by Kimberly Nee
Dear Lord…if that wasn’t recognition in his eyes, she didn’t know what it was. Any moment, and everyone in the room would know as well.
“Far be it from me to meddle in my brother’s assignations.” Conn’s grin turned almost wolfish. Lord help the women he turned that smile on, as it was sensual and heavy with promise. Charm ran through the Sebastiano veins. “But she’s probably pinned him in some dark corner by now. Or at least tried to.”
Katie certainly wasn’t going to venture into the bachelors’ wing. Mrs. Bates would be apoplectic if she was caught. Besides, the thought of what she might find there bothered her even more than the possibility of discovery.
“Shall we find her for you? I do love a good scavenger hunt.” Elena nudged her sister. “Come, Rena. We’re going on a hunt with— What is your name?”
“Katie.”
She didn’t fear giving either sister her name, as she hadn’t been introduced to them during her short stay on St. Phillippe. They had quickly been rushed out of her presence, which was a small relief now.
As long as Conn didn’t expose her…
And with that in mind, the sooner she excused herself, the better.
Elena’s eyes sparkled as she continued, “We’re going on a hunt with Katie. But Conn, you and Galen must stay here. Katie wouldn’t want anyone to think she was trying to sneak off with one of you.” Elena’s grin turned mischievous. “Would you, Katie?”
“Oh, bloody hell, of course not,” Katie snapped, then realized her mistake when all four Sebastianos stared at her as if they’d just caught her killing a cat. “I beg your pardon, but this isn’t any sort of scavenger hunt. I simply wanted to speak to Abigail. That’s all. I just wondered if anyone had seen her.”
“I told you, I saw her following Rafe down that way.” Elena jabbed her finger toward the far end of the library. “You look angry. Is there going to be a fight?”
“No. It’s just that…Mrs. Bates was looking for her.”
Elena frowned. “I’d rather you mess her up. She’s an evil cow.”
“Elena!” The horrified gasp came from Serena, but the slight grin on her face suggested she wasn’t nearly as scandalized as she sounded.
Elena didn’t look at all chagrined. “Well, she is. Throwing herself all over every man she sees. She’s already tried to slobber on Galen and Conn.” She waved a hand toward her brothers, who were paying rapt attention to them, as if waiting to be invited to join the fray. “If she catches up to Rafe, you can wager she’ll be all over him, and that would make Sally have kittens.”
Katie sighed. Wonderful. Mrs. North and Mrs. Bates had apparently outdone themselves when they’d hired Abigail. How long would it be before she or Martha found the girl trying to worm her way into the Earl’s bed? “Are you certain she went up to the bachelors’ wing?”
Elena nodded. “I am if that’s where that door leads.”
Conn shoved his brother’s booted feet from the arm of the sofa. “We’ll go. Come on, Gale, let’s go pin us down a maid. Rafe will thank us for rescuing him.”
Galen rubbed one eye. “I suppose I could, if properly motivated.”
“Properly motiv— Come now, old man.” Conn flashed another devilish grin. “How can you resist the promise of a possible catfight?”
“Oh, well, if there’s going to be a catfight—”
Katie had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from scowling at them. She weighed the consequences of getting into a fight with the guests. No. Not worth it. “I said nothing about there being a cat— Oh, never mind. I’ll speak to her later, upstairs.”
“Oh, we’re going. It isn’t often we get the opportunity to catch our brother in a compromising position.”
“No, wait…”
Ignoring her protest, the Sebastiano brothers took off in search of their older brother and the sneaky housemaid.
Katie shook her head. “They will enjoy this, won’t they?”
Serena let out a tired laugh. “Most likely. It’s been a long day, and they’ve spent far too much time on board a ship. They should probably be at a tavern instead of a house party.”
“I don’t understand why Mami had to spend those extra days on Puerto Rico,” Elena added with a shrug. “It only made this trip worse.”
“Is that why you came on separate ships?”
Serena nodded. “It’s partly why. Papi had business matters to take care of, and Mami loves San Juan. She goes as often as she can, and this time she was searching for a gift for my brother and his wife. They recently had a baby. Well, two babies, actually, as she had twins.”
“Twins? How lovely.” Katie couldn’t quite keep the wistfulness from her voice. She cleared her throat. “I really should go and look elsewhere for Abigail. There is always the chance she didn’t go to the bachelors’ wing.”
If she had any sense at all.
“Not likely.” Elena sniffed. “Women are always chasing Rafe. Although he doesn’t usually run away so fast. That has to be a first, now that I think about it.”
“Elena! Mami would explode if she heard you.”
Elena stuck her tongue out at her sister. “I’m right and you know it, Rena. He’s almost as bad as Aidrian was, before he met Vanessa, that is.”
Katie wanted to ask how Vanessa and Aidrian were doing, but she caught herself in time.
Serena nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Right about what?” Fiona Sebastiano asked as she swept into the room with the Hamilton women.
The night just kept getting more and more complicated. When would it end?
“Nothing, Mami,” Elena replied in a hurried voice. “We were merely gossiping.”
“About something delicious, I hope,” Lady Edna said with a smile, as she perched beside Elena. “I do love a juicy tidbit. It’s been a while since there’s been anything really good.”
“Katie, bring us the plates of biscuits if you would.” Lady Marchand gestured in the general direction of the desserts.
Katie hoped no more had gone missing. “Of course, m’lady.”
She fetched the two plates and offered one to Mrs. Sebastiano first. The lady declined, but her daughters each relieved the plate of a biscuit.
Their elegant voices, with their myriad accents, fell softly behind Katie as she returned the plates to their table and poured each lady a sherry. As she served those, she fervently hoped that neither Conn nor Galen returned with Abigail just yet.
As luck would have it, neither brother appeared at all. Instead, Inigo joined the ladies with a low, “May I? I’m afraid I’ve grown rather tired of business talk and I heard you ladies had dessert.”
“Of course, Captain Sebastiano,” Lady Marchand replied. “Lord Marchand does love to chew a subject to death, I’m afraid.”
“All that talk of shipping schedules and the like,” Lady Edna broke in, her voice somewhat muffled. By a biscuit, most likely. “I’m afraid it would make my head hurt to even consider such topics.”
Lady Sally laughed. “I could withstand it for a while, but eventually my mind would wander.”
“As it should,” Lady Marchand told her, nodding with approval. “You shouldn’t tax yourself with such things.”
Katie rearranged the biscuits to offer to Captain Sebastiano, taking some from one plate to refill the missing ones on another. As she swung about to offer Inigo dessert, Rafe strode into the library, and she froze.
He didn’t look as if he’d been rolling around with Abigail. His frock coat and breeches remained uncreased and his hair was smooth in its queue. The breathless feeling quelled momentarily. But her relief was short-lived. He might not have been dallying with Abigail, but he was still supposed to marry Lady Sally. That hadn’t changed.
A sense of sorrow nibbled at her as she remembered that afternoon, the way his lips had swept so lig
htly along her nape. Even now, she wanted to shiver. She should be furious on Lady Sally’s behalf, but couldn’t seem to muster up the outrage.
She licked her lips nervously and walked over to offer the plate. “Biscuit, Captain Sebastiano?”
Inigo smiled and took one. “Thank you.”
“Of course, sir.” She swung the plate to Rafe. “Biscuit, Captain Sebastiano?”
She thought she saw a spark of something in his eyes. One side of his mouth rose in a cocky grin she knew well, that added to his rakishness, but his gaze remained steady. “Thank you, but no. I’m still quite full from dinner.”
Katie held his stare. It caught her, held her fast, and her face felt warmer as she said, “Of course, sir.”
Lady Sally’s voice broke through the spell. “I would love one, Katie. If you wouldn’t mind.”
Katie jerked upright and the motion sent the biscuits sliding about on the plate. Several toppled from the china to bounce across the carpet. Without thinking, Katie shoved the plate at her Ladyship with a brusque, “Here,” and knelt to gather up the broken bits before they were ground into the Persian carpet.
“Katherine!” Lady Marchand injected so much horror into the word that Katie froze, there on her knees, the sugar coating the biscuits melting into her palm to make it sticky. “What on earth are you about?”
Rafe glared at the Countess while the heat of humiliation seared Katie. She jumped back to her feet and saw her Ladyship holding the plate. “I beg your pardon, m’lady,” she managed to shove out, clasping her hands into tight fists. “If you will excuse me, I’ll take that downstairs at once.”
“Yes, please do so.” Lady Marchand’s voice was as cool as her stare, and Katie wasted no time in hurrying from the room, cursing herself for her foolishness the entire way.
In the servants’ dining hall, Katie reached for a towel on the sideboard and brushed the sugar from her palms into the sink. It was very quiet, the only noise coming from the kitchen, where Mrs. North and Lucy chattered. Katie sank into Martha’s vacated chair, buried her face in her hands and immediately regretted it as more granules dug into her cheek. Apparently she’d missed some.
With a low sigh, she picked up the towel and shoved herself up from the chair to go around to the water pump behind the kitchen. As she dampened the towel to wash her face, Abigail came through the door, her face twisted into a mask of anger.
“You sent someone after me?” she snapped by way of greeting. “And a houseguest, no less? You’ve some nerve, don’t you? One would think you were head housemaid.”
Katie straightened up, water dripping down her cheek. “I did no such thing. They did that all on their own. Unlike you, I wouldn’t venture into the bachelors’ corridor.”
“You’re a fool, then. Don’t you want more than this?” Abigail gestured toward the house with one hand. “More than ‘yes, m’lady’ and ‘no, m’lady’ and ‘what can I get for you, m’lady?’ Don’t you get tired of serving, of always doing someone else’s bidding? Tired of kissing their bloody toes?”
As much as she hated admitting it, Katie agreed with her to a certain extent. She did grow weary of it. She rolled her eyes. “Of course, but throwing yourself at one of the guests will only get you sacked. You ought to know better by now. Or are you so foolish, so arrogant, that you think you won’t be caught? And never mind that Captain Sebastiano is going to be Lady Sally’s husband. You have to be insane to pursue him. Insane or completely stupid.”
“You obviously haven’t seen these guests. An entire family of men too handsome for their own good. And how does it matter? Captain Sebastiano isn’t married to her Ladyship yet.”
Katie swallowed her impatience. “That’s all well and good, but why lie to Mrs. Bates about the biscuits when you know perfectly well Lady Edna offered one to Martha? Why would you do that to her? What has she done to you?”
“Because I want to be the head housemaid and that will never happen as long as she is here. And who is Martha? Nothing to me but a challenge. She’s hardly anything special, and I’ve displaced more important maids than her.”
“Rest assured that will never happen, not that I believe you for a moment. You’ll never replace her. Everyone down here loves her, and her Ladyship is quite fond of her and will be even more so once she realizes what you’ve done. And she will find out. She isn’t stupid and you aren’t that clever. You’ll be tossed out of here like yesterday’s rubbish. I hope you’re prepared for that. You’ll have to begin all over in another household.”
That had to be Katie’s own greatest fear. If she were found out here, she’d be lucky to find any sort of position in another respectable household.
Abigail’s eyes narrowed and the corners of her mouth tightened. “Is that so? I beg to differ. If anyone is a fool around here, it’s you. Do you think no one has seen your cow’s face when you’re around the men? You remind me of one of the dockside trollops who sees gold whenever she looks at a man. You see them all the time at the waterfront. And you are so like them. It’s enough to make a body feel ill.”
“Like them?” Despite her quickening heartbeat, Katie shook her head. “You’re imagining things. Delusional and cruel, and for what? Martha’s been nothing but a friend to you. We all have.”
Abigail snorted, waving away the notion like a pesky mosquito. “She’s not my friend. She thinks quite highly of herself, and I have no qualms about pulling the rug out from under her. Not one of you tried to approach me as a friend. No one treated me as anything other than an interloper.”
“So, shall I speak to Mrs. Bates about how you tried to corner Captain Sebastiano, then?” Katie had had enough of Abigail and was coming dangerously close to losing her temper, which was something she didn’t want to risk. Still, she couldn’t hold back. “Should I tell her I found you with him? I’m sure she’d be very interested in that little morsel, aren’t you? It’s nothing worse than what you would say if the positions were switched.”
Abigail’s eyes narrowed. “That would be a lie.”
“What you told Mrs. Bates was a lie as well. It’s different when the stocking’s on the other leg, isn’t it? Besides, I don’t know you weren’t with him. All anyone knows is that you were about to chase him down the bachelors’ corridor, and there’s only one reason why you’d do something like that, isn’t there?”
Abigail closed the space between them, her nose practically touching Katie’s. “You wouldn’t dare,” she growled. “You haven’t courage.”
It was unfortunate Abigail didn’t know it took much more than a bit of nose-to-nose contact to rattle Katie. She didn’t flinch, didn’t so much as blink as she countered, “Oh, haven’t I? Go on, then.” She narrowed her eyes. “Try me.”
The outer corners of Abigail’s eyes twitched, but she held Katie’s stare without saying a word. Then she stepped back. “You wouldn’t have the stomach.”
“That’s twice you’ve accused me of that.” Katie gritted her teeth, her hold on her temper tenuous at best now. Of course she wouldn’t risk telling Mrs. Bates and having Abigail take revenge. But Abigail didn’t know that, did she? “Would you care to see about that?”
Katie never saw the blow coming, didn’t even know a woman could hit as hard as a man. Brilliant white light flashed before her, and the darkness rushed up to claim her as she hit the ground.
Chapter Nine
Katie didn’t know how long she lay there in the dirt. When she finally came to, it was raining and her aching head spun wildly. Her black dress was a sodden mess.
She wasn’t anywhere near the house but instead lay in the low fronds of a thick jungle fern.
“What the devil…?” When she tried to open her eyes, the left one refused to obey, only opening a fraction. She blinked, staring up at the cloudy sky. Everything was fuzzy, as if she peered through a misty haze. The canopy of palm fronds waved gently overhead, her v
ision cleared little by little, and she groaned softly as she moved to sit up.
“Oh…” She swallowed hard against the rising tide of nausea. All for naught. She dropped to her knees and vomited into the fern, gagging and moaning as her belly emptied itself.
It was awful. Every muscle clenched and twisted as if trying to wring all the horror from the fibers, to empty her of everything she’d ever eaten. When it felt as if she’d been turned completely inside out, she went limp and collapsed on her back, away from the befouled plants. She panted, trying in vain to catch her breath.
A fine film of sweat prickled its way across her skin, but she had no energy to swipe the back of her hand over her forehead, or any other part of her. She swallowed hard, wincing at the foul taste in her mouth, and just stared up at the raindrops pattering down from the leaden sky.
It might have been a few minutes, or several hours. She didn’t know how long it was before her head finally cleared and the awful nausea went away. All she wanted was to stop hurting, to crawl into her bed and wake up to find this had been a terrible dream. Time lost its meaning as she just lay there, looking up at the sky through only one eye.
She shivered as the night wind blew icily over her, but it felt good against her damp skin. And it was enough to spur her on. Gingerly, she rose, reaching for something on which to steady herself. Her hair was a matted mess, her cap soaked and dripping water as she stumbled out of the bush. Thick, hot tears blurred the vision in her right eye. She didn’t know what jungle creatures might come out at night, and had no idea if anyone had even noticed her absence. What if the house was locked up for the night?
With a whimper, she staggered along the path. The rain picked up, a steady shower drenching her from head to foot. She winced with each drop that pattered against the bruises on her face, even if it was cool against her sweaty skin, washing away tears, blood and sand.
She looked up and whispered, “Thank you, Lord,” as the familiar straight edges of Marchand Hall emerged from the darkness. It was only a few minutes’ walk away. She wasn’t as deep into the jungle as she’d thought.