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“The servant you were staring at,” Jerry reminded him.
Aidan frowned and wondered if he should try to bluff his way past that slight err from grace. He coughed uncomfortably and briefly considered lying but suspected that Jerry would just see through him.
“I don’t know what it
is about her. I cannot help it. It feels like I have met her somewhere before,” he mused thoughtfully.
“Come off it, brother. You were staring at her like she was about to feed you all of your favourite treats in one sitting,” Jerry replied with a sigh before he turned solemn. “Just remember that she is a member of your staff. Don’t besmirch either your good reputation, or her name, by forgetting it.”
Aidan looked horrified, but then felt incredibly guilty when he had, secretly, been considering just that.
“I won’t,” he sighed, considering briefly just how unfair life was. “I know she is a servant. I just think there is more to her than meets the eye. It is why I asked if any of the staff have links to the dowager.”
He glared at Jerry when he opened his mouth again and lifted a hand to halt his argument.
“She isn’t connected in any way,” Jerry assured him.
After what had happened in the hallway he wasn’t quite sure whether that was a good thing or not.
“Good, then maybe she can help me.”
“Pardon?” Jerry’s brows lifted as he waited for his brother to expand. He sensed that Aidan was plotting something only for the life of him couldn’t understand how the delightful maid could assist.
“I know she is just a maid, but she is going to be spending a lot of time in this room fetching and carrying things. It will help me deal with Edwards if I can get Petal on my side.”
Jerry shook his head, strangely deflated at the realisation that he had misread his brother’s apparent interest in the new member of staff.
“You sound as though you are going into battle,” he remarked dryly. “Why would Petal need to be on your side?”
Aidan glared at him. “I tried to leave the blasted woman, Edwards, back in London, Jerry, but mother employed her. Because mother pays her, Edwards refuses to leave until the dowager tells her that her term is up.”
Jerry nodded. He had heard this argument several times before. “I know, but it is only for a few weeks.”
“Said with the innocence of someone who doesn’t have to deal with the damned woman himself. What with her already here, and the dowager threatening to move in to help me run the house, it will be a miracle if I manage to recover with my sanity intact,” Aidan said sarcastically.
“I don’t doubt the dowager will try to take advantage of your incapacity,” Jerry agreed. “But don’t forget that you are the master of the house here. It is your decision what does or doesn’t go on in this house, not hers, or Edwards. As long as you make sure the staff is all aware of that, then there can be no problem can there? Set out the boundaries with Edwards. She is a member of staff, nothing more.”
“She wants more,” Aidan growled in disgust.
“I know,” Jerry replied. “You just have to make sure she doesn’t get it.”
“I cannot think of anything worse that being saddled with that woman,” Aidan confided.
He threw his brother a grateful look.
“You can have some of your staff back if you want,” he offered, not willing to discuss the dowager, or Edwards, too much because it dampened his already darkened mood. “With just me living here, I don’t need the full complement of people hanging around waiting to serve me. Petal will do, or Aggy, if Petal struggles to cope.”
“There will be a time when you will want to socialise, dear brother. You cannot hide away here forever, you know,” Jerry chided.
“Oh? Why not?” Aidan challenged.
Even lifting a snooty brow was painful to his throbbing head but he ignored it. He stared at his brother in a way that made Jerry lean back in his seat and consider him thoughtfully.
“You will recover,” Jeremiah replied confidently. “Maybe then life in the country will be a little too quiet for you. Life at Wenland will be completely different to the ballrooms in London you have been used to.”
“I hated the old life,” Aidan admitted. “I agreed to go to London in the hopes that enduring the circuit for a while without finding a bride would shut the dowager up and make her realise that marriage is not on the cards for me. It was hoped she would then be forced to turn her attention to other endeavours. I would then be free to go my own way without being harassed with hopeful spinsters, and a determined matchmaker.”
“It backfired,” Jerry informed him briskly. “Now you have had the accident, and are too ill to evade her, she will have you firmly in her sights.”
