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“So you hire a nurse for me? What, is she employed to give more bedside services than most nurses? I didn’t realise you were paying for those kind of services, mother. Even so, maybe you should have considered what attracts me, because Edwards has all the appeal of that hearth rug.”
“Aidan Quigley-Myers! How dare you be so scandalous?” The dowager gasped, clutching her pearls. “I would ask you to mind who you are speaking to. Don’t be so coarse.”
“Oh, but I am coarse, mother. Coarse. Crude. Rude. It is what I do. Coarseness is in my blood, and I am glad of it. It will save me from an odious marriage to women like that creature you consistently drag around with you like a spare reticule. I warn you now that you shall never have a say in anything that goes on in my life while I have breath in my body.”
The dowager glared at him. “Someone has to run your house for you. You have already shown you are incapable of finding a wife to do it for you.”
“Edwards is a nurse. It isn’t her position to run my house. Nor would I ever expect her to, even if I was stupid enough to consider someone so conniving to take up the position as my wife. As for Hornsby; the woman doesn't even form a thought of her own without getting full authorisation from you. You know it. Don’t you dare think I would be scatter-brained enough to consider either woman worthy enough of being my mate!”
“Edwards is a worthy partner,” the Dowager protested. “She is the granddaughter of Lord Atterton. You cannot get a more well-connected person than that.”
Aidan lapsed into silence when the penny dropped. That explained why Edwards considered it beneath her station to be accommodated in the servants’ quarters with the rest of the staff, and why she had such delusions of grandeur toward her future prospects. She considered herself worthy of more because she was worthy of more, just not with him. While it galled him to be responsible for her stay in the servants’ quarters; he sternly reminded himself that her presence in his house was his mother’s machination, not his.
“Well, if she is from such an estimable family then I think it is entirely inappropriate for her to remain in my house. Her position as a nurse requires her to be in my bedchamber alone with me sometimes, and that is an utterly reprehensible position to put either of us in. You can take her with you when you go.”
“I cannot,” the dowager insisted.
Aidan hated that crafty look in her eye and knew there was something else she wasn’t telling him yet. He didn’t push. If there was one thing he knew about his mother it was that she liked to have the upper hand. If he showed any interest in finding out what she was up to, she would refuse to speak and taunt him with her superior knowledge as often as she could.
“You can, and you will,” Aidan said calmly.
The dowager shook her head. “I don’t know why you are protesting so much. Edwards poses no threat to you. You are alone in this bedroom with the upstairs maid all the time. Are you a danger to them too?”
Aidan glared at her. “I am not a threat to any of my staff, even Edwards. She
is perfectly safe with me. You are the one who keeps blathering on about my getting married. I didn’t think you would ever go so far as to try to entrap me by foisting one of your chosen hopefuls disguised as a nurse. Now that I know who she really is, I shall have to ensure that additional steps are taken to ensure no inappropriate conduct occurs. I am sure her duties can be carried out just as well from the kitchens with the rest of the staff.”
“She is aristocracy,” the dowager protested. “You cannot leave her down there!”
“Well, I am certainly not having her upstairs with me,” Aidan snorted. “She would be an unchaperoned female alone with an eligible bachelor who fully intends to remain that way. She has to remain a servant and, as such, will remain below stairs where the housekeeper can keep an eye on her. If you are not happy with the arrangement, take her with you.”
“I cannot speak to you when you get like this,” the dowager grumbled as she pushed to her feet.
“You just don’t like being caught out in your manipulations,” Aidan retorted. “I am afraid that you have overstepped the boundaries of propriety here, mother. I have enough highly trained, and very experienced, staff. I don’t need your interference, or Edwards’, and will not abide having you deciding otherwise. Remember that.”
“I shall have to inform Edwards to increase your Laudanum,” the dowager replied with a frown. “You seem to be incredibly agitated today. Maybe you are having a bad day.”
Aidan went cold as he studied the woman before him.
“I beg your pardon?”
This time, the dowager seemed to realise she had overstepped the boundaries of acceptability again.
“What did you just say?” He demanded when she didn’t immediately reply.
“Nothing. You need to rest.”
“I have instructed the nurse to stop giving me Laudanum,” Aidan murmured, watching the dowager pluck absently at the gloves in her hands while refusing to meet his eyes.
“Well that’s good then, isn’t it?” the dowager replied awkwardly.
Aidan mentally swore. At first, he was at a loss to know what to say because there were so many things he wanted to make clear to her that he didn’t know where to start. Until he could consider where to begin, and how, he suspected it was best to keep his mouth shut.
“Take Edwards with you when you leave,” Aidan ordered coldly. “I shall not have that woman involved in my recuperation a moment longer, and that is my final say on the matter.”
“I cannot,” the dowager replied challengingly. “She has been employed until the end of next month. That should be sufficient time.”
Aidan’s head snapped around. “For what? Her to entrap me? Or for you to spread malicious rumours about her and me, and the unsuitability of us being together in this house?”
