order to obtain the information you needed, but there had to be a limit somewhere.

And what could he do about Lady Charlotte’s doeish calf-eyes? Having to ward off the maids was one thing. Several had indicated that they would be interested in coming to his bed and if he had been younger and the incident with Mrs. Fuller had not happened in the peninsular, he might be tempted to take one of them up on their offer. Harrowby had been right when he had teased him that he was too handsome to pose as a footman. If Lady Charlotte took more of an interest in him, it could become a serious problem for him.

“On three,” William mumbled in a strain voice as he crouched by the duchess’s chest in the gravel outside. He counted, they lifted and started the long walk up the stairs to the duke and duchess’ suite.

Well, Lady Charlotte would certainly not be the first young lady to take an interest in a member of the staff. James had been to more than one house party and ball where he had seen young ladies cast badly disguised glances at the bottom or thighs of the male servants. He just hoped that the duke and duchess could see the humor in her interest. Since they knew who he was, at least they did not have to fear that he would elope with their daughter in the hopes that the duke would still hand over her dowry.

And being eyed by a beautiful young woman was certainly not the most unpleasant sensation, although it did make it more difficult when he hoped to blend in with the other members of the staff. If there was one thing he had learned during his week as a footman, it was that the staff knew everything both about what went on between the members of the family and between the other members of the staff. Well, almost everything. No one seemed to know who among them was the thief.

James gave a sigh of relief as he put down the chest in the dressing room in the ducal suite. The room had been empty when they entered, but as they emerged into the sitting room of the suite, the duke and duchess were there. William quickly made a low bow and James belatedly followed suit. James’s heart sped up a bit as he raised his head again and looked at the floor in front of the duke’s feet as he had been instructed to by Mr. Curtis, the butler. He was not to look the duke or duchess in the eye and thus could not see whether they recognized him or not.

When he had met the duke at his parents’ house in London, the duke had assured James that they would be able to act as if they had never met him. From the duke’s a bit aloof manner James suspected that the duke would at least be able to. He was less certain about the duchess whom he had only greeted a couple of times at different parties when he was very young.

The duke and duchess gave the merest recognition of them being there and then dismissed them. James and William hurried downstairs to carry more luggage up. Luckily, Kenny and Jeremy had been tasked with carrying Lady Lucy and the duke’s chests upstairs, meaning that there were only the smaller ones of the three youngest children left as well as that of the servants.

“Do you like working for the duke?” James asked as they hurried down the dark service stairs at the end of the hallway. William walked ahead of him and was able to walk much faster on the narrow steps. James had not realized it before, but his feet were used to wider steps.

“He is a very generous master,” William answered. It sounded a bit rehearsed to James, but what else could the man say? James had only been there a week and they hardly confided their struggles in each other.

“Yes, I understand that he pays better than many others,” James allowed.

This was something that Harrowby had informed him of. James had only three servants in his household and had simply asked his father’s man of business, what he usually paid the marquis’s servants, and then paid them the same. Perhaps he should look into how much they actually made when he had finished the assignment.

“It’s not just that.” William turned slightly towards him as they reached the ground floor but kept walking at a brisk pace through the hallway with doors to the kitchen, the servants’ quarters, and the scullery. He lowered his voice as they passed the doors and let James catch up with him. “He is also very generous with our food and clothing. If we accidentally break something, it is usually not taken out of our wages... You are very lucky that Mr. Curtis took you on,” he concluded and sent James a wink.

Mr. Curtis had been dissatisfied with his performance as a footman from the beginning. He had grumbled more than once that if it had not been by the expressed orders of the duke, he would never have hired James. When they were in the same room, James constantly felt Mr. Curtis’s eyes on him. The tall thin man had a way of looking down at James even though they were about the same height. His staring made James feel that the butler was able to see right through him and he constantly had to check himself in order to make sure that he acted the role.

At first, James had thought that maybe Mr. Curtis was the thief and the reason he was watching James so zealously was that he was afraid James might catch him. He had soon learned however that Mr. Curtis had been hired by the duke’s father and had been in the family’s employ for more than thirty years. It seemed unlikely that he would risk his position by stealing, but of course James could not rule it out.

Over the past seven days he had formed the opinion that Mr. Curtis was probably watching him because his work was his pride, including presenting the duke with the servants of the upmost quality – and that was certainly not James at the moment – no matter how hard he tried.

“Yes, I feel very fortunate,” James answered William since his remark seemed to demand a response.

They exited into the sun of the driveway in front of the house. The sun was shining from a clear blue sky and James relished the feeling of it on his skin. He had not spent as much time indoors as he had the past week since he had been ill with a very severe case of the flu as an adolescent.

He had always thought of himself as a city person, he certainly liked the delights of the city, but being restricted to being inside almost constantly was proving more and more difficult and only straining on his nerves along with having to pose as a footman and finding a thief among a group of people who simply seemed to be doing their job.

“How was your former employer?” William asked as he picked up two trunks with ease. James did the same and even though he could carry them, he doubted he made it look as effortless as William did. “Was it the marquis of Riplingham?” The other footman went on as he walked back towards the servant’s entrance.

They had carried the chests in through the main entrance and up the main stairs since they were too wide to carry through the servant stairs. The trunks were not apparently, although it seemed that it would be a tight fit.

“Yes, it was the marquis,” James answered. “He is a generous employer as well.”

He hoped that it was true of his father. William might know some of his father’s servants from when he followed the duke and duchess to London and if James’s father was known as a cheapskate, James would have just been caught in an outright lie. He did not believe that his father would consciously underpay his servants, but Riplingham was a large marquisate and his father had people to take care of paying his servants. He held his breath as he waited for William’s reply.

“Then why did you leave?” William asked as he turned sideways to be able to walk up the stairs. He did not sound the least bit strained as he did so.

James was glad that he and Harrowby had created an elaborate enough backstory for him to not fall through on these sorts of questions. They had chosen the marquis as his former employer, since James knew at least some of the servants there which made it less likely that he would give himself away.

“My sister and her family moved here. Her husband is with the militia. She is the only family I have, and I wanted to be close to them. I was very fortunate that I was able to make the transfer,” James explained and hoped that he had said just enough to satisfy William’s interest and not too much to make him more curious.

Walking up the narrow stairs with the suitcases was not easy and they ceased talking as they made their way to the second-floor landing. When they reached the first-floor landing however, William stopped abruptly, almost making James bump into him.

“Oh, Peggy... I mean Miss Walker. I did not see you,” William blurted in a voice that was a bit flustered.

“Do you need to enter here?” Miss Walker asked above him without acknowledging what William had just said. Not in a way that was rude but in a way that spoke of them knowing each other well. James supposed that they might be friends; they had served together for years.

“No, these go to the nursery,” William explained and lifted the trunks. James had to fight not to make a strained sound as he tightened his hands on the trunks. He would never again take for granted what he packed when he was not carrying the trunk himself.

“Carry on then,” Miss Walker stated almost cheerfully.

William finally moved and James was happy to follow. Somehow it seemed easier to carry the heavy suitcases when he was moving. He smiled and nodded at Miss Walker who stood back on the narrow first-floor landing to let them pass. She was a short, slender woman with dark curls under her white cap and perceptive dark eyes. She was not pretty, but her dark colors made her noticeable. She had arrived today with the family and James had no idea what she was like. He smiled as he greeted her, but only received a nod in return.

When he heard her walk down the stairs and exit into the servant’s hallway, he wanted to ask William about her. He thought of asking a neutral question like whether it was Miss Walker that was Lady Charlotte’s lady’s maid (even though James knew that it was). But the nagging feeling that William might have caught Lady Charlotte looking at him, stopped him. He certainly did not want William to think that he had any interest in the duke’s eldest daughter.