Contentment suffused her as she strolled through the countryside at an easy pace, leaving the bustling churchyard and village behind and enjoying the fine weather. Buds poked from several trees and shrubs, heralding the onset of spring. It was an excellent day for gathering herbs if only she had brought her satchel along with her. Instantly she decided she would hasten to her chamber, change her garments and gather the things she required for collecting herbs.

When she arrived at Haverston Hall it was to find Marian and her husband not yet returned. Goodness, if Nora hadn’t slipped away she would still be stuck there.

Shaking her head, she dashed up to her chamber and made quick work of shedding her garments, twisting about and doing her best to undo the buttons at her back without tearing them loose. Many a button had flown on occasions before, scattered to the corners of her chamber.

She knew the maid assigned to her upon moving into Haverston Hall rued the day she had landed Nora as a charge. Nora was forever uncooperative, avoiding custom and dressing herself, undressing herself, doing her own hair, tending her fire and pulling down her own bed at night. She was every lady’s maid’s nightmare, but Bea’s especially. Bea had said as much.

Considering the manner of activity she had planned for the rest of the day, she donned one of her old costumes. A simple gray blouse and skirt with an embroidered belt. She had worn the attire often before Marian married the duke—when Nora was naught but a simple country maid.

Life had been hard then, with little money and debtors hunting them and a belly that was never quite full. Fear for their future was a very real thing.

Now there was no fear. And yet life had been simpler then. Simpler when she’d had nothing. No money. No prospects, certainly.

Now there were expectations, as much as she disliked those expectations and chafed beneath the weight of them.

She descended the stairs and made her way free of the house without encountering anyone. She exhaled. It always felt a little easier to breathe when she was clear of Haverston Hall.

She basked in the fine day, her long strides quickly covering the distance, soon depositing her at her destination on the far side of the estate. The secluded little lagoon was a place she had occasionally visited, swimming in the waters as a child, although she supposed she had been trespassing in those days.

She rounded the pond where several white willows crowded the water’s edge, shielding a good portion of the water from the sun. Nora was well familiar with these particular willows. She’d harvested willow bark from them regularly every spring, even before Warrington had taken residence at Haverston Hall . . . before he met and subsequently married Marian.