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Mrs Glenn shot her a weary look before gathering her expression.

“Yes, Your Grace. I shall fetch the list immediately.”

“Forgive me. I only wish for everything to be perfect.”

There was a hint of guilt in her tone now as she spoke. Being thorough was one thing but Phillipa was certainly being excessive now.

They had already gone over the list several times before, but she had requested to do it one more time.

“It will be perfect, Your Grace, whether you count it eleven times or twelve. Counting it a twelfth time will not make the silver polish itself any brighter.” The housekeeper softened the words. “You have done a great deal of good with this house, and with that orphanage. I do not think I have told you so plainly before now but I should like to tell you so.”

Phillipa felt something warm rise in her chest at that, unexpected and entirely welcome. “Thank you, Mrs. Glenn. That means a very great deal to me.”

“See that you eat something today,” the housekeeper said, already turning for the door. “You have gone thin about the face in just a few days, and His Grace has noticed it, even if he has not said so to you.”

“How do you know?”

It was true that she had been so busy that she had lost her appetite.

The housekeeper paused at the threshold, and turned back, as though weighing whether to say more.

“I have known that boy since he was young, Your Grace. I rocked him in this very house when his own mother was too occupied with society to do it herself,” Mrs Glenn replied. “Besides, he spoke to me about it.”

Phillipa’s jaw nearly dropped.

“What did he ask you?”

Mrs Glenn glanced around nervously. It was not a usual sight to see the woman in such a state and that only made Phillipa’s curiosity grow further.

“You can tell me,” she pressed, gently. “I won’t go around telling him anything.”

“It’s just that His Grace is quite concerned about you, and he always asks me if you’ve eaten properly,” the housekeeper admitted.

A strange warmth spread in Phillipa’s chest.

“He asks about me?”

Mrs Glenn seemed more surprised that the Duchess was surprise.

“Yes, quite often, Your Grace. He cares about your well-being and if you are adjusting well into life in the estate.”

Once again, the familiar warmth spread deeper into her chest.

He must care about me, if he asks. She thought to herself.

It was hard to tell with him. One moment, he could be completely distant and she would be at her wits end trying to figure out what was going through his mind. Another moment, he would do thoughtful things without her evening knowing.

“He need not worry,” she said after a moment. “But in case he asks about me again, you ought to reassure him.”

Mrs Glenn gave her a pointed look, “not if you don’t eat. I cannot lie to His Grace.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “All that matters for now is the ball, the rest is secondary.”

She had meant every word of it. The next day passed in a blur of fittings and florists and musicians recalled from their postponement, and underneath all of it, a current of dread that Phillipa did her best not to examine too closely.

Gregory, for his part, had become a different man these two weeks. He was more…present and Phillipa noticed that he was making more of an effort to spend time with Theodore.

She came upon him in the afternoon, kneeling on the nursery floor in his good coat, entirely unbothered by the state it was likely to be left in, stacking wooden blocks into a tower for the sole purpose of letting Theodore knock it down again, which the baby did, every single time, with a shriek of pure delighted violence.