“You’re telling me this…?” Dair prompted.
“He should be there. In the staff quarters.”
“Aye, he should be.”
“He’s not.”
“Aye, I ken. This is what we’re talking about. Genny and Duncan and my family are arriving tomorrow. Tom, Judge and Jamie will be here at the weekend. Dru, Cadence, Sully, Gage, Sasha and Matt are looking at coming. Blake will want her people close, not in some inn somewhere. We need the room. Dru and Cadence, Sully and Gage are going to have to bunk together as it is.”
“I’m looking forward to having a full house again,” Christine verbally rejoiced.
“I’m pleased for ye,” Dair replied impatiently. “But Dru, Cadence, Sully and Gage aren’t going to be sandwiched between the butler’s room.”
The butler’s room?
“He thinks that’s where he belongs because Lady Helena put him there, and frankly, he doesn’t know any better,” Christine said.
All right.
Enough.
I turned the corner and asked, “What’s going on?”
Christine jumped like she was guilty of something.
Dair looked to the ceiling, his wide chest expanded, making it impossibly wider, and then he let out a deep sigh.
He turned to me. “Nothing, love.” His eyes traveled up and down my frame before he suggested, “Meet at the stables?”
I came to a stop at them and demanded again, “What’s going on?”
“Erm, I’ll leave you both to it,” Christine said.
“No, I’d rather you stay and explain what’s happening.” I looked between them, continuing, “I thought we had plenty of room for everyone.”
Dair’s jaw tightened before he stated, “Ye would. If Jeff wasn’t in one of those rooms.”
“Jeff?” I asked.
“Jeff,” Dair replied.
He didn’t speak further.
I was confused. “Wait, are you saying Jeff stays in the main house?”
Christine was looking anywhere but me.
Dair was looking like he wanted to shout very loudly.
He didn’t.
He requested, “I’d like your permission to have a word with him.”
“Why would you need my permission?”
“Because you’re lady of the manor, love.”
I turned to Christine. “Actually, don’t you?—?”
