Moonlight Wishes In Time (16 page)

A knock on the door heralded a young maid
, who said she was named Jane. Of course, Mattie thought. She was in the Georgian era. There had to be a Jane somewhere.

“Miss Sylvie
sent me, miss,” Jane said with a short curtsey. “She said I am to help you dress and not to ask you any questions.”

Mattie smiled shyly and nodded her head
. She would have held out her hand, except that she still carried the clothing.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jane
. I appreciate you coming to help me. I’m lost with these garments. We don’t have these in…New York.” Mattie told the first lie of what she suspected would be many throughout the night. Or maybe everyone would ignore her, she thought. She hoped.

“Yes,
miss.” Jane, a tall, thin girl, hardly more than a teenager, bobbed another curtsey with an unreadable expression and stepped forward to take the garments from Mattie’s hands. She laid them out on the bed and turned back to Mattie.

“So, where do I start?” Mattie sighed as she moved toward the bed to survey the clothing.

Jane picked up a chemise and eyed it for a moment.

“Well,
miss, I think since you are already wearing your chemise and petticoats, you need only to slip on the dress.”

Mattie shuddered.

“I can’t wear these, Jane. I already wore them today when I went horseback riding, and I’m sure I smell like a horse.” She attempted a feeble chuckle, suddenly longing for the simplicity of her pink fuzzy robe, slippers, her easy chair and a romance novel.

“It’s bad enough that I can’t take a shower—that is
…wash up after being outside,” Mattie muttered almost to herself.

“Would you like me to bring some hot water from the kitchen,
miss?” Jane asked quietly. “We always have hot water ready. I could bring some to you.” She tilted her angular face and regarded Mattie with a serious expression.

Mattie stared at her with something like adoration on her face.

“Could you?” she breathed. “Is there time?”

“We will have to make haste,
miss, but yes, I think there is time to wash.” Jane turned and moved swiftly to the door. “I will return as soon as I can.”

“Thank you, Jane
! Thank you,” Mattie said to Jane’s departing back as she slipped through the door.

Matti
e paced the room for the next ten minutes, keeping an eye on the ornate clock on the fireplace mantle. She heard a knock and trotted over to the door to press her ear against it. She held her breath, hoping it wasn’t Sylvie coming to see if she was dressed and ready.

“Miss,” Mattie heard a low voice on the either side
. “It’s Jane.”

Mattie pulled the door open, and Jane stepped in carrying a large pitcher of steaming hot water, several
linen towels and a bar of soap. Over Jane’s shoulder, Mattie saw William’s door open. William, apparently in the act of dressing, wore only a pair of pale gold silk pantaloons and a white shirt unbuttoned at the neck.

Mattie caught her breath as he paused in his doorway, a question on his face
. His state of undress gave him a relaxed, casual air that seemed boyishly charming.

“Is all well, Miss Crockwell
?” His speech was contrastingly formal.

“Oh, yes, Mr. Sinclair,” she replied airily, while she closed the door behind Jane so that it was open just a crack
. She stuck her face around the corner of the door. “Just getting dressed,” she said.

William raised one dark eyebrow
.

“It grows late, Miss Crockwell
. I had planned to escort you downstairs when you were ready. Will that be soon?”

Mattie blushed
. She had hoped William wouldn’t come up with such a plan. There was no doubt everyone would stare at her if she showed up on his arm. Oh, to be a scullery maid, she sighed.

“Well, I’d get dressed a lot faster if I could close this door
.” She smiled slightly to soften the words.

William’s lips twitched, and he nodded.

“Thirty minutes, Miss Crockwell?”

“I’ll be ready,” Mattie squeaked before she shut the door and turned to face the room.

“Hurry, Jane, I only have half an hour to get ready.”

“We will be ready,
miss. Here is your water.”

Jane had gone into the “room” that Mattie had dubbed the bathroom
. An oil lamp lit the room enough for Mattie to see that Jane had poured steaming hot water into the basin on the dresser. Mattie threw a longing glance at the tub before approaching the dresser, where Jane had laid out the towels and soap.

“How does one get to use the bathtub?” Mattie asked.

Jane turned. “A bath would take much more time than you have available, miss. Had I known you wished to bathe earlier, I could have had footmen bring enough hot water up to the water closet to fill the tub.”

Mattie chewed her lip. “Did everyone else bathe?”

“No, miss, I do not believe so.”

“Okay, I guess I’m good with a sponge bath.”

Jane had taken one of the towels and dipped it into the water to moisten it when Mattie realized what the young maid was planning.

“Oh, no, Jane!” Mattie exclaimed
, and held up her hands as if in defense. “I’ll wash myself. Why don’t you wait for me out there?” Mattie nodded toward the bedroom with a red face. 

Jane bobbed a curtsey.

“As you wish, miss.”

She left the “water closet
” and closed the door silently behind her.

Mattie sprung into action and pulled off the rest of her clothing, taking care to lay it over the rim of the tub
. She dipped the towel into the hot water, rubbed the lavender smelling soap into it and began the process of giving herself a sponge bath as if she were camping out. Not one romance novel that she’d read had covered this aspect of Georgian life, she muttered silently.

Moments later, scrubbed and feeling a little bit better, Mattie pulled the door open a crack and peeped out
. Jane was straightening the covers on the bed.

“Jane,” she whispered, though she wasn’t sure why she instinctively kept her voice down
. William seemed to have excellent hearing, and she wondered how much he could hear from just outside the doorway—if he were there.

“Yes,
miss,” Jane said as she turned and approached the door.

“Could you hand me the clean drawers
? I think I’ll slip those on while I’m in here. Oh, and the chemise as well,” Mattie added with a self-conscious smile.

“Yes,
miss,” Jane said without expression as she handed the garments to Mattie through the crack in the door.

“I’ll be right out,” Mattie mumbled
. She closed the door and pulled the towel from around her as she bent to step into the drawers. She slipped them on over her own underwear and tied them in back, wondering why on earth women bothered with the silly things if there was no protection from drafts. She promised herself that if she made it back to her own time, she would do as much research on the era as possible. There was only so much she could share with William about the difficulties she was encountering in the Georgian era, and having to wear drawers so she could hide her modern-day underwear from the maid wasn’t one of them.

She slipped the soft cotton chemise on over her head and grabbed up the habit and dirty clothes before stepping back into the bedroom
.

Jane, now dusting furniture with a rag she must have had stowed in the pockets of her voluminous gray skirt, turned and hurried up to take the clothing from her.

“We must hurry, miss. We still need your stays, stockings, garters, shoes, and I need to do your hair,” Jane said as she laid the worn garments over the arm of a chair.

Mattie sighed.

“No stays for me, Jane.” She leaned in to whisper conspiratorially. “I broke a rib recently and find it too painful to wear them.” Mattie beamed with pride as her imagination seemed to soar to new heights.

Jane’s face registered surpri
se, then sympathy.

“Oh,
miss, however did you break a rib?” Jane cried. Then her eyes narrowed, and she cocked her head to the side. “How do you know it’s broken?” She began to tie Mattie’s chemise, which barely covered anything as far as Mattie was concerned. Mattie submitted to the intimacy and raised her eyes to the ceiling—the better to think of a quick answer for the intelligent maid.

“Ummm
… I fell last winter on some ice,” Mattie said. “And the doctor said I broke a rib.”

“Raise your arms,
miss. The petticoat,” Jane murmured, and Mattie obeyed as the taller Jane effortlessly slipped a shift-like, sleeveless cotton garment over her head that settled to her ankles in a froth of delicate lace. Jane stepped around to Mattie’s back and began to fasten the petticoat. Mattie was beginning to relax when Jane spoke again.

“Well, now,
miss, I think it is very interesting that a doctor knows when a rib has been broken. How could he know?” Jane asked persistently.

“Ummm
… I think he just felt around and decided it was broken,” Mattie said ineffectually. If she couldn’t even fool a young maid, what chance was she going to have in a public setting with well-educated and traveled people?

“
I was just asking, miss, because my father was a doctor.” Jane smiled diffidently as she reached for the rose-colored silk dress. “I assisted him on occasion.”

“Really?” Mattie asked
. “But why—” She bit her tongue as she nearly blurted out a rude question, but it was too late.

“Arms,
miss.”

Mattie obediently raised her arms as Jane slipped the dress over her head
. It slid down over Mattie’s body in a swath of sleek material.

“
You wondered why I am in service, miss? My father died, and I was forced to seek employment.” Jane’s face remained composed in a neutral expression, but two bright spots on her cheeks gave her away.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Jane,” Mattie said
as she grasped Jane’s hands.

Jane smiled slightly and pulled her hands away.

“It was a year ago, miss. Time passes.”

“How did you come to work here?” Mattie asked over her shoulder as Jane moved around to button the back of the gown.

“Our housekeeper knew of a position open here.”

Mattie thought hard.
“But…” She stopped, reminding herself to tread lightly. This was not some fiction novel. “I mean, did you ever want to be a governess or a lady’s companion?” Surely, the daughter of a doctor had been educated, Mattie thought.

“No, miss.
” Jane’s voice came from behind Mattie. “I wanted to be a nurse.”

“Can you?” Mattie asked.

“If I went to nurse’s school,” Jane responded in a matter-of-fact tone. She came around to the front.

“We must see to your hair,
miss.” She led the way to the small dressing table, where an oil lamp burned bright. Mattie sat down on the small bench in front of the table, keeping her eyes on Jane in the mirror.

“And do you plan to go to nurse’s school?” Mattie pressed as Jane picked up a silver-backed hairbrush and began to brush
her hair.

“No,
miss. I do not want to leave Ashton House.”

Mattie blinked
. “Why ever not?”

Jane stilled for a moment, and met Mattie’s eyes in the mirror
. Delicate color spread across her cheeks.

“Well,
miss, there is a boy…” She sighed. “I have known him all my life, and some day, we wish to be married. He is a footman now, but…”

“John!” Mattie exclaimed, as she recalled the handsome young man who had opened the door to Thomas earlier in the day.

“Yes, miss, John,” Jane said with a bright smile that lightened up her face.

“He’s very handsome, Jane.”

“Yes, miss,” she replied evenly. “And now, I must attend to your hair.” Jane flashed Mattie one last smile before she sobered and began to dress Mattie’s hair.

Mattie tore her eyes from the maid and stared at her reflection in the mirror
.

“This neckline is very, very low, Jane
. Can I wear one of those fichu things with this dress?”

Jane’s lips twitched, but she remained solemn
. “No, miss, not for evening, not unless you are a dowager.”

Mattie sighed and tugged at the neckline of her dress to pull it up.

“But,” Jane said with emphasis, “you may pretend to be chilled and wear a shawl.”

Mattie brightened.

“Oh, really?”

“Yes,
miss. I am sure Miss Sinclair has something she could lend you.”

“That would be great!” Mattie breathed
. Jane worked wonders on Mattie’s hair in a matter of minutes, pulling and twisting it into a chignon with loose curls cascading around her face and down to her shoulders.