John stood in the shadows, enjoying his evening pipe, as he watched Miss Merrinan enter the courtyard. She hung a blanket over the clothesline and swung at it halfheartedly before she increased her pace. Soon she began to beat at the cloth with such vehemence that she was fast enveloped in a cloud of dust, forced to back away, coughing and hacking from the plumes.
“There now, miss.” His voice made her startle as he approached. “What’s all this so late at night?”
“Needed . . . airing out, Cuthbert.” Charles gasped to catch her breath. “All the . . . blankets do.” She gulped more air.
“True, but can’t it wait till the morrow, gel?”
“My room is rather cold, Cuthbert,” she wheezed.
“Right.” He frowned. “Only I thought that room were more for show than use, miss.”
“Well, it’s being used now.” She began to beat the blanket with renewed zeal.
John stood there a moment longer. “You fightin’ again with his grace, Miss Merrinan?”
“That is none of your business, Cuthbert.”
“’Tis me business t’ know his grace’s mind, miss.”
“Then go ask him yourself.”
“I might just,” he shot back.
“Good!” she fumed.
“Fine!”
And off he stormed, only to turn right around and stomp right back. “And y’ might try bein’ a mite more agreeable, miss. His grace ain’t always the easiest man t’ serve, but he’s one o’ the fairest and most decent masters I’ve ever?—”
Charles swung her paddle at his head, making John duck fast.
“Fair?” she shouted. “Decent?” Her eyes flashed and her bosom heaved with exertion. She was quite the sight.
“Did you hear what he called me today in front of Adams’s men, sir?Didyou?”
“Well now, all I know is that you?—”
“He called me a strumpet, Cuthbert! Hemademe into one and now he’s publicly called me out, ruined me with one word. One bloody word! How will I be able to look my sister in the face after this, or my father?”
John winced.
“Mr. Adams has always respected my family, but after today, he and everyone else will think me no better than the whore Lord Wellesley forced me to become. Because he did, you know. He gave me no choice but to bed him in payment for two goddamned chickens. So he may be a fair and decent master to you, John Cuthbert, and to his men, but to me, a woman, he has been nothing but cruel and detestable from the start.”
John took umbrage at this. “Now look here, miss. From what I heard today, ’twere yer own words as forced his grace t’ call you out. Now I’ll grant he could’ve used a different term, but y’ baited him, gel, just as you’ve baited him before. A bit less sass and a bit more respect and you’d see a changed man for sure. For y’ can’tspeak to no duke’s son the way y’ do, Charles. ’Tis a wonder he’s not throttled you already.”
“Throttled?” She gaped. “He beat me, Cuthbert, whipped me with his belt! Andyouare one to speak, with you and your men all calling himYer Graceto his face. How is it you are allowed to disrespect his lordship but I am not?”
“What we call him ain’t none o’ yer business.” He narrowed his gaze. “But the way you goad him, woman, Christ,” he muttered. “No wonder he called you a strumpet. You’re incorrigible.”
And her face fell, the corners of her mouth beginning to tremble almost, making him sense she was trying most heroically not to burst into tears. Against his better judgment, John pulled her in for a hug.
“There now, miss, I’m sorry I said as much. Go and have a good cry, you’re no less if y’ do.” And weep she did, the floodgates opening upon his coat as he awkwardly patted her back.
“I don’t know what is wrong with me, Cuthbert,” she told him through her tears, her voice muffled into his chest. “He makes me so angry, all the time, and yet he also?—”
“There, there,” he shushed her. “’Twill all be better come mornin’. He’ll forgive you, miss, he’s not a bad man, I know he’s not. Only he’s not like us, you ken? He’s a duke’s son, Charles. Raised t’ command, t’ order. He knows no other way t’ be. You keep pushin’ him as you do and he’ll lose his temper for good one day.”
“I know.” She sniffed, pulling her face away to wipe her eyes and straighten her apron. “I know it, John.” She spoke more quietly. “Only I don’t know how to stop myself. He goads me in ways I?—”
