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“How did that feel?” Jerry asked, surprised that Aidan had taken most of his weight as he had walked across the room. His support had only seemed to help Aidan maintain his balance. He understood now how Petal, with her slighter frame, had managed to help him as she had.
“It is much better now that I have had something to eat. Petal is right. I needed to eat a proper meal,” Aidan reported as he slid into bed.
All things considered, his injuries had improved considerably more than he had realised. He just needed to get his appetite back, and he would be back on the road to recovery, and it was all thanks to Petal. If she hadn’t bullied him into eating his favourite food, he would have undoubtedly still been battling the awful dizziness that assailed him on the journey over to the window.
Once Aidan was settled, Petal took a seat beside the bed and began to read.
Aidan yawned widely and settled down against the pillows and gazed sightlessly out of the window while listening to the melodic tones of her voice. Within seconds, he was fast asleep.
Jerry watched from his position on the opposite side of the bed and shook his head in stunned disbelief. If he hadn’t just seen them with his own eyes he would never have believed it had happened.
A few minutes ago, Aidan had been almost apoplectic with rage. Now, he was sleeping like a baby.
Jerry frowned
at the book she was holding. It didn’t sound that boring to him.
“How long have you been reading to him?” he whispered.
“I started last night. He fell asleep then as well,” she replied with a soft smile. Placing the book carefully on the table beside him so he could reach it if he chose to read later, she picked up the tray and made her way to the door with Jerry hot on her heels.
“And you did it again this afternoon.”
“Yes, until the dowager turned up. I told him that I could get into trouble for doing it, but he insisted.”
“God, you two,” Jerry murmured, but felt his lips quirk, anyway.
There was something almost wild, if a little reckless about her, but it was encompassed by a soft and feminine sort of casualness that made her waywardness cheeky rather than offensive. He wasn’t entirely sure how she did it, but he couldn’t find any anger toward her. She had helped his brother across the room so he could sit in the sunshine beside the window, and stepped away from her duties so she could read to him. There was nothing wrong with that, especially when he had asked her to do it.
Who am I to argue? Jerry mused as he followed her down the hallway.
She was there to make sure the master of the house got what he needed, and she had. Even though what she had done had gone far beyond keeping the fires in. It was about time someone took good care of him. He just hadn’t expected Petal to be the one to do it.
As far as he was concerned, as long as Aidan was happy then what harm could there be in it?
Relieved that she wasn’t going to lose her job for overstepping the boundaries of propriety, Petal returned to work.
“I am warning you now that if I ever see you being so familiar with him again, I shall have you fired from this house as fast as you can blink,” Edwards snarled as soon as Petal entered the scullery.
Petal slid the heavy tray onto the dresser beside the sink. Rather than look at Edwards, she blithely ignored her and forced herself not to rise to her scorn. Instead, she began to stack the pots in the sink.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she replied smoothly trying to appear completely disinterested.
She was convinced she was in the right. Jerry had seemingly encouraged her endeavours toward getting Aidan to eat something more substantial than toast and a few mouthfuls of cake here and there.
Edward’s didn’t know this, though, and persisted with her attempts to threaten Petal to stay away.
“You are the maid, nothing more. A little scrubber. Just remember that.”
“And you are the nurse, nothing more. Just remember that,” Petal replied coldly. “He has no interest in you either. In spite of your obvious attempts to elevate your standing within this household. You are merely an employee, just like the rest of us.”
“Shut up!” Edwards breathed through clenched teeth. “Believe me, when I tell you that you do not know who you are messing with, I mean it.”
Petal ignored her profound sense of vulnerability and squared her shoulders. Neither Mrs Kempton, nor Rollo, had hidden the fact they didn’t trust the woman before her. It was doubtful she would get into trouble for refusing to be bullied by Edwards, and standing her ground. With this in mind, Petal straightened her shoulders militarily, and looked Edwards’ square in the eye.
“Or what? You have no authority over anybody. You should watch who you threaten. Rollo has already threatened to call the magistrate if you lay a hand on any of the staff again, and that includes me.”
“I am warning you now that if you challenge me, you will regret it. You will see, my position here is guaranteed. It is only a matter of time before I am moved upstairs where I belong. When I am, it won’t be long before I am mistress of this house and then you shall be sorry. Not only do you need to remember your position in this house, but I shall make sure you are deemed completely unemployable once you leave. You shall be sent packing without references.”
