She shook her head. “No, I’ll be right there.”
“All right.” He strode ahead to the kitchen to see how Bonham was faring with the new water pump he’d decided to tackle this morning.
Bonham looked up as Gideon walked in. “Where’s Lady Berry?”
“She went to check on something in the library. What’s wrong? You don’t look happy.”
“Because I’m not. I’m trying to prevent a flood in here,” he grumbled.
Gideon frowned as he approached. “That doesn’t sound good. What happened?”
“Oh, no. Don’t get too close or you might get soaked. I think I am missing a part.”
“How is it possible? I saw for myself what was delivered, and everything was there.”
Bonham was on his back, but now sat up with a grunt. “Blast, it’s that new lad, then. I thought he looked shifty—did I not warn you about him? This is the third time Henry’s done this to us.”
“Fourth, actually,” Gideon muttered. “I’ll need to have a talk with him. He may be stealing parts and selling them elsewhere.”
Bonham looked angry. “I’ll tan his hide if that’s what he is doing. We’ve given the little wretch every opportunity, and what does he do? Steals from us.”
Berry suddenly emerged from the doorway. “Wait…you heard Mr. Knight?”
Bonham’s eyes widened. “What?”
She gasped. “You heard me, too.”
Gideon’s heart shot into his throat.
Oh, hell.How much of their conversation had she heard? And why did his friend have to look so guilty?
“Gideon, tell her,” Bonham said, releasing a deflated breath.
“We might have been teasing you just the littlest bit,” Gideon said, inwardly groaning because he had meant to tell her, and should have told her much sooner, about their little prank. “Bonham’s hearing is perfectly fine.”
“Well, it was perfect before you spent hours shouting in my ear,” Bonham said, thinking to make a jest of it.
But Gideon knew Berry did not find it funny and had taken it to heart. “Gad. Shut up, you dolt.”
Her expression went from shocked to angry to utterly wounded in the span of three seconds. “You were both mocking me all the while? Letting me make a fool of myself and saying nothing? Why would you do this to me?”
“Never that,” Gideon said emphatically, his stomach now twisting into knots because he had never had to deal with someone as gentle and trusting as Berry before.
She was a little angel, so achingly good and sweet. She looked so hurt.
“No, Berry.” He raked a hand through his hair. “This was my mistake, and never something planned. You are the last person on earth I would ever purposely insult or demean. Bonham was rude that first day when you stormed over and almost got hit on the head by that falling board. He should have answered the front door when you knocked, but he didn’t, and I did not want you to think we were rude boors.”
“Which we were,” Bonham interjected.
“I readily admit it,” Gideon affirmed. “I did not know what to say…or what to think. I just blurted the stupidest thing that came to mind. And Bonham is not my butler but my best friend and business partner, which you might have guessed now, too.”
“Then why do you call him Bonham? Isn’t that his family name?”
“Yes, but there were several boys named John at the orphanage. It was just easier to call him Bonham instead of having seven heads turn whenever I called out to him.”
“Oh, perfect. So your butler is not really a butler but your good friend. And since he had no trouble hearing a single word you said, he was never deaf. Really? Andyouare the man LordBerwick chose to protect me. The smartest man in London, he said. And you do this?”
“Well, when you put it that way…” His hand shot through his hair again.
