Christ, what had he just done again?
“Eliza, we… I?—”
“Just go,” she whispered. “There is so much going on around us. We should not?—”
“Aye.” He gave her one last long look before turning and walking away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Eliza gave herself a stern lecture about kissing Scotsmen and how it would not be happening again. She wasn’t sure what came over her when he was near, but it had to stop. This blinding need she felt when he looked at her. The hunger that swept through her veins when he was close or touched her was unsettling.
Eliza was a rational person, and this behavior was far from that. All right, once, she’d been extremely irrational, and the consequences had been dire, but that lesson had ensured she never behaved that way again.
No employer wishes a staff member to behave in an irrational manner.
She must return things to where they were before Calder Fraser arrived. Before the kissing and exposure of her past. She felt like her ordered life was spiraling out of control and she was unraveling like Sylvie’s favorite knitted hat.
Arriving downstairs, determined to focus on what needed to be done, she found Bud, Mr. Dumple, and Benjamin in the kitchen with Theodore. The latter two were eating—something she’d noted most of the members of this household excelled at.
“Where are the girls, please, Theodore? It is time to begin our lessons,” Eliza said. Yesterday’s had been cut short, and she would not have that today. She was employed to teach, and that was what she would do.
Above all, set out each day to further the knowledge of your charges. Remember you are upholding the Holton Agency reputation.
“Taking tea in the parlor with everyone,” Theodore said before leaving.
“Do you think it’s wise that the children are involved in all this business with the missing girls, Bud?” Eliza asked.
“They don’t keep secrets in this family. If there is something to know, then they all do. Besides, the young ones aren’t young anymore.”
“Never known a family who share everything like this one,” Benjamin said. He was hunched over his mug of tea, looking like he needed at least four more hours of sleep.
“I was employed to teach the younger members of this family, and I must be allowed to do that if they are to enter society successfully.” She knew her voice sounded prim, but could do nothing about that. Eliza always craved, and rarely got, stability.
“Living in this household, things will rarely run as they should, Eliza.” Bud gave her a pitying look. “You’ll make your head sore by trying. You sit down now, and I’ll make you some tea.”
She wanted to argue and tell them she didn’t want tea, but she did, so she sat.
The back door opened, and in walked Mr. Greedy, carrying a small pot. “Well now, this is fortuitous,” he said, stepping inside and bringing a blast of cold air with him. “It’s a day cold enough to make your bones complain.”
“Come and sit, Mr. Greedy. I’m just pouring Eliza some tea. You’ll have a cup.”
“I will, and thank you for it,” he said, unwinding a length of wool that had been wrapped around his neck five times. “You’re an angel, Bud.”
Mr. Dumple lowered a plate of buttered toast onto the table, and Eliza’s mouth watered.
“And you’re a saint, Mr. Dumple,” Mr. Greedy said.
Eliza took a piece and bit into the toast. It tasted like heaven, butter spread so thick, it dripped down her fingers and the sides of her mouth.
“It’s our Eliza I’ve come to see,” Mr. Greedy said after a mouthful of tea.
Since the death of her parents, she’d never been “our Eliza” to anyone. It made tears sting her eyes.
“Do you need something from me, Mr. Greedy?” she said with a calm she wasn’t feeling.
“Well now, first I want to say something, if you’ll give me a minute?”
Eliza nodded.
