by Rebecca King
“Tired?” Jerry asked fondly as he climbed the steps beside him.
Aidan snorted. “I am, but I don’t see why I should be. All I have done is lie in bed and eat. Why, I shall be as fat as a goose if I carry on like this.”
“You have just travelled all the way from London,” Jerry reminded him pertly. “It is a tiring journey for someone who is able bodied. You have barely recovered from a near-fatal carriage accident. It is unsurprising you are exhausted.”
Petal watched the procession turn out of sight at the top of the stairs and almost slumped with relief that they were gone. To her dismay, Sir Aidan’s gaze had remained on her until he had no choice but to look away. She wondered if she had soot on her face or something. Before he had arrived, she had hurried to his room to light the fire but hadn’t had the time to check that she was presentable other than to make sure her uniform was clean.
“What was he looking at?” Petal demanded of Mrs Kempton suddenly, her voice full of panic. “What’s wrong with me? Why was he staring?”
“Now, now, Petal, I am sure it was nothing,” Mrs Kempton soothed. “He is just curious about you, that’s all. I have known him since he was a wee boy. He is kindly, that one. He hasn’t seen either you, or Aggy, before. The master has always taken an interest in what is going on below stairs. Never you mind, my dear. If he had a problem with you, he would have said so.”
Before Petal could say anything else, Mrs Kempton focused her attention on the rest of the staff and clapped her hands to halt the dull murmur of conversation.
“Do I look alright?” Petal demanded of Aggy as she peered down at her dress.
“Come along everyone. Best get back to work,” Mrs Kempton said before she scurried off to the kitchens.
Petal barely heard Aggy assure her that she was fine. She hurried over to the mirror right next to the door and looked at her hair. It was all neatly tucked away as she had left it.
With answers not forthcoming, Petal had no choice but to re-join the rest of the servants now shuffling to the back of the house. She had heard many staff mention that the new master was an exceptional man with a fine, upstanding reputation for being a good person to work for. That being the case why had he singled her out like that? Did he not know that the servants below stairs would gossip and speculate about such things?
As if to confirm that notion, a couple of the kitchen staff smiled secretively at her as they returned to their posts. Petal turned away from them and blanked out their whispers, but could do little about the tide of worry that began to build.
“Come on. Let’s get some chores done before we get told off,” Aggy murmured quietly. “Just ignore them. He didn’t object to you, or me, for that matter. I wouldn’t worry about it. Mrs Kempton was right; he was just curious about us. I am sure there is nothing more to it than that.”
Realising she was making her friend worry unduly, Petal decided to let the matter drop and followed everyone toward the kitchens. Still, she was somewhat absent minded as she went about the rest of her chores, and almost dreaded him summoning her.
CHAPTER TWO
Aidan remained silent as the footmen carried him into his suite of rooms at the front of the house, but his mind repeatedly replayed what had just happened. He couldn’t quite understand why she had captured his attention so firmly. After all, she was a maid. She was dressed the same and had been in line with everyone else.
Her hair was a honey blonde in colour, with delicate highlights of gold, copper and bronze – he could remember that precisely. Even with it tied back, loose tendrils danced and bobbed about her face, teasing her alabaster skin and cupping her oval face with loving curls. He wondered if it tickled her cheeks as it brushed gently against her porcelain skin like that but then quashed that thought because it was altogether too personal, and inappropriate.
“You have seen more beautiful women in the ballrooms of the ton,” Aidan murmured to himself.
“Eh? What’s that?” Jerry asked, dropping his cloak onto a chair beside the bed.
“Nothing,” Aidan sighed. “Let me just get off this damned board. It is so deuced uncomfortable that I think I would have been better standing up.”
He sighed and glared at Edwards when she began to fuss around him.
“Just get away from me, woman,” he growled with a scowl. “Get out.” His voice brooked no argument and watched Edwards comply without a murmur of protest.
Jerry smiled and stood back while the men slid Aidan onto the bed and quietly left.
Rollo bowed politely and turned to the door.
“Before you go-” Aidan peered at the butler who paused.
“Yes, sir?”
“Please tell me that you haven’t filched any of the staff from out of my mother’s house?”
He wrinkled his nose in disgust at the thought that any of the staff from Abbeygate were working in his home. They would undoubtedly be under strict orders from the dowager to do things her way and report back to her if anything happened in the house she might not like. The prospect that he might be spied upon made him furious, and he remained tense while he waited.
Aidan had deliberately refused, time and time again, the dowager’s offer to recuperate at Abbeygate, for fear that she would use his inability to run away to pressure him into marriage. He had barely escaped from the last time she had tried to entrap him with that disgusting creature, Theresa Hornsby, she was always dragging around with her. Hand delivering himself to her doorstep while too ill to run was a fool’s game. He was sick, but he wasn’t that incapacitated. It was bad enough that she had foisted Edwards, whose behaviour was less than therapeutic, on him.
“There is nobody here from Abbeygate,” Rollo assured him ruefully.
“If you had gone down the receiving line like you should have done, you would know where each of the staff came from, Aidan,” Jerry said.
“Are any of them from Abbeygate?” Aidan persisted.
“No. All of your staff are mine,” his brother drawled. “The two who haven’t worked at my house have been chosen by me. They are well trained with good reputations. Petal is a local, and Aggy is her friend, and neither have links to anyone currently living or working for the dowager. That’s why they were chosen. I doubt you will have any trouble from either of them.”
Jerry took a seat beside the bed while Aidan hauled himself upright so he could see him while they talked. He nodded at Rollo, who, summarily dismissed, left quietly.
Aidan watched the door close behind him.
“Just keep the dowager out of the house as much as you can, Jerry. I cannot stand the thought of having either her or that Hornsby woman taking over this place,” Aidan pleaded. He looked at his sibling, who nodded in understanding.
Determined to lighten the suddenly gloomy atmosphere, Jerry shook his head mockingly.
“I don’t know, Aidan. You come here instead of going to Abbeygate to recuperate and annoy mother dearest to the point that she is almost apoplectic with rage. You steal most of my staff rather than get your own, and then order me about like one of your servants,” Jerry grumbled teasingly. “To top it all, I think you have just terrified the two members of staff you actually employ outright. I can only hope they aren’t packing their things right now.”
Aidan snorted, but a teasing glint of humour lit his eyes.
“They have to be made of sterner stuff if they want to work here, especially with the dowager on the prowl. I am certain there will be fireworks between us when she does attempt to use this situation to her advantage.”
Jerry jerked and looked at his brother wryly. “Who? You and the new servant?”
“What?” Aidan’s voice was loud.
“The servant you were staring at,” Jerry reminded him.
Aidan frowned and wondered if he should try to bluff his way past that slight err from grace. He coughed uncomfortably and briefly considered lying but suspected that Jerry would just see through him.
“I don’t know what it
is about her. I cannot help it. It feels like I have met her somewhere before,” he mused thoughtfully.
“Come off it, brother. You were staring at her like she was about to feed you all of your favourite treats in one sitting,” Jerry replied with a sigh before he turned solemn. “Just remember that she is a member of your staff. Don’t besmirch either your good reputation, or her name, by forgetting it.”
Aidan looked horrified, but then felt incredibly guilty when he had, secretly, been considering just that.
“I won’t,” he sighed, considering briefly just how unfair life was. “I know she is a servant. I just think there is more to her than meets the eye. It is why I asked if any of the staff have links to the dowager.”
He glared at Jerry when he opened his mouth again and lifted a hand to halt his argument.
“She isn’t connected in any way,” Jerry assured him.
After what had happened in the hallway he wasn’t quite sure whether that was a good thing or not.
“Good, then maybe she can help me.”
“Pardon?” Jerry’s brows lifted as he waited for his brother to expand. He sensed that Aidan was plotting something only for the life of him couldn’t understand how the delightful maid could assist.
“I know she is just a maid, but she is going to be spending a lot of time in this room fetching and carrying things. It will help me deal with Edwards if I can get Petal on my side.”
Jerry shook his head, strangely deflated at the realisation that he had misread his brother’s apparent interest in the new member of staff.
“You sound as though you are going into battle,” he remarked dryly. “Why would Petal need to be on your side?”
Aidan glared at him. “I tried to leave the blasted woman, Edwards, back in London, Jerry, but mother employed her. Because mother pays her, Edwards refuses to leave until the dowager tells her that her term is up.”
Jerry nodded. He had heard this argument several times before. “I know, but it is only for a few weeks.”
“Said with the innocence of someone who doesn’t have to deal with the damned woman himself. What with her already here, and the dowager threatening to move in to help me run the house, it will be a miracle if I manage to recover with my sanity intact,” Aidan said sarcastically.
“I don’t doubt the dowager will try to take advantage of your incapacity,” Jerry agreed. “But don’t forget that you are the master of the house here. It is your decision what does or doesn’t go on in this house, not hers, or Edwards. As long as you make sure the staff is all aware of that, then there can be no problem can there? Set out the boundaries with Edwards. She is a member of staff, nothing more.”
“She wants more,” Aidan growled in disgust.
“I know,” Jerry replied. “You just have to make sure she doesn’t get it.”
“I cannot think of anything worse that being saddled with that woman,” Aidan confided.
He threw his brother a grateful look.
“You can have some of your staff back if you want,” he offered, not willing to discuss the dowager, or Edwards, too much because it dampened his already darkened mood. “With just me living here, I don’t need the full complement of people hanging around waiting to serve me. Petal will do, or Aggy, if Petal struggles to cope.”
“There will be a time when you will want to socialise, dear brother. You cannot hide away here forever, you know,” Jerry chided.
“Oh? Why not?” Aidan challenged.
Even lifting a snooty brow was painful to his throbbing head but he ignored it. He stared at his brother in a way that made Jerry lean back in his seat and consider him thoughtfully.
“You will recover,” Jeremiah replied confidently. “Maybe then life in the country will be a little too quiet for you. Life at Wenland will be completely different to the ballrooms in London you have been used to.”
“I hated the old life,” Aidan admitted. “I agreed to go to London in the hopes that enduring the circuit for a while without finding a bride would shut the dowager up and make her realise that marriage is not on the cards for me. It was hoped she would then be forced to turn her attention to other endeavours. I would then be free to go my own way without being harassed with hopeful spinsters, and a determined matchmaker.”
“It backfired,” Jerry informed him briskly. “Now you have had the accident, and are too ill to evade her, she will have you firmly in her sights.”
Aidan threw him a dark look. “Don’t I know it,” he sighed. “I am just glad that I have left London. Believe me, when I tell you that I shall never miss the cloying confines of life among the ton, I mean it most fervently.”
“I know what you mean,” Jerry agreed. “I didn’t like it much either.” He studied his brother, who already began to look considerably more relaxed. “I take it that you intend to remain here for the foreseeable future then?”
Aidan didn’t even need to think about how to answer that. He nodded instinctively.
“This is my home now, and I intended to live in it full-time.”
“You do need to rest first, though,” Jerry said. “The surgeon said so.”
“Phah!” Aidan spat contemptuously. “That butcher–“
“That butcher saved your life, brother mine,” Jeremiah interrupted. “He knows what he is doing. He said that your journey would be arduous, and you would need several days to recuperate from it, and he was right. Given what he told us, I have secured a verbal promise from the dowager that she will remain at Abbeygate for at least another week. I have ordered Rollo to remove the knocker, and inform anyone who does have the temerity to knock on the door that you are not receiving visitors for the foreseeable future. So, for now, all you need to do is concentrate on getting better. You just need to make sure that Edwards knows her place. Although, after what happened in the hallway, I am certain she knows that already,” he added ruefully.
Aidan nodded, although how he was to go about that when Edwards usually ignored everything he told her and refused to leave was anyone’s guess. He doubted what he had done in the hallway had had any impact on the woman whatsoever. She would just be downstairs plotting another not-so-subtle way of manoeuvring herself into a position of authority within the household.
“Talking about mother,” Jerry began hesitantly. He paused, a little unsure how to proceed.
Aidan sighed deeply at the reluctance on his brother’s face and knew he wasn’t going to like what Jerry had to say.
“She is still put out that you decided to come here for your convalescence. She wanted you to move to Abbeygate, you know,” Jerry confided.
“I shudder at the very thought,” Aidan grunted. “You are the elder brother. You live there and run the place.”
This time, Jerry looked horrified. “I shudder at the thought.”
They shared a grin. “I have my home already established elsewhere. Castlecrede is fine for me. I am just grateful that father was around when I married poor Alice. Now that I have Castlecrede to take my time, I have a perfect excuse to leave Abbeygate to her, or you.”
“Ha! Not likely,” Aidan huffed. “I have here to run. She can cope with Abbeygate by herself. It has been her home for long enough now. She doesn’t need my input, even if I was able to be of any use, which I am not.”
He waved a vague hand in the direction of his battered legs.
“Excuses, excuses,” Jerry teased, horribly aware of the damage Aidan sustained to his limbs.
Aidan snorted.
“You know that she will try to use your determination to live here to push you into choosing a wife. After all, this is a house that is perfect to raise a family in.”
“I am not marrying,” Aidan said swiftly.
“I know,” Jerry replied dryly. “You have said so several times.”
“Why, I would rather marry -” He frowned and glanced around the room, looking for something. When nothing was immediately evident, he turned to look at Jerry. “Why, I would rather marry one of the ma
ids just to spite her.”
Jerry bit back a grin and leaned back in his seat. He knew his younger brother well, and knew that Aidan could, and would, just to get into his mother’s bad books. When Mama, the Dowager, was in an ill-temper with anyone, she refused to speak to them or acknowledge them in any way. In Aidan’s case, raising her ire could buy him the time he needed to get back on his feet. He suspected he knew which maid Aidan would choose if he ever did decide to get married.
“This is your house, Aidan. It is for you to establish the rules and not allow anyone to usurp you. As you are the master, it would be a foolish person indeed who would go against your wishes. Remember that. I strongly advise you to use the time you are regaining your health to make a few decisions on what to do about Edwards, and that servant of yours.”
“I know what to do with that servant of mine,” Aidan replied, mentally blocking out all the rather risqué thoughts that sprang to mind regarding the maid. “And Edwards.”
“Do you?” Jerry remarked dryly. “I am not sure that you do.”
“I am going to get rid of that damned nurse. I am not convinced she isn’t still giving me Laudanum. I have told her not to, but my thoughts are too foggy sometimes. I swear she is drugging me,” he grumbled.
Jerry’s brows lifted. “If that is the case then I think you need to gather the evidence and fire her. Throw her out of the house and lock the door, or get Rollo and the footmen to do it for you. These servants are yours, Aidan. They are here to make sure you have what you want – if that is Edwards out of this house, then she leaves. It is as simple as that.”
“I have tried before, but Edwards refuses to go. I know what will happen if I throw her out,” Aidan murmured.
Jerry nodded. “She will run straight to the dowager, who will just storm back in here with Edwards, and reinstate her against your wishes, all in the name of aiding your recovery, regardless of what you want. Edwards will then be even harder to contend with. However, even mama cannot object to her departure if the woman is giving you medication without your permission. What makes you think she is, anyway? I mean, you have had a bash on the head. What is to say that this kind of cloudy thinking is normal given your condition?”