Winterset by Candace Camp Page B

told it is a Moreland trait.”
    Anna knotted her hands in her lap, looking down at them. “I could not marry you,” she flatly. “I did not have the feeling for you that a wife should have for her husband.” She lifted her head to look straight into his eyes, keeping her own eyes steady and cool. “I have never regretted my decision, nor would I change it if I could.”
    She swallowed, feeling faintly sick to her stomach.
    “I see. Well, I suppose I could hardly ask for anything clearer than that.”
    Anna looked away. To her relief, she saw the lights of Holcomb Manor in front of them. This unbearable trip would be over in just a few minutes.
    Silence reigned in the carriage until it pulled to a stop in front of Holcomb Manor. Anna stood up and scrambled out before Reed could put out a hand to help her down.
    “Thank you,” she said breathlessly, and hurried toward the front door without waiting to hear Reed’s response. She was grateful when the front door was opened wide, casting a rectangle of golden light into the night, and one of the footmen stepped out, bowing, to greet her.
    Anna hurried up the steps into the house, and the footman closed the door behind her with a solid thud. She stood for a moment, waiting for the trembling in her limbs to stop.
    “Miss Anna? Are you all right?”
    She turned toward the footman. “Oh, yes, John. I am perfectly all right.” She forced a smile, then turned and hurried down the hall and up the stairs to the sanctuary of her bedroom.
     
    Her maid Penny was waiting for her, and Anna was glad that she was there to help her out of her clothes and into her nightgown, for frankly, at the moment, she wanted nothing more than to crawl into her bed, pull the covers up and give way to a bout of tears. In her own state of distress, it took her a moment to realize that Penny’s face was splotchy and red, and her eyes were so puffy they were nearly swollen shut.
    “Penny!” Anna took a second look at her. “What’s the matter?”
    “Oh, miss!” Penny’s face crumpled, and she began to cry. “I’m so sorry! Please don’t let Mrs. Michaels turn me out!”
    “Turn you out?” Anna repeated, dumbfounded. “What on earth are you talking about?”
    “She said I should be turned out. She called me an ungrateful wretch, and said I had be-betrayed the family’s trust. And I never meant to, miss, I swear I didn’t. You know I love you. I would never do anything to hurt you or bring dishonor to the Holcombs.”
    “Of course not,” Anna assured her, bewildered, and took the maid by the hand, leading her over to her easy chair. She sat down in the chair, pulling Penny down onto the hassock in front of it. Taking the girl’s hands in her own, she looked into her face. “Now. Calm down and tell me, step by step, what it is you are talking about.”
    “I didn’t mean to do anything wrong,” Penny said, drawing a long, quavering breath. “I was only trying to not get Stell into trouble. That’s all. That’s why I didn’t say anything earlier.”
    “Stell?”
    “Estelle, miss. The upstairs maid. She sleeps in the same room with me, you see. She asked me not to tell, ’cause Mrs. Michaels’d turn her out without a reference, and that she would have, too, miss. And Estelle’s me friend. We have our little fusses now and then—who doesn’t, I ask you? But we help each other out, you see.”
    “Of course. But why is Mrs. Michaels angry at you? What happened?”
    “It’s Estelle, miss. She’s gone.”
    “Gone? I don’t understand—she’s gone where?”
    “I don’t know, miss.” Penny looked at her with rounded eyes. “That’s the thing—Estelle has disappeared.”

Chapter Five
    F or a long moment, Anna could only stare at Penny. “What? What do you mean, she’s disappeared?”
    “Nobody knows where she is,” Penny said, and tears started in her eyes again. “She left the house last night, and she never came back.”
    A shiver ran down Anna’s back, and