“Good,” said Maude. “Neither do I.”
Edmund smiled. Samuel looked at her as if he couldn’t make sense of her.
Eloise, Maude could tell, was trying to suppress a grin herself. “See you at eight,” Eloise said, and began leaving the room. Samuel followed her, but not before glancing back and giving Maude a serious look of disapproval.
Then Samuel suddenly stopped and turned back around. “By the by,” he said, “there will be no sharing of rooms between unmarried people in my home.” Then he looked at the young lady’s maid that stood on duty. “Hortense, see Miss Drayton to her room.”
“Yes sur.”
“Edmund,” said Samuel, “you know where your room is located. See that you sleep there.” And then he left.
“Wow,” said Maude.
“You did good, Maude,” said Edmund. “My father is like that. Don’t let him steal your joy.”
“Oh don’t worry,” said Maude with a smile, although a part of her was disappointed that she seemed destined to be hated by Edmund’s father almost as much as Natasha seemed to hate Edmund.
It wasn’t exactly the impression she had hoped to make.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Later that night, when Edmund came into Maude’s assigned bedroom and gently closed the door behind him, she sat up in bed still reeling from the day. “That was brutal,” she said.
Edmund sat on the edge of her bed. She had showered and put on her nightgown. She looked flustered, but refreshed. “I take it you mean my father.”
“Yes! He wouldn’t let up.”
“You held your own.”
“But I don’t wanna hold my own. I don’t wanna have to spar with your father in his own house.”
Then she looked at Edmund. “Does your father hate me only, or all black people?”
Edmund didn’t have to think about that one. “You,” he said with a grin.
“That’s not funny, Edmund. And how could you be so definitive about it?”
“Most of my father’s mistresses are black women. And he loves them.”
Maude looked mortified. Edmund laughed and pulled her into his arms. “Stop worrying about that ornery old man. He is who he is. You’ll get used to him.”
“But will he get used to me?” she asked.
He could hear the sadness in her voice. When he looked at her, he realized how much it bothered her. “Don’t worry about it, Maude.”
“I have to. I want to be . . . Maybe one day in the future you might figure I’m enough for you, but what if your father says no way?”
“He won’t say that.”
“He called me a gold digger, Edmund. I don’t like that. I make my own way.”
“I know that. But you’ll find my father is harmless. His bark is far worse than his bite.”
“For real?”
Edmund could see how important it was to her to get along with his family. And he loved her for that. He moved closer to her. He lifted of her chin and stared into her gorgeous brown eyes. “For real,” he said. “But you said something I need to correct.”
Maude’s heart dropped. “What did I say?”
