“About what? Is this about Mr. Lewis behaving strangely toward Mr. Whitfield?”
Mrs. Mills shook her head. “He sees what’s going on, too.”
Jessica sat back in her chair, annoyed with them for dangling such a tiny scrap of information before her and not explaining. “Well if you’re going to remain cryptic about the matter, I think it’s time to take my leave.”
The pair protested, but Jessica stood anyway. She scooped up her shawl and draped it around her shoulders. “Ladies, thank you for a pleasant afternoon. Don’t get up. I shall see myself out.”
“It’s that new woman, the one living with the Napiers,” Mrs. Mills blurted out.
“Hush,” Mrs. Harrow warned.
Jessica turned back slowly. “Mrs. Beck?”
Mrs. Mills nodded even though Mrs. Harrow said nothing.
“What has she done?”
“She’s got her eye on him.”
The only gentleman Mrs. Mills and Mrs. Harrow had ever worried about was their own master. “On Mr. Whitfield?” she asked, just to be sure she had the right of it.
“Yes,” both said in unison.
“I don’t believe you’ve anything to worry about. He’s always said he would never marry.”
“Because of the way his father was with him,” Mrs. Mills grumbled. “Too hard on the boy, he once was.”
All the air released from Jessica’s lungs. She knew very little of Gideon’s life before her birth, but now that she considered it, Gideon never spoke of his father or with any sadness that he had passed away. Jessica sank into a chair slowly, ready to listen to the two women who might know more about Gideon than anyone alive. “Tell me.”
Mrs. Mills picked up a rag and scrubbed at a spot on the tabletop. “Punished unfairly, he was. Over nothing but some imagined slights. His mother was too timid. Afraid of her husband.”
“And now Mrs. Beck’s boys suffer the same tyranny under another’s hand,” Mrs. Harrow whispered, leaning toward Jessica. “It would stop, of course, if he married the mother. He’s a gentle man, our master. We fear he would do anything to spare a child so much pain again.”
Jessica gulped. She could easily see where the ladies’ imaginations were heading with this. “He’s a good man.”
“He’d be a good husband. A kind father if he but trusted himself not to turn out like him.”
Was that why he’d vowed not to wed? Why she’d never heard a whisper about Gideon courting until now? Jessica would never believe Gideon could be cruel, and she was about to say so, too, but she heard a heavy tread on the staircase and shushed the ladies quickly. She began to discuss the spices again as Gideon’s familiar steps slowly drew near.
Chapter 9
Gideon walked heavily toward the housekeeper’s chamber to announce his impending arrival. He could hear Jessica’s voice in the room and he did not want to disturb them. However, he did not pay his servants to sit around drinking tea all day with his neighbor’s youngest daughter.
He brushed his fingers along the familiar walls of his home as Jessica made gentle suggestions for improvements to his menu as if she were mistress of the house.
It always amazed him how concerned Jessica was for the comfort of others, but it wasn’t right that she fussed over him.
He headed into the kitchens and all conversation stopped. He looked about the room and inhaled the strong scents of Jessica’s purchases. “Forgive the interruption.”
Mrs. Harrow smiled. “What can I do for you, Mr. Whitfield?”
“Nothing. I was just on my way out.”
His cook started to get up. “We had just finished. Time to start your dinner anyway.”
“I’m dining out tonight.”
Mrs. Mills sat down with an obvious sound of displeasure. “Again?” she grumbled softly, although everyone in the room would have heard her.