Belmary House Book One by Cassidy Cayman Read Free Book Online Page B

place from getting the wrecking ball. I don’t know what will happen if the house is gone, but I’m fairly certain nobody’s going anywhere ever again.”
    He nodded firmly and took her hands. She raised her brows at him, shocked that shy and reserved Dexter would be so bold, but he only held tighter.
    “Let’s save the house, then.”

Chapter 6

    Tilly marveled at the gorgeous dress she’d been given, flipping up the brown silk skirt to admire the dainty embroidery on the muslin shift beneath it. It was no wonder Ashford had disapproved of her costume, now that she saw a gown of this time up close.
    Everything was hand stitched, and perfectly at that. Her mother would have loved to see such a dress, and Tilly was so delighted to be wearing it that she almost forgot her dire predicament. Nora, the maid who’d been assigned to help her dress did a few more adjustments, needlessly straightening the shoulders and fluffing up the lace insert at her bosom.
    “It doesna look as if it wasna made for ye at all,” she said. “It fits ye quite nicely.”
    Tilly didn’t want to think about where the dress had come from at such short notice. That cad Ashford probably had a closet full of gowns from his mistresses, or all the other women he’d bumbled into the wrong time. She took a massive inhale, nearly billowing out of the top of the bodice, and the maid tucked the lace in a bit more securely.
    “Your accent sounds a bit like Lord Ashford’s,” Tilly said. His was much more refined, but definitely different from the London accent her cousin and Emma had. “I’m sorry, but I’m from the States and can’t place it.”
    Nora nodded vigorously. “Aye, we’re both from Scotland. Or rather, I guess, Lord Ashford lived there most of his childhood, until his father died and he had to take over down here. He goes back and forth, ye see, and I always wanted to see London, so last time he let me come to work down here.”
    Tilly felt like she hit the jackpot with the chatty Nora and tried to decide on her next question before the girl left.
    “Er, do you know what’s going on here?” she asked carefully.
    Nora turned red from the roots of her hair to her tidy starched uniform collar. “Dinna worry, ma’am, we’re all verra discreet.” She turned from red to purple and nearly dropped the brush she’d picked up. Taking a steadying breath, she began to brush Tilly’s hair, but was unable to meet her eye in the mirror. “And no one judges ye.”
    Tilly coughed, wondering what in the hell Ashford had told her. It certainly wasn’t the truth, however, which meant not everyone who worked in the house knew about his forays through time, though the valet Duncan seemed in on it.
    Duncan was much nicer than his shrunken apple head looks made him seem, and he’d tried to console her as he’d shown her to this room. While he hadn’t explained much more than Ashford had, he assured her she would get home. Eventually.
    She felt the swooping drop in her stomach as it struck her again. Three months, trapped in a different century, with people who thought God knew what of her. Well, she couldn’t ask Nora. She’d just have to bear it.
    “Lord Ashford lived in Scotland as a boy?” She closed her eyes and let Nora brush out her hair, hoping the open ended question would release a flood of information.
    “Aye. His mother and father didna get along, y’see. My mum and da both worked for the estate, so knew the Lady. She died when I was too young to remember her, God rest her. She was a great lady, verra kind, and was wealthy in her own right, just not lucky in love.”
    At Nora’s pause, Tilly opened her eyes to see she held out two different hairpins, seeming to want an opinion. Tilly pointed to the one in her left hand without a thought and widened her eyes for the girl to continue.
    “Well, since it wasna a marriage of love, they had the children and separated. All the land up there was hers.”
    “Children?” Tilly