Page 53 of Lady Edith and the Registry Office
Chapter Nineteen
Edith passed a dreadfulnight and only started feeling somewhat normal again in the wee hours of the morning. She bade Mary to retire, but the girl would not leave her mistress. The maid was snoring softly from her place on the only chair in the room when a tentative knock came at the bedchamber door.
Louisa peeked into the room. “Good morning!”
Edith held a finger up to her lips and shook her head, but it was too late. Mary was already awake.
“Oh, my lady! Excuse my falling asleep in your bedchamber.”
“Not at all, Mary. Hurry along to your bed. I appreciate your sitting with me last night.”
The maid looked ready to drop, but Mary shook her head and replied, “I can’t leave you, my lady.”
“I’ve got Louisa to look after me. Hurry along now. Shoo!”
The maid nodded tiredly and exited the room.
“I’m to wait on you?” Louisa raised a brow.
She merely replied, “You look quite recovered from your stomach distress.”
“I didn’t eat as much as you did.” Louisa frowned. “Shall I send for a breakfast tray?”
The bright sunlight pouring into her bedchamber contradicted the idea that breakfast was still being served. “Perhaps some tea and toast would not go amiss.”
Louisa curtsied with a roll of her eyes. “I will return in a moment, my lady.”
When Louisa had gone, Edith gingerly sat up straighter in the bed. She did feel almost recovered, and her stomach grumbled. “I’m not so sure we should eat much,” she said aloud, patting her abdomen.
Louisa returned to the bedchamber with an armful of news sheets. “Your tray will be along directly. You should see the articles about the card party. There is one in every newspaper.”
Edith remembered she had been determined to read the society pages.
Louisa placed the stack of newspapers beside Edith on the bed. Edith picked up one and turned to the gossip pages. “Oh my! Even Lady Sandhurst was violently ill after eating her supper.”
“That is good for her reputation,” Louisa replied with a grimace. “Could you imagine poisoning all your guests and coming out unscathed? That would be an even greater scandal.”
Despite her blunt way of speaking, Louisa did have a valid point. “Do you know how my father fares this morning?”
“According to one of the kitchen maids, his lordship ate very little of the supper and is feeling quite recovered.” Before Edith could reply, Louisa added, “I asked one of the footmen to inform him that you are feeling much better.”
That was close enough to the truth. Putting down the newspaper she was reading, Edith picked up another one. “The Timesis blaming Lady Sandhurst’s cook. How unkind. We don’t know who might have tainted the food.”
Louisa shrugged. “Of course the cook will be blamed. As Lady Sandhurst is also ill, she is above suspicion.”
Edith wondered how Alicia and her brother fared. After she finished eating and reading the papers, she would send a note to Miss Tilford to inquire after her and the baron’s health.
“Oh dear.” Louisa handed a news sheet to Edith. “You will want to see this.”
Edith scanned the gossip section.
Lord E and Lady S appeared quite friendly at a card party last evening before everyone’s stomachs began erupting. If not for the onset of widespread illness, what other alliances might have been forged at Lady S’s card party?
“A lesson in how to use many words to say very little.” She passed the paper back to Louisa and picked up another. “Oh my! Our most recent missing veteran has made the papers.”
She read the article aloud to Louisa. The registry office was mentioned, and there was a quote from Diana assuring the veteran’s family that the registry owners and employees would do everything in their power to help find Seaman Thomas Wilson. Neither Lord Ashford nor Lord Harbury were named in the story.
