29
Three couples and a wedding night
Late November, 1842
Charlotte thought she heard an echo of footsteps in the servant's stairwell, but they couldn't possibly be hers. She'd removed her slippers so the heel did not clop on the hardwood steps leading to the floor above hers. With no light from the extinguished stub of a candle on the wall—likely because it was long past the servant's bedtime—she counted the steps from memory and ran into the back of a woman who already had her hand on the knob to the third floor hallway.
"I'm so sorry," they both said at the exact moment, Charlotte thinking she’d run into one of the servants. Except the voice was…
"Penny?" Charlotte whisper-squeaked, not believing who she'd discovered in the stairwell with her.
"Charlotte?"
"Yes," she replied. Penn
