AN: I'm reposting the story, just doing some editing in the first few chapters and then posting a new chapter. I have a few weeks off from school so I've been writing and researching a lot and am really getting ramped up for this story. This story so far is going to be complicated, lovely, romantic, detailed, and very, very long. My guess is at least 40 chapters by the way things are going. Thanks for sticking with me!

-Marie

Summary:

Recently her late master had fallen ill and passed away, leaving Rose and a few other maids to be bought by the unknown Duke of Hampshire. She comes to this new and peculiar place with nothing but a few of her close belongings and her curiosity. What will happen when she meets the handsome lord who takes an immediate-and artistic-fascination with her? Does she respond to his inquiries about her life, and his compliments on her beauty? Or does she ignore him and his outrageous looks and demeanor? Find out in... Painting the Wind

Disclaimer: I don't profit from this story and all creative rights to the characters belong to Richelle Mead. The original content, ideas, and intellectual property of this story are owned by Sarah Marie Cross. Do not copy, reproduce, print, or translate without express written permission from the author.

Ch.1

Rose drew back the curtains inside the swaying carriage and swiped her hand across the frost that had accumulated against the glass. It was like looking at the sun, nothing but the blinding crisp white snow that covered the landscape outside for miles. To one unaccustomed to such weather it would be a harsh transition, but for Rose it was like she had never left home.

Although, she was sure underneath all this snow that the surroundings would be much different, according to Edwina, who hadn't stopped prattling in the seat next to her about how Hampshire was such a lovely place to live, with its soft green grasses and meadows of wildflowers that grew rampant across the country

Rose sighed. Indeed it did seem to paint one a picture of beauty and joy, giving her thoughts of when she used to frolic in the gardens of Lord Alkan's estate, getting daisies stuck in her long hair and smelling like sweet grass. Long hair that her mother used to brush one hundred times to "give it shine and strength" she always said. Didn't seem to matter much now, considering that it was braided on top of her head so tight it was beginning to ache.

This being Maudy's doing the older maid who sat across from her who said it would show respect to their new master that they all looked like proper and clean young ladies. Rose had snorted at that, considering most days she smelled to high heavens on account of all the work she had been doing during the day.

Thinking of Lord Alkan reminded Rose of why she was sitting in this carriage in the first place. Her former master whom she'd loyally served for the past nine years had been wrought with petechial fever sometime in the early summer. He'd fought the deadly ailment for as long as possible before finally being taken by its clutches not three weeks ago.

The hole left in Rose's heart still ached from the loss, her only consolation being what he told her the night before he died, "It doesn't hurt so much now pet…besides-"he was interrupted by a violent fit of coughing, "-I will finally be able to see my lovely Beatrice once again." Beatrice was Lord Alkan's wife, whom had died of pneumonia several years prior.

She supposed the little emptiness inside her would fill eventually, but she was still wrought with images and times of Lord Alkan's generosity and humor from time to time…from the time when he had allowed her to be taught by the governess so that she would be able to read, write, and speak a few languages, to the time when he had given her an individual set of keys to the private library for her own enjoyment. Such sweet memories, which had allowed her to become the woman she was today.

She straightened her spine and set her shoulders, for she was to be seeing their new lord and his estate soon, and she couldn't very well look like a melancholy mess upon greeting, or else he could very well could turn her away.

Lord Alkan had been a smart man, but a man's generosity could only go so far. His estate went to his eldest son Ralph an abominable excuse of a man who loathed interacting with anybody below his means along with all the assets and accoutrements there, but because he was a pompous rat, he insisted on bringing his own servants to the estate and therefore selling his father's servants to the highest bidders.

The highest bidder for Rose and a few others had turned out to be a woman with hair as dark as soot and eyes the color of the sea. It had been beyond mindboggling for a lady to go forth and buy her own maids a woman of the nobility no less! a role which was reserved for a head manservant or an estate manager. What was almost more shocking than her upper class gown and the rich styling of her hair, were the words she had spoken in a neat English accent.

" My lord," she curtsied " I am Lady Tasha, here on behalf of the new Duke of Hampshire to purchase a few of your maids, whom I've heard to be some of the best in the county," she pulled out a sealed letter, with a crest that Rose couldn't quite make out "I have a signed letter sorting out the legalities for a purchasing power of attorney and travel documents which will encompass these few for their travel to Hampshire, along with double your offer in lira in my carriage."

That had shut the new Lord Alkan's mouth faster than you could serve hors d'oeuvres at a crowded spring ball. The drawing room-which was being used as a place for the auction of servants and household items, grew quiet.

He recovered with an ungentlemanly-like grunt and a shout, "Johnson! Fetch my quill and ink and bring me the damn ownership papers so I can attend to my other duties." His other duties being: his constant need to be pleasured by one of his wanton maids so that he wasn't in such a fastidious mood all the time. It was rumored all of Lord Alkan's (Ralph, that is) maids had been taken from a brothel, to ensure they were well educated on all of their…duties. This, Rose thought, is why I'm none too sad to be leaving the manor.

After the signing of papers, and an official stamp from the county notary, Rose's life in paper form was then handed to this newcomer and in no time at all it seemed, she along with the other maids were stuffed into a carriage with their meager belongings and sent off on their long trek to England.

But why would their new master pay double the bloody offer? It was downright ridiculous to offer such a sum for some measly servants, she thought. In addition, they had paid in the native currency instead of pounds, which with that amount of money would have taken weeks to get exchanged. On top of that was the breakneck speed with which they had traveled across Europe to get to England, which seemed entirely too much trouble for an English Duke.

It all seemed like it was coming too fast for Rose, for soon they would be in Lord Belikov's lands and everything would change.