“Do you even know where they are?”
He had her there, because she hesitated.
“Tonight you will stay in Abby’s old room. Walter can sleep in there with you if he will do so without tearing the place apart or doing things he should not.” The dog stopped sniffing long enough to send him a steady look, almost as if he’d known he was being discussed.
“I could never sleep in Abby’s room!” Shocked, she pulled free of his grip.
“She no longer lives here, the room is empty, so why not?”
“Because I am a servant!” Some of her fire was back now.
“And?”
“And it is not done for me to sleep in such a room.”
“Where is that written?”
Her mouth opened then closed again while she thought about how to answer that. “In the servants’ handbook,” she finally snapped out.
He narrowed his eyes. “Is there actually such a thing?”
Once again her shoulders drew back as she looked at him.
“It matters not. What matters is that I am going to find a place to sleep.” She turned from him and began to walk away.
If he let her do that, he had a feeling she’d be gone in the morning, and this time he would not be able to find her. He didn’t want that. Dimity alone out there with no money, position, or roof over her head. No, that would not be happening.
Following, he grabbed her from behind, then lifted her into his arms.
“Wh-What are you doing?”
“I’m done with discussing this. You are staying here, sleeping in Abby’s room, and the rest we will discuss in the morning. Come, Walter.”
“Put me down at once!”
He didn’t, instead taking the stairs up.
“You can’t do this! Can’t carry me up these steps.”
“Stop shrieking in my ear; you will deafen me.”
“I-I,” she spluttered. “Someone will see!”
“If you keep shrieking, they certainly will.”
“Put me down at once,” she hissed. “Your back—”
“You weigh very little.”
“I weigh a great deal.”
She was slender and, to his mind, had lost a lot of weight. Lack of food, he supposed, and the thought made him angry again. He would find her brother and have a chat with him.
“You are skinny,” he said to annoy her.
Gabe kept walking until he reached Abby’s room. He didn’t go in there often, simply because every time he did, he saw her, his little sister. He knew she was happy, as Dimity had said. Her husband was a good man, but still, she was his sister, and he’d cared for her for years. He missed that, her.
Opening the door, he walked inside.
