Page 36 of My Highland Rogue
“But he left you,” Lauren said.
“Yes, he left me, but he returned.”
Nor was she going to let him leave her again.
“It’s time for bed,” she said. “Sweet dreams, Lauren.”
Lauren reached out and placed her hand against Jennifer’s cheek. “Don’t be foolish, Jennifer.”
Jennifer only nodded. There wasn’t much she could say. If she went to Gordon’s room now, everyone would know about it in the morning.
Reluctantly, she left the earl’s suite, nodded to the footman, then headed back to her rooms.
Chapter Fourteen
Jennifer had taken care with her appearance, wearing a dark red dress the same color as a thread in the Adaire tartan. She hadn’t put up her hair, but instead kept it down like she’d worn it all those years ago.
Before she left to find Gordon, Jennifer knocked on Lauren’s door.
Lauren was in bed, and the minute Jennifer entered the room, her sister-in-law held out her hand.
“It’s time, Jennifer. This time it really is.”
Mrs. Farmer was bustling about, telling the maid where to put the stack of linens and preparing to help Lauren out of bed.
When Jennifer questioned the midwife, Mrs. Farmer turned an irritated look on her.
“This is the ancestral bed, Lady Jennifer. Would you have us ruin the mattress with blood?”
Jennifer looked at Lauren, who returned her glance with wide eyes.
“It’s important that the countess be moved to a chair until we can ready her bed.”
She nodded and helped Lauren to a chair not far away.
“The woman terrifies me, Jennifer,” she whispered. “She always has. I do wish my father hadn’t hired her.”
It was a bit late to be concerned with Mr. Campbell’s arrangements.
“What if she’s sent word to him?”
“I thought he was still in America,” Jennifer said.
Lauren shook her head. “He told me that he’d be here, and whenever my father says he’ll be somewhere, he’s there. He never breaks his word. Never.”
The two women looked at each other.
It wouldn’t look good if Lauren’s father arrived at Adaire Hall before her husband. Jennifer could just imagine his reaction if Harrison wasn’t here.
However, the man had been more than willing to marry his daughter to an earl. Or perhaps she’d misjudged Mr. Campbell’s desire for a title. Or, since Lauren hadn’t made any secret of the fact that she adored Harrison, maybe her father had consented to the match simply to make his daughter happy.
Mrs. Farmer and the maid were stripping the bed down to the mattress. Once that was done, several sheets were folded in half lengthwise and stretched across the width of the mattress before being tucked in on the sides. The middle part of the bed was covered in lengths of toweling before an older set of sheets was placed over everything.
Another troubling detail was that Mrs. Farmer had a length of sheet tied to each of the two upper bedposts. She didn’t say what they were for,but Jennifer had an idea that Lauren would be using them before her labor was over.
“We need a comfortable nightgown for the countess. Do you have something older yet still serviceable?”
Jennifer doubted it, since her sister-in-law had arrived last year with seven trunks of new clothes, most of them made for her in Paris.
