Aidan looked at her. “I thought I told you not to call me sir,” he drawled softly.
“I am sorry.”
His brows lifted. “And stop apologising.”
Petal pursed her lips to prevent the instinctive apology and watched his lift with wry amusement.
“Call me Aidan.”
“I can’t. It isn’t my place to,” she gasped.
She was thrilled but equally appalled. To do so would put her in such a difficult situation she couldn’t even contemplate the notion. Or what someone like Edwards would do if she caught Petal calling the master by his Christian name.
“I am telling you to. And, unless you have any stringent objection, I shall call you Petal, just like everyone else. I refuse to stand on ceremony in my own home. While I shall not be so inclined toward any of the other staff, seeing as you are spending so much time helping out here, we shall have this arrangement between ourselves.”
Petal hesitated. A thousand and one objections were going through her mind, but she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
“If you are sure,” she whispered hesitantly.
“I am certain, Petal,” he said with a firm nod.
The sound of her name on his lips was sublime. It brought forth a shiver of awareness that was so intense that tears stung her eyes. It was everything she had wanted to hear; well, almost everything. But beggars could not be choosers. He wasn’t going to call her Biddeham or Petunia. He was going to call her Petal, like everyone else of her acquaintance did. She felt incredibly touched if still a little perturbed by the thought.
“Would you like me to fetch your tea?” she asked, aware that Edwards hadn’t returned with the tray she had been sent to get over an hour ago.
“I am not hungry,” he murmured.
“You need to eat,” she reminded him. “Without the proper sustenance, you won’t have the energy to recuperate properly.”
“I just don’t have much of an appetite at the moment,” he replied.
Petal studied him. It wasn’t her place to push, but there was just something bereft in his gaze that reminded her of someone who was floundering in a world of confusion. Her gentle nature refused to allow her to just return to her duties and leave him hungry.
“What do you like to eat?”
Aidan looked at her and thought. “I like pies; all sorts of pies. Meat or fruit, I don’t care. I also like carrots and boiled potatoes.”
“Do you like cake?”
“I like seed cake, and lemon cake,” he declared. “With lashings of cream.”
Petal smiled. “Then I shall see what I can rustle up in the kitchen and bring some morsels for you to try.”
He peered at her. “You are not going to let me off the hook, are you?”
Petal shook her head slowly and began to smile. She sensed from the rueful look in his eye that he wasn’t angry with her for her subtle bullying. In fact, she suspected he quite liked it.
“You need to try to eat something with your tea so you can replenish the strength you used getting to the chair. That way, should you decide to try to walk again tomorrow, you will have the energy to be able to do so.”
Before she could get up, a disturbance in the doorway heralded the arrival of someone whose voice Petal didn’t recognise.
“Oh, get out of my way,” a waspish voice snapped loudly.
“Oh, no,” Aidan moaned beneath his breath.
“What is it?” Petal asked worriedly.
From her position in the window seat she couldn’t see who had just arrived but Aidan could and, if his deep groan was anything to go by, the visitor was less than welcome. She glanced curiously at him when he didn’t immediately answer. When he did speak, she suddenly wished she was anywhere else.