Page 63 of The Artisan and the Duke
The hours marched by as Jules wound her way through now familiar streets. She was still far away from the manor house, and the sun was starting to sink. Did Wyatt and Sarah know she was gone? Had the factory owners alerted them when she failed to show up?
Jules had spent the better part of the day darting between buildings or behind posts, always thinking that someone might have seen her.
As kind as Sarah and Wyatt were to her, Jules did not trust them. Someone had sent her there, and she had already learned that dressed as she was the word duchess on her lips was a surefire and certain trip to a ward where they chain people to beds. No. Jules would not go back.
Jules turned her feet towards the guildhall. It was close by, and there was sure to be help there, perhaps. Unless, of course, they too blamed her as David had. Jules swallowed down her fear.
All they could do was toss her out on the street. She was already on the street, and it would be no loss to be tossed back out again.
Still, the sight of the guildhall made her pause. She hesitated as she fought for courage. Her feet felt leaden as she struggled to lift them.
Perhaps it was not cowardice but simply the long walk, Jules told herself. Deep down she knew it was the coward in her. There was that old fear of not belonging, of being tossed aside.
She knocked on the door and braced herself. It took several long minutes before a boy answered. “Yes?” the boy asked warily.
Jules only vaguely recognized him, and she frowned. He was a newer apprentice. She winced thinking of apprentices. Jules bit back tears. She shook her head. “Never mind. Nothing,” Jules said hastily as she choked down the sob in her throat.
“Who is it, Tom?” came a familiar booming voice.
Jules fled down the steps. She could not bear to see the look on Master Foster’s face. If he looked at her with as much contempt as David had, then Jules thought she would surely die.
“Jules!” the man’s voice called out to her. “Come back!” There were feet following her.
Jules slowed and turned around as the tears filled her eyes. “I’m sorry that I came back,” Jules sobbed.
Foster shook his head. “There is no need to apologize, and we have much to talk about,” the man said gently as he led her back toward the guildhall by her elbow. “Come in and rest. You are with family now.”
Chapter 13
Jules sat in one of the apprentice rooms at the Mason Hall. It was much as Jules remembered it from the time when she studied with Master Foster. She wore a pair of breeches and loose cotton shirt. For the first time in ages, she felt more herself.
The idea of returning to the manor house seemed fraught with peril to Jules. It was from that very world that she had been snatched, and she still had no idea why. There was a knock at the door. “Enter,” Jules said quietly from her perch in the wooden desk chair.
Master Foster poked his head through the door. “I’m glad to see you looking more like the Jules I recognize. You looked a poor sight at my doorstep,” he said kindly. The man’s cap just kept his fuzzy hair under control. He sat down heavily on the bed as it was the only other place to sit in the small rudimentary room. “Have you given any thought to sending word to His Grace about your well-being or whereabouts?”
“I’ve given it a lot of thought, more thoughts than I would believe I had in my head, but I still am chained up in doubt. I know you said that he came looking for me, but what if he only wants to find me so he can tie up loose ends?” Jules was riddled with doubts as she stared at her hands in her lap. “I still don’t know why I ended up in that place.”
Master Foster nodded. “I understand your doubts, but I can tell a man in love, child, and that man was desperate to find his wife, not a loose end,” Master Foster said softly. “Let me send one of the boys to him just so he knows you are safe.”
Jules pressed her lips together. She wanted to see Gregory, to know that he had not done this, but there was that fear again. Finally, she nodded hesitantly. “If he truly wants me, then he can come here, alone, and we can talk.”
“That sounds reasonable, but you must understand that there is something afoot, and he may not be able to accommodate you,” Master Foster said with a shrug of his shoulders. “We shall just have to wait and see, but I did promise that I would give him word if we saw you. It is my duty to fulfill my word.”
With a nod, Jules said, “I know, Charles.”
“I see you do remember my name after all,” he said with a grin. “Glad to see a bit of your fire back.”
***
“What do you think about our cousin?” Fredrick asked as he ate a bit of the food the cook had prepared that morning.
Gregory looked over at his mother who had a worried expression on her face before he replied, “I am not certain what to make of Cousin Boris, but I am also not ready to trust him blindly.”
“I do you wish you boys would be careful,” Lady St Claire said as she cupped her warm teacup in her hands.
Fredrick assured his mother, “We will endeavour to be so, Mother.”
“It is not as if we were the ones who set all this in motion. You act as if we have any choice but to respond,” Gregory said with slight irritation.
