Page 75 of The Seaside Homecoming
“I had no idea. You may have the dress. I shall change and give it to you.”
Sonali shook her head and threw up her hands. “What would I do with it? Vanita wore English clothes. I do not.”
Claire studied the woman’s agitated profile. “I hate to see you so unhappy. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Leave.”
Claire’s head jerked back as though slapped, and she chastised herself for inviting the rebuke. She turned to go, but Sonali called her back.
“No, wait. That was unkind.”
Claire took a deep breath to summon self-control, then managed to speak calmly and gently. “Do you regret coming here with the Hammonds? Do you wish to go somewhere else?”
“If I am unhappy here, I should just leave—is that it? Easy for you to say. You are brave and white, with the means to travel. You want me gone.”
“No! I am only trying to understand why you stay if you are so miserable.” She lowered her voice. “You mentioned you ... admired Mr. Hammond. But if that is not to be...?”
“Of course I stay. An unmarried woman, alone? A foreign woman, with little money of my own. What else can I do? Whenhe asked me to come with them to England, I thought...” She shook her head almost violently. “He says I misunderstood. He only asked me to remain for Mira’s sake. To help keep alive memories of heramma, whom I knew so well.”
“You are given a generous wage, I believe? Or allowance, if you prefer the more genteel term.”
“I do,” she snapped. “Yes, I have been paid to care for Mira so he can climb his precious hills and hide away in his study. I have made his life easy. Too easy. He uses me when it is convenient.”
Claire winced. “Please don’t phrase it like that. If someone overheard, it could be misconstrued. I have never seen him treat you with anything other than respect and propriety. Do you say otherwise?”
“No. Despite my efforts, he is cold to me. You alone seem to warm his blood. Yet I wonder, Miss Summers, if you are truly the ‘respectable female’ he advertised for?”
Claire stilled. Had the woman somehow discovered her secret? “What do you mean?”
Sonali raised her head high and looked down her long nose. “What truly ‘respectable’ lady would answer such an advertisement? Would live under the same roof as an unmarried man and do such menial tasks, and not possess her own sewing things!” She turned and stormed off.
When Miss Patel had gone, Claire took several more calming breaths and prayed for both the woman and herself. She stepped into the hall and drew back abruptly to find Mr. Hammond and Mira standing there. How much had he overheard?
He tucked his chin and gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry. I did not intend to eavesdrop, but I heard some of that as we came downstairs.”
She nodded in acknowledgment, wondering what he would say.
He gestured his daughter into the morning room. “I seeMrs. Ballard has made your favorite muffins. Why not go in and start with one of those? We shall join you in a moment.”
Mira hurried to comply.
When she had gone, he heaved a sigh. “I did not realize I was inviting trouble when I asked Sonali to come here with us. Nor that she believed I might marry her after we’d both mourned a suitable period. I have tried, gently, to discourage her.”
“You knew she hoped...?”
He grimaced. “I noticed the gradual change a few months after Vanita died. I pretended not to notice her hints at first. Lingering after dinner, standing closer than before, the seemingly accidental touches in passing or when handing Mira into my arms. I hoped it would pass when she realized I did not reciprocate. It has not.”
Another grimace. “Perhaps it was selfish of me to ask her to remain for Mira’s sake. Yet Mira had already lost her mother. I did not want her to lose Sonali as well.”
“I understand.”
“If she were any other servant, treating others rudely as she does, I would have dismissed her long ago. But she was Vanita’s friend. And as far as what she said about you ... I can only apologize on her behalf and assure you that her bitter words reflect poorly on herself, not you.”
Claire managed a halfhearted smile and excused herself, saying she would go down and see if the coffee was ready.
As she walked away, she wondered how quickly his gallantry would fade if he knew there was at least some truth to the woman’s words.
After Sonali’s explosive reaction to seeing her in one of Vanita’s dresses, Claire once again looked through the pile of folded fabric and considered making a new dress for herself. The project still seemed too daunting.
