by Rebecca King
Devoted To You
by
REBECCA KING
Devoted To You
By
Rebecca King
© Rebecca King 2016
SMASHWORDS EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MISTAKEN IDENTITY
HOPELESS HEART
OTHER BOOKS BY REBECCA KING
CHAPTER ONE
The atmosphere within the entrance hall was solemn as the staff of Wenland Lodge waited for the arrival of the new master of the house.
Nobody moved. Not a sound could be heard except for the rhythmic tick of the grandfather clock beside the massive front door. One minute ticked into the next, but nobody dared raise an objection to the delay. Everyone knew this was the moment they had all been working toward since they had joined the small group of servants employed to work at the house several weeks ago. Now that the moment was upon them, everyone was filled with nervous anticipation mixed with a slight hint of trepidation.
Petunia, Petal, jumped at the sound of the metallic jangle of harnesses outside, accompanied by the soft snicker of a horse. She sucked in a deep breath, and warned herself that if she didn’t calm down, she would be a wreck by tea-time, and there was much work to do before then. She risked a quick glance at her friend, Agatha. Reassuringly, the look in her friend’s eyes matched her own; she was terrified yet excited at the same time too.
This is it. You are about to become a servant in a fully working if somewhat small, house for a member of the aristocracy, Petal thought.
It had been something she had only ever dreamt of. Being the somewhat impoverished daughter of a local farmer, Wenland Lodge had always seemed a lifetime away from the humble abode in which she had grown up. It had been nothing more than a pipe-dream to even see the huge Tudor mansion up close. To think she was now working and living in the place was so surreal that she wanted to pinch herself to make sure it wasn’t all a dream. But this was real; her nerves and the ten other servants now lined up against the wall beside her confirmed it.
“Right, everybody, you know what to do. The master is sick, don’t forget. Keep the noise to a minimum. Remember – be seen but not heard.”
Rollo, the butler, gave everybody one final warning look before he pulled the door open.
Petal couldn’t help it. Her gaze was immediately drawn toward the brilliant spring morning sunshine outside. However, she paid scant attention to the vast rolling lawns bracketing the winding ribbon of the driveway. Her gaze remained locked on the activity at the base of the stone steps.
The door to the huge black carriage opened with the solemnity of a funeral procession to reveal the booted feet of the man lying within: Sir Aidan Quigley-Myers. Several footmen moved forward to slide the stretcher he was on into their waiting hands. As one, they turned, and carried their precious burden into the sanctuary of the hall. Petal caught a fleeting glimpse of a woman wearing a cloak clambering down from the carriage unaided but didn’t pay her much attention. Her gaze remained locked on the new owner of Wenland Lodge.
Unfortunately, before she could take a proper look at him, a quiet cough from Mrs Kempton, the housekeeper, reminded Petal that it was rude to gawp like a commoner. Duly chastised, she turned her attention forward, straightened her shoulders, and determinedly blanked out the burning curiosity that demanded she catch a glimpse of her employer.
Suddenly, mere feet from where Petal stood, Sir Aidan lifted a hand to order the stretcher bearers to stop. The men dutifully froze. Sir Aidan frowned and summoned Rollo with a brisk snap of his fingers.
“Yes, sir?” Rollo asked politely.
“Who is that?” Sir Aidan demanded, his voice sharp in the quietude.
The deep baritone swept over everyone, who now stood in frozen horror as they waited to see what displeased the new master so soon. Nobody breathed. Everyone looked at Rollo, including Petal, whose heart began to thump heavily in her chest. She daresn't look, but she knew that the master of the house was looking straight at her. His steady gaze burned into her, scoring her soul in a way she was aware would leave her forever changed. The small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. So much so that she struggled not to flinch beneath the careful scrutiny.
What have I done wrong? She thought frantically as she waited; an inevitable sense of doom hanging over her.
Aidan studied the staff in a receiving line, some of whom he recognised, two of whom he most definitely didn’t. He knew he had never seen either of them before, especially the delightful young woman directly in front of him. Something deep within his chest jolted annoyingly with awareness and began to flood his body with lambent warmth. He hadn’t felt anything like it before; and was flummoxed to find a cause beyond the delightful woman standing mere feet away.
His first thought was that he hoped she was his nurse. Then he remembered he had Edwards, the somewhat shrill harridan his mother had employed against his wishes, and cursed bitterly.
“She is staff,” he murmured blandly.
He didn’t need to see Rollo nod to confirm it. He eyed the starched uniform the new member of staff wore and sighed deeply. It seemed such a terrible waste of a delightful creature to have her doing menial tasks around his home.
Cursing Fate for being so cruel to condemn someone who looked like her to a life of servitude, Aidan glared at Rollo, his butler.
Petal’s heart lurched when she realised the master had a problem with her. She cast a worried look at Mrs Kempton, whose dark scowl was anything but reassuring. Sucking in a deep breath, Petal’s hands clenched tightly behind her back she began to tremble as she waited for the axe to fall. The urge to fidget beneath the master’s piercing study made her shiver all over. She started to feel sick with the ferocity of the nerves that made her knees shake. The need to poke at her hair to make sure none of the honeyed strands had slipped loose of the tight, mandatory bun they were supposed to be in was so intense that she had to cross her fingers to fight the urge to do so. It was more than her life was worth for her to move a muscle, or demand to know what was wrong. She knew she would be out of the door faster than she could blink if she did anything untoward right now.
With that in mind, she remained frozen in place and waited.
Several slow minutes ticked by with painful regularity.
“Who are these two? I recognise everyone else from my brother’s house. You have done well to select them,” Aidan assured the butler when he realised the man looked uncomfortable.
Rollo smiled with relief. “I am afraid your brother protested at losing them, sir. You have taken his best staff.”
Aidan snorted and threw his brother, Jeremy, a rueful look before he turned his attention back to the new staff.
Unwittingly, Petal’s gaze dropped to the new master of the house. Immediately, she sucked in a startled breath. Her world slid to a halt; everything hung suspended as she stared helplessly at the devilish good looks and glorious green eyes. This was her first good look at him. What she saw left her speechless.
Oh, my, he is handsome.
Suddenly, a tall, rather buxom woman in her mid-thirties appeared between them, all brisk and no-nonsense efficiency.
“Come along now, you cannot remain here all afternoon,” she rapped out.
“I will stay here as long as I damned well please, Edwards. Remember that you are also a servant in this house,” Aidan warned darkly.
It was evident to everyone that something was going on between the master and the woman that was less than pleasant. Unless Petal was grossly mistaken, they didn’t like each other very much.
At least he isn’t staring at you anymore, Petal sighed with relief as she watched the interplay between the Sir Aidan and the nurse.
“I am looking after your best interests,” the woman named Edwards remarked snidely. “I am your nurse, after all.”
She looked around the hallway down the length of her nose, as if attempting to reaffirm to everyone that her position within the household would be considerably more elevated than the servants.
“Come along now,” Edwards ordered the footmen.
Aidan lifted a hand to stop them moving.
“Get out of my sight, Edwards. I shall not have you issue orders to anyone in my house,” he declared coldly.
Edwards opened her mouth to argue but then took a closer look at the closed expression on Aidan’s face. There had already been enough conflict between them for her to recognise that Aidan was angry, and matters would be awful between them until she was able to find a way to get around it. Shaking her head in disgust, she skirted around her bag now resting in the middle of the hall and made her way upstairs empty-handed, apparently expecting the staff to take her luggage to her room.
“Your room is downstairs, Edwards,” Aidan reported coldly as he watched her take two steps up the main flight of stairs. “With the staff. Where you belong.”
Edwards froze and turned to glare coldly at him. “I beg your pardon?”
Aidan sighed and levelled a disinterested glare on the woman.
“You are a servant in this house. Therefore, you will remain in the servant’s quarters. However, seeing as the upstairs quarters are full, you have to reside in the downstairs quarters, in the old housekeeper’s room next to the kitchens. Off you go now, and don’t forget your bag.”
The atmosphere within the hall thickened as everyone waited to see what she would do.
Edward’s cheeks flushed angrily. Petal expected the woman to launch into a tirade and protest against her treatment. In the end, she sucked in a deeply affronted breath before stiffly descending the stairs. Once there, she picked up her bag and skirted around the master without even bothering to look at him again. Petal thought that was the end of the matter until Edwards reached the door to the servants’ quarters at the back of the hall. Once through the door, she slammed it behind her with such force that the portraits shuddered against the wall.
Petal’s eyes grew wide. The urge to puff her cheeks out at such a blatant display of bad temper almost happened. Until she realised the master had turned his attention to her once again. She couldn’t move, and swallowed nervously while she waited to hear what he had to say to her.
Something deep inside jolted with the alarming awareness that was nothing to do with her employment status but was infinitely more feminine. Appalled at the inappropriateness of her thoughts, she swallowed harshly and tried to ignore the heavy beating of her thundering heart. As the minutes ticked by, she found her gaze inevitably drawn down to meet his, in spite of her sternest warning that it was foolish to do so.
Their gazes met. His were calm and reassuring, if alive with curiosity; not at all what she had expected. Not after how angry he had been with the nurse. It was perplexing. Something in that soft gaze left her with the impression he wasn’t upset with anybody. So, what had that scene been all about with the nurse?
Aidan looked deeply into her sharp, crystal blue gaze and was hooked. They seemed to beckon him in and render his thoughts token wisps of nothingness that had little relevance or meaning beyond the two of them. Her gaze was nervous and unsure; as though her very life depended on whether he was happy with her or not. He wanted to reassure her but had no idea what had frightened her in the first place.
Petal hated feeling this menial. It was the first time she had felt anything like this in her entire life but was helpless to do anything about it. It was horrifying to experience it now; in the eyes of someone so stunningly handsome. An undercurrent of something she had yet to identify swept between them. Awareness, yes, but there was something else. Some inner connection that brought forward a yearning she had never expected to experience. Not with her new employer anyway. She was at a loss to know how to deal with the burgeoning feelings. An inner sense of self-preservation began to scream at her to look away, and do it now, and she did. But, moments later, she found herself wishing he would do the same.
Aidan couldn’t take his eyes off her, and read horror, fear, worry, nervousness, and all sorts of other emotions in her eyes. It amazed him that he understood another human being in this way. He had certainly never been able to do so before. Even though her face didn’t move, he was aware that she was feeling all of those things, and more, although had no idea how he know. He just did. Surprised, he wanted to find out as much as he could about her; like why he had such a link with someone he barely knew. Someone who was, by far, the complete opposite of everything he had known, and was.
“They are new staff members,” Aidan drawled, forcing his attention onto the somewhat plain young lady beside the stunning beauty.
“That’s Petal, sir,” Rollo replied, motioning to the delightful creature. “She is the upstairs maid.”
“Petal?” Aidan murmured thoughtfully.
He wouldn’t have called her Petal. She looked more like a Rose, or a Hyacinth, or some kind of exotic orchid, but never Petal. He only half listened to Rollo recount all of her duties. She looked small, fragile even; as though she wouldn’t have enough strength to withstand a good gust of wind. How on earth Rollo expected someone like her to fetch and carry heavy trays and buckets up and down the stairs was beyond him. It was on the tip of his tongue to order the butler to swap her with someone from downstairs but then wanted to see more of her. If only to make sure she was up to the job she had been employed to do.
“Petunia Biddeham, sir. Everyone calls her Petal.” Unaware of Sir Aidan’s thoughts, Rollo moved on to the next maid. “This is Agatha Taylor, the downstairs maid. Everybody calls her Aggy, sir.”
Aidan nodded and tried to appear interested in the second maid, but failed miserably when his gaze instinctively slid back to Petal.
“Are you alright?” Jerry asked with a frown when the length of time Aidan had been staring at the servant had gone beyond politeness.
Aidan looked at his brother.
“It’s fine,” he replied thoughtfully. “I was going to say something only forgot what. Trying to think of anything at the moment is so incredibly difficult that it’s become a daily struggle. I hate it.”
“It will get better,” Jerry assured him.
In spite of his encouraging words, his voice was laden with concern.
Conversely, in spite of his cloudy thoughts, Aidan didn’t think he would forget Petal at all. There was something about her that had captured his attention. Mired in a thick fog that continually troubled him, she was the one vision that stood out amongst everything else. It was so unusual that he needed to find out why now and, more importantly, why her.
“Petal,” he murmured softly. “That is an unusual name.”
Jerry studied the maid in question, who looked deuced uncomfortable at being singled out. He couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. Aidan had never shown this much interest in any of his servants before. This new maid was delightfully gorgeous in her own right, but nothing particularly special. What was it about her that had caught his brother’s attention? Turning to study Aidan again, he began to wonder.
Oblivious to the waiting staff, Aidan rolled her name around in his mind. It immediately turned his thoughts toward flowers; in particular, the elegant, soft petals of a rose. Such sweet temptation; it reminded him of spring; new beginnings; fresh starts; the burgeoning
of new life; the dawn of a new season. It gave him hope. It made him want to smile, and that was something he hadn’t done in a very long time indeed.
Confident that it was the right decision not to ask Rollo to move her downstairs, he gave Petal one last, lingering look, and decided he would make an assessment of her sturdiness personally. If in a few week, he didn’t think she was up to the job then he would have her moved downstairs.
Satisfied that the initial spark of interest in her was down to nothing more than an employer’s concern for his staff, he turned his attention to his butler.
“Would you like me to introduce the rest of the staff, sir?” Rollo asked courteously.
“No, let them go about their duties. My arrival didn’t warrant a receiving line. You know I can’t abide all of this pomp and circumstance. It can’t be any fun for them either,” Aidan replied briskly.
He almost smiled when he felt the atmosphere within the room lighten considerably as everyone heaved a barely hidden sigh of relief.
“How many people work here?” Jerry asked, running his gaze along the rest of the household and doing a mental headcount. He pursed his lips. “It will be enough to look after you, Aidan.”
“There are ten, sir; eight inside the house and two outside. We kept the numbers down as you requested. They are the most reliable staff, sir. They won’t gossip, and are accomplished,” Rollo assured them both.
“I know. I am sure I will meet them all in due course. For now, I think I had better go and rest for a while. I need to recover from the journey. It has been most taxing.”
Rollo clicked his fingers. The footmen immediately began to make their way up the stairs.
It was only when Petal disappeared from his line of sight that Aidan realised he had been staring at her for an overly long period. He hadn’t even noticed the three or four other members of staff standing on the opposite side of her. Reluctantly, he turned his attention to the high arch of the ceiling as it passed by, and yawned widely while he thought about that.