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“I don’t need your interference, Edwards. I don’t even want you in the house.”
“Being awkward again, are we?” The dowager drawled from the doorway.
Petal almost groaned aloud when the woman pierced her with a horrified look and slammed to a halt in the middle of the room.
“You have servants lounging in your room now, do you?” she declared, outraged at the possibility.
Petal shot to her feet. It was on the tip of her tongue to apologise but then remembered what Aidan had told her – to stop apologising for everything.
“To what do, I owe this visit today mother?” Aidan sighed. “I take it you haven’t come here to sneer at my staff?”
“It depends on what you are paying her to do,” the dowager snorted disparagingly.
Edwards spitefully threw a smug glare at Petal.
A wave of humiliation swept through Petal so fiercely that she wished the ground could open up and swallow her. Both Edwards and the dowager were studying her too closely for comfort. She initially wondered if one of them had witnessed what she had shared with Aidan last night, but that was ridiculous. She would have seen anybody else in the room; she would have known they were there.
But then she had been rather busy.
She stiffly placed the book onto the table beside the bed, bobbed a curtsey, and hurried out of the room, painfully aware of the cruel smirk on Edwards’ face as she left.
“I have been telling them both that it is highly inappropriate for her to be in here so much. I mean, she is an upstairs maid. Nothing more,” Edwards said pointedly.
The dowager nodded. “Yes, you should be reading to him, Morgana. That is why I arranged for you to be here.”
Aidan watched Petal leave the room, her back ramrod straight and sighed. He knew she was upset, and wished he would offer her some words of comfort to take away the hurt caused by the other women’s scorn. He had seen the spiteful look Edwards had levelled on her and knew the woman was revelling in Petal’s put-down. Given the woman’s confidence in administering him medication against his wishes, he suspected she was arrogant enough to cause as much trouble as she wanted. However, there was far too much malice in that stare she had on Petal for comfort. If he didn’t do something to ensure that Edwards left the house soon, Heaven only knew what the woman was apt to do. He was sure that tipping over plant pots to cause Petal extra work was just the beginning of the woman’s machinations.
If there was one thing that made him want to tear at his own hair, it was the thought that something could happen to Petal. It was bad enough to have to witness Petal being insulted for doing nothing but help him.
“I don’t care what you have arranged for her to do while she is here, mother. I have told you I do not need a nurse. Given that this is not your house you are in, you are in no position to over-ride my wishes on anything. Either of you.” He glared at Edwards, and then the dowager.
When his mother opened her mouth to speak he lifted his hand to stop her.
“I have chosen Petal to read to me. She is excellent at it. Not only that but she isn’t watching every blasted thing I do, and doesn’t harass me. If you find that unappealing or offensive in any way, then you are entirely at liberty to stay away. Until then, I expect you to respect my rights to privacy and leave my bedchamber. At once.”
His voice was cold and hard; in stark contrast to the white hot rage that flowed through him. Without thinking, he pushed to his feet when nobody said or moved, and stalked angrily across the room to the door. The startled gasps from the women didn’t even register on him as he yanked the door open and waved toward the hallway.
“Out! Now! Edwards, get your belongings. Your presence is neither wanted nor needed in this house. Dowager, remember your manners and kindly do not stalk into my house uninvited again, or even attempt to bring your companion here with you. It is neither the time nor the place.”
He locked his trembling k
nees, ignored the pain shooting up his shins, and stood perfectly still while they filed out of the door. The dowager stopped in front of him and opened her mouth as if to say something but whatever she saw on his face made her hesitate.
“It appears you are feeling a little tetchy today. We shall call another time again. Meantime, although your condition seems to be improving, you are clearly still in need of care. Especially if you have to resort to getting one of the maids to read to you. Edwards has to stay here.”
“No, she does not,” Aidan growled. “Get her out of this house today, or I shall throw her out on her ear myself.”
“I don’t have any room for her. Abbeygate is being redecorated. She is the granddaughter of the Earl of Sprason, Aidan. You cannot expect to allow her to stay in a tavern unchaperoned,” the dowager argued. “What am I to say to her grandfather? That you threw her out on her ear because you didn’t like her?”
“Well, let her borrow your chaperone. She clearly doesn’t have anything to do with her time.”
“Miss Hornsby is essential to me. You know that. No, I shall hear nothing else of it. Edwards stays here until the end of her term. Hopefully, by then you will have come to your senses.”
Aidan opened his mouth and watched in stunned disbelief as the dowager sailed out of the door as arrogantly as she had arrived.
It dawned on him then that unless he was willing, or able, to march the women out of the house, then there was not much he could do. It made the small hairs stand up on the back of his neck to think of being snared by the irritating Edwards. If that were to be his Fate, he would have been better off succumbing to Death’s cold embrace in the carriage accident.
“It would serve them right if I married Petal,” he grumbled and slammed the door shut.
