chapter 2

2

After dismissing the drenched creature that had appeared in his study dripping and pale, Sam ordered a tray of tea and sandwiches sent to her room once she was clean.  Somehow she was a contradiction, dirty and unkempt, and yet proud and intelligent; not at all what he had envisioned.  When Camp had come to him with this request to harbour the homeless lady, he had wondered if she was indeed family or a mistress of Camp’s.  Now he wondered again what the relationship was, he still got the feeling in his gut that there was more to the story than either of his assumptions, but he had no idea what.

The bath was delicious with rose scented oil and warm towels brought in by a maid with a tray of food; she ate until it embarrassed her to be watched then sprawled out on the large warm bed and rested, falling quickly to sleep.  After what seemed only like minutes she was awaken for the noon meal, again embarrassed to have slept through the night and half the day, she was up quickly and down the stairs only to discover she had no idea where she was going. Torn on what she should do, she stood looking in each direction hoping for a clue.

Walking from the den, hungrily awaiting his noon meal after a long morning building a rock wall to support a raised terrace below the rose garden, Sam ran headlong into Carina at the foot of the main staircase looking somewhat dishevelled and completely lost.  She blushed so sweetly when she saw him and quickly composed her nerves. Surprised to be bothered by her quick change in demeanor, Sam thought this was a woman who was meant to be a bit tousled and flushed.  He smiled and asked “are you starved, or just in a rush to meet the family?”

“Actually both, but more a bit out of sorts it seems I have slept half of the day away,” Carina explained turning red again.  She could not believe the look in his eyes, he was considering that her appearance was humorous and not out of the norm for her to rise at noon and parade around dishevelled, flaunting her laziness.  It would be hard to escape the obvious conclusion that she was Camp’s mistress, at least in Sam’s eyes.  Nonetheless she planned to try to make a good impression on his family, “I was looking for the dining room, could you point me in the right direction?”

Bothered by the thought of whose bed she usually rose from at noon, expecting a meal without even freshening up, Sam pointed her in the right direction and followed her to the dining room.  Waiting at the table were his mother Greta and his sister Ashley, both expecting to meet Mr. Murphy’s cousin from the north, who was in the city for the summer, looking to marry well.  Ashley seemed to be envious of Carina’s long dark hair that was only partly pinned up allowing wisps to fall to the middle of her back, and the dark eyes that looked almost black.   “I present to you my mother Greta and Ashley my sister, who is about your age I should think, she is in her seventeenth year, Ash, Mom this is Carina she will be staying with us for some time, I hope you all become friends quickly.”  Sam said hoping that his sister would get past her jealousy long enough to get a proper wardrobe and bring Carina’s manners to a civil level. At this point he would have thought she was raised on a farm, and ate with the animals.

Ina again displeased with Sam’s thoughts turned to Ashley and found that friendship there would be difficult, Clearly Ashley also assumed she was Camp’s mistress and was jealous of that conquest.   Shocked Ina concluded Ashley would gladly change places with her if it meant a chance of being close to Camp, interesting maybe just this one time she may allow Camp the pleasure of a romance, it would be fun to watch, if Camp were here.

Turning her attention to Greta Murphy, Ina noticed that she unlike the others was open minded about who Ina was, she was looking forward to getting to know her and having an excuse to shop.  Thank heavens it was too tiring to feel what people were thinking, without having to take in all the negativity around this house, even the hired help looked down on her, but not Greta, she would try to spend most of her time with the senior lady or alone as much as possible.

Over lunch Sam was surprised that Carina was as polite as any young lady, she knew her way around a place setting, and seemed to be a true lady; this made him wonder, maybe she was just a close cousin of Camp, and he was trying to improve her social status with a good marriage.  He would have to try to reserve judgment, until he got to know the girl. 

The next few days flew by in a swirl of fittings and teas with neighbor ladies, in the attempt to acquire invitations soirées, within the first week she had been invited to three events.  Passed the era when The Season, was followed by everyone in polite society, now debutantes hoping to continue the tradition of a summer of society outings and the coming out of eligible ladies as potential marital partners, it was a disgusting display and Ina hated the idea of anyone choosing a suitable match for a young lady.  Regarding herself, Ina did not care, as she did not intend to marry, that had been the downfall for her mother and she did not wish to repeat the mistake.