Read Online The Maid's Quarters by Holly Bush - Free Book Online Page A

is all very strange for me. I am afraid of
embarrassing myself or Albert . . . Mr. Donahue, I mean. I just don’t belong
here. I do not know why he asked me here.” Alice shook her head. “It is almost
cruel.”
    Gloria led Alice to the bed and the two women sat, side by
side. “I have known Albert all of my life, and there is not one drop of cruelty
in his entire body. I grew up just a few doors away from him and his brother,
Jack, and their grandfather. My mother was certain that I would marry one of
them and I had always admired Albert, until I met Stephen, of course. But
Albert treated me as he has treated all women over the years, with courtesy and
respect,” she said, and turned to face Alice. “I have never seen him in such a
state as I did when we arrived and had no idea what had caused it, until you
walked through the door and I saw him look at you.”
    “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Alice whispered, and
lowered her eyes.
    “I’m sure you do because you look at him the same way.”
    Perhaps she did, Alice admitted to herself. She’d only known
the man for a few short days, and yet it felt as if the words between them were
just the beginning of something. As if she would always know his plans, and he
hers, as if what they each dreamed of would be the same, and their cares
united. How did it happen? Why didn’t she feel this way with every man she met?
And how could she deny how her body responded when he looked at her, smiled at
her, touched her, even though the contact was accidental? She was on fire for
him and blushed to think that she’d imagined him with his shirt off and
straining at some manual labor. How could she restrain herself from brushing
back the thick lock of hair that fell over his forehead?
    “I don’t understand myself,” Alice confessed, shaking her
head. “I’ve never felt like this before.”
    “Of course you haven’t. No one does until they fall in
love,” Gloria said, meeting Alice’s protests with an impish grin. “But the
gentlemen are waiting, and we should be with them to be introduced to the rest
of the guests.” She tapped her finger against her mouth as if working out a
puzzle. “Who were you a personal maid for?”
    “Senator Maximillian Shelby’s wife, Mrs. Jolene Crenshaw
Shelby.”
    “I did not know her new married name when she moved to
Texas. I only knew her as Jolene Crenshaw.”
    Alice nodded. “Were you acquainted with Mrs. Shelby?”
    “Not personally, of course, but I’ve seen her at functions
and events when Stephen and I were first married. I would have been terrified
to talk to her! But how gorgeous she is,” Gloria said.
    “She is a very beautiful woman who knows just what to say
and how to say it.”
    “Then you must mimic what she does when we are with guests
this evening.”
    Alice smiled. “I’ve already used that trick when Albert took
me to the Windsor Hotel for a meal.”
    “Then you must use it again.   Come along, Alice. The men are waiting.”
    Alice stood and straightened her skirts and her back.
“Coming, Gloria,” she said with a smile. After all, she had promised her ma
that she would enjoy herself.
    Alice soon found herself in the foyer beside Albert. She had
little time to think of her nervousness, as couples had begun to arrive shortly
after she and Gloria had stepped off the last marble step. Albert introduced
her as his special guest to everyone. It was exhilarating to be with such an
interesting and influential group of people, although she was rarely in company
with any guests, she thought to
herself, and more likely watching from afar.
    But she was included, Albert made sure, even explaining that
she was in Mrs. Shelby’s personal employ until lately and had been gifted an
early retirement from the senator and his wife for exemplary service, and that
she’d decided to come home to Boston and help care for her sickly brother.
Albert made her life sound important, even heroic, and she was able to