Seeking Persephone by Sarah M. Eden Read Free Book Online Page B

First, that she would shed no more tears for her former life. It was excusable, she had allowed, to feel some sense of loss, to shed some tears over the abrupt change in her situation. But the time had come to look to the future and not the past.
    She’d washed her face quite thoroughly that morning, wishing her eyes weren’t puffy from a day of crying. She donned a simple but flattering morning dress in a lovely shade of blue, deciding she would prefer to have blue eyes, her eyes being that unusual shade of hazel that became whatever color she was wearing. She had always felt more confident with blue eyes. When they were green, she felt more cast down, no doubt due to the reminder of her emerald-eyed mother. And brown eyes did absolutely nothing for her whatsoever.
    Today would be blue.
    Blue and puffy, Persephone sighed. She’d tried, anyway.
    Second on her list of absolutely necessary undertakings was that of learning to be the Duchess of Kielder. She would be the mistress of Falstone Castle, responsible for the staff, the menu, the household expenses, and she knew not what all. Persephone had absolutely no idea how to go on. Managing a small household was one thing. Undertaking the management of a four-hundred-year-old castle and a staff the size of a small village was quite another.
    Nothing would do but to seek out the only other lady on earth who could tell her precisely what was expected of her: the Dowager Duchess of Kielder.
    Her stomach turning as she descended the stairs, Persephone made her way to the breakfast room. She did not relish the coming minutes. No new bride enjoys confessing to her mother-in-law that she is incompetent. But, if this life Persephone had chosen for herself was to be anything but a dismal failure, confess she must.
    Right after she figured out where she was.
    Persephone glanced around. She stood in a long, narrow passageway, surrounded by stone walls hung with the occasional tapestry. Recalling what she’d seen of the castle thus far, Persephone knew she could be just about anywhere. It was not the capable beginning she’d imagined when she woke that morning.
    Persephone retraced her steps, only to find herself in another passageway, or perhaps the same one—she couldn’t tell. Perhaps after a few more days, she would know the castle better. Two passageways later, or twice in the same one, Persephone amended her prediction to a few more years.
    “Oh!” came a startled exclamation.
    Persephone spun around. Standing with eyes wide in shock was a young maid, probably no more than thirteen or fourteen years old.
    “Thank heavens,” Persephone breathed.
    “Forgive me, Your Grace!” She bobbed a curtsy. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your . . . your . . .”
    “I was attempting to find the breakfast room.”
    “But you’re halfway to the north tower,” the girl answered in obvious disbelief.
    Persephone tried to shrug off her embarrassment.
    An understanding smile tugged at the maid’s mouth. “I got lost a few times when I first came,” she said. “Falstone Castle is awful big.”
    Persephone nodded.
    “I can show you where the breakfast room is,” the maid offered.
    “I don’t want to keep you from your duties . . . ur . . . I am afraid I don’t know your name.”
    “Fanny, Your Grace.” She bobbed again. “An’ you won’t be keeping me from my work. Not if I’m doing what you asked me to do. You being the mistress of the house, and all.”
    “True.” Persephone smiled a touch ironically.
    “This way, Your Grace,” Fanny said, and turned on her heels to walk back the way she’d apparently come.
    Persephone followed at a close distance. After a minute or two, the passageway opened into a larger corridor. “This looks vaguely familiar,” Persephone said, mostly to herself, eyeing the paneled walls and pointed-arch windows.
    The corridor spilled onto the first-floor landing, the wide staircase leading down to the entrance hall and its fan-vaulted ceiling. A