Right.Gemma gratefully seized on the reminder of the task at hand.“I’m here to beg a pot of tea for my mother, who is feeling unwell.And may I perhaps have a candle?It’s becoming quite cold and dark upstairs as night comes on.”
“Of course you can, my lady,” the young cook cried, bustling to the heavy iron range where a large kettle stood ready and waiting.“Hal only just informed me we had guests, and of course it must be right when the people are going to start shouting for their supper, so I hadn’t time to run upstairs and see to the rooms.I do beg your pardon, my lady.”
This was the warmest welcome Gemma had received from a stranger, including her own half-brother, in ages.Dismayingly, she felt her throat burn a bit with unshed tears.Coughing slightly to clear the sensation, she said, “That’s very kind of you, Miss…?”
“Mrs.Pickford,” Hal informed her as the kettle began to steam, and Gemma’s silly heart clenched.
So he was married, then.Good.That was for the best.
“Oh, plain Bess will do,” the cook protested.“We don't stand upon much ceremony here at the Five Mile, and Hal says you expect to be with us for several days?”
“Does he.”Gemma narrowed her eyes at him, innocently eating his apple and watching the exchange as if he had nothing better to do.“Your husband appears to have some trouble with understanding simple concepts, like the fact that we plan to stay on here indefinitely.”
Hal blinked, looking nonplussed for a moment before a peal of laughter as musical as silver bells rang out.Gemma looked back at Bess, who gasped out, “Bless you, no!Hal is no husband of mine.They call me ‘missus’ as I’m the housekeeper here.I’m not actually married.”
Gemma felt her cheeks flame.Of course she knew that a housekeeper would be addressed as ‘Mrs.’whether married or not, as a term of respect.“I do apologize for the misunderstanding, Mrs.Pickford.”
Bess waved that away with her spoon.“No apology needed, Miss.And, good heavens, if I ever do marry, it certainly won’t be a rascal like this one.Hal, honestly.Didn’t you light the fires in their rooms, at least?These ladies are more than just the first overnight, staying guests we’ve had in eons, they own this place!”
He shrugged and took another bite of apple.“There’s tinderboxes at every hearth, and I made sure to stack some wood.But I understand if thesimple conceptof lighting her own fire was too much for Lady Gemma.”
Anger scorched Gemma’s insides, as hot as the boiling water Bess was pouring into a chipped yellow teapot.She gritted her teeth and made up her mind to ignore him.Turning back to Bess, Gemma managed to smile.“I can see that you’re quite busy here, Bess.As you appear to be the only person working.I hate to trouble you further, but I’m afraid my mother is not well enough to venture downstairs for her supper…”
“Don’t think another thing about it,” Bess said at once, spinning into a flurry of swift, efficient movements about the small kitchen.“I’ll make you up a nice tray with some good, nourishing stew and hot bread and butter.Won’t take but a moment, and I’ll bring it right up.Hal, where did you put them, in the blue room?”
Instead of answering, Hal crossed his arms over his massive chest and scowled.“It’s the busiest time of the evening for you, Bess.You don’t need the extra work of traipsing up and down the stairs and back and forth to wait hand and foot?—”
“He’s perfectly correct,” Gemma cut in crisply, humiliation writhing like an eel in her chest.Why must he make her every request sound so entirely unreasonable?“I’m happy to wait for the tray and carry it up myself.”
Hal didn’t appear pleased by her attempt at relieving Bess of the burden of her family’s presence, however.He transferred his angry scowl to Gemma, along with a disdainful curl of his lip beneath that silky beard.Gemma was sorely tempted to hurl one of the chipped teacups at his handsome head.
“As it happens, I was already planning to trespass on your ladyship’s kindness to ask you to carry the tea things on another tray,” Bess replied calmly, never ceasing in her chopping and stirring and arranging of plates.“With the supper dishes, it’s too much for one person.But as you’re so concerned about my workload here in the kitchen, Hal, you can accompany Lady Gemma to her rooms with the heavier tray.”
Gemma thought Hal must surely be grinding his teeth in frustration, but when he tore his glare from her to smile at Bess, his tone was gentleness itself.“Happy to help.”
It was terribly lowering to realize that she cared what this lout of a country barkeep thought of her, but Gemma couldn’t help it.She was entirely too aware of him as a man, the sheer breadth and size and presence of him taking up every bit of available space in her thoughts.
Gemma, who had once laughed in Lady Jersey’s shocked face while tumbling into the famed Neptune and Triton fountain during a ball at Walpole House, suddenly cared that this nobody thought her a selfish spoiled brat.
Intolerable.
They waited in stiff silence while Bess bustled about, filling two trays with all manner of delicious-smelling things.When they were ready, she shooed Gemma and Hal from her kitchen with a distracted air, her mind clearly already upon her next task.
Hal bowed her through the doorway to the rear staircase before him, another sarcastic little gesture of the respect he obviously did not feel for her.
Gemma gritted her teeth and swept up the stairs.It was a little tricky to exude haughty elegance while carrying a tea tray in the dark, but Gemma thought she managed reasonably well.
Until they reached the landing where the stairs turned, and the candle set at the corner of Gemma’s tray flickered and sputtered out.
“Oh, perfect,” came the muttered growl from behind her, and, pushed beyond bearing, Gemma whirled to face the shadowed figure in the darkness below her.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she hissed.“Believe me, you’re the last man on earth I’d want to be caught with in a dark corner.”
“So that’s to be the poor sod’s fate—seduced into a dark corner and conveniently ‘discovered’ by your mother, so he has to propose?”
Goaded past the limits of propriety, Gemma nearly upended the tea tray on his head.“You needn’t worry that I’ve set my sights onyou.But if I had, you would be lucky to find yourself in that dark corner with me.I’m not some sweet country maiden, too shy to be courted.We London girls know what to do in the dark.”
“I’d rather find myself in that dark corner with a maddened bear.”
