Nathaniel's sturdy, black carriage rolled around the streets of London as it carried two people who met under very unusual circumstances that night.
For around two minutes, he let the silence stretch, before he tried to speak to the girl who was wearing his coat and was hugging herself.
"My townhouse is around ten minutes away, unless you have another destination you wish to tell me?"
"I—I have nowhere—to go, at th—this time of the night, Your Grace."
"Where should we drive you in the morning, then?"
"...Elmwood Orphanage, Your Grace."
Nathaniel frowned.
"Have your parents—"
"They have passed. Tubercolosis."
"I am terribly sorry for your loss."
"Thank you."
Nathaniel heard her voice shaking, but the two words begged for no pity, so he didn't ask more about her sad story.
And then, he remembered the man chasing her and how terrified she was. He had an assumption of what could happen.
"Shall we call a doctor once we arrive at my house?"
"No, Your Grace. I—th-thank you. A roof over my head would be more than enough."
"And in the morning, Miss? Will you wish to be accompanied by a servant of mine to that—orphanage?"
A beat of silence, before the girl rushed to say, "Would you happen to—have a vacancy at your household, Your Grace? I—I am educated. I am a governess. I am willing to work for a bed in your—in your servant's quarters."
That was a first for him.
He usually signed checks to pay for his servants' money, but his butler usually picked the servants. Even if he needed someone special, his secretary would find it for him, or his grandmother would choose one. He never had to choose a maid. And he was actually confused, what job would fit an educated young woman at his house? She couldn't work in the kitchen, he was sure—
"If you don't need an educated woman, I'd work as a maid. A kitchen maid, a housekeeper. Anything. Just—I need a little money to keep my sister at the orphanage. I must—I must feed her."
Her words stumbled one after the other. She was begging, and from her tone, he could sense that it was not something easy for her to do.
As someone in his position, he understood that people would want his money. But young girls usually offered him one thing—to accompany him in bed. Not that it's something he indulged upon—he was raised with very high standards and codes of honour, but this young girl, desperate and destitute though she was, didn't lower herself to offer her body. She asked for a job. A right to hold her head high still, and he….respected that.
She was someone who was chased by a man that seemed abusive, then she followed him because she had no other solutions, and instead of crying, she was asking for work.
"I'm actually not sure of what work I could give you, but if you're willing to wait until the morning, you could meet my grandmother, and she will know what to do with you."
"I shall see her, if she wouldn't mind."
"I don't see why she would. And we have arrived."
*****
The carriage entered the townhouse's yard smoothly, the two horses trotted along the front lawn, stopping at the front porch, where a uniformed butler stood waiting peacefully, as if it was 9 AM instead of 11 PM.
Sterling, the butler, moved forward to greet Nathaniel, but was shocked to see the said master help a young woman out the carriage.
She was young, and she was wearing the duke's coat.
Whatever could this mean?
This was the first woman Nathaniel ever brought home in his 25 years of living.
"Welcome back, Your Grace."
"Sterling, this is Miss Eliza…."
"Fairleigh, Your Grace."
"Miss Eliza Fairleigh. She will work for my grandmother. Please give her a room. She will meet my grandmother during breakfast tomorrow."
"Yes, Sir. At a guest room or?"
"A guest room. A clean one."
"All our rooms are respectably clean, Your Grace," Sterling replied a bit sharply as if he was offended.
"Right. Please escort her to that room, Sterling. Also something to change and a light meal, I believe."
"Certaily, My Lord. If you'll follow me, Miss Fairleigh?"
Eliza turned hesitantly at Nathaniel, and he nodded.
"Sterling will treat you well. I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."
"I thank you, Your Grace."
"Don't worry about it. Good evening. You're safe here."
Nathaniel didn't know, but his last three words made Eliza cry without a sound as she followed Sterling to another side of the luxurious townhouse.
*****
Ten minutes later, Eliza was sitting in a guest room in the Blackmere House.
It was already the most beautiful room she had even entered. Her life took a drastic turn in the past one hour.
Her employer, Mr. Harold Whitcombe, the father of the four children she was tutoring in that house, nearly raped her.
She managed to run away because her room was on the ground floor. She escaped through the window, and from climbing over the wooden gate.
It was luck that she knew where the gate was lower, right at the corner of the vegetable patch.
She knew everything she had, including the only 10 pounds she owned, was still there. But she was more afraid to stay even a minute longer in that house than the unknown mystery and danger of nighttime London.
She was hoping to find a church to stay for the night.
It wasn't even in her imagination to crash onto a duke.
A stranger who took her home, gave her a place to stay and safety after the most nightmarish time of her life.
She's still shaking a little, but her room had a lock on the door, and once she turned it, and checked the door was really locked, she felt such immense relief that she cried her heart out.
She heard of the Blackmere Dukedom. Just for taking her in that night, she'd be praying for the duke's health her whole life.
Now, if she could get a job there, either as the grandmother's maid or secretary, or even in the kitchen, or as a housekeeper, that would be the best outcome of it all.
Because then, she would always have money to send to Lucy.
Lucy Fairleigh was the only family member she had left in this world. Eliza was 22, and Lucy was 17.
Lucy was safe in the Elmwood Orphanage, but soon, she would have to leave it, since they take children only until they were 17. At the moment, Lucy was working at that orphanage for the right to live there.
But Eliza knew the orphanage was not the best place to live.
If Eliza could help Lucy to work in that house as well, she would not wish for anything else in her entire life.
For the time being, the smell of the beef soup and bread a maid had placed on the table was too enticing for her to bear anymore. She began eating it.
And it was the best food she had ever since her mother passed away.
She then proceeded to change to a fresh cotton dressing gown.
It felt like luxury on her skin.
She cried again when she lay down on the soft bed, knowing that Lucy might be sleeping on a hard cot at the orphanage.
She tried not to think about Mr. Whitcombe, and told herself to sleep.
"Tomorrow will be a better day," she said to herself, before she fell asleep.
*****