“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.