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I mean, we were on our honeymoon, for God’s sake. You were supposed to have sex.Not that we had. I was surprised we hadn’t yet, but I knew that was down to my bruises still.
Shit.
I forgot about them again.
My hand clapped to my cheek, and I muttered, “Eoghan didn’t do this!” That I wanted to defend him, after he’d gone so far to protect me, might have seemed weird, especially to staff who were paid to look the other way anyway, but this mattered to me.
I didn’t want her thinking badly of him.
“Of course he didn’t,” the woman snarled, and the vitriol in her voice had me staggering back a step.
Jesus.
“My Eoghan would never do that.”
My brows rose. “Are you related?”
“Known him since he was a boy. Been keeping house for him since he got out of the army.” She sniffed. “He deserves better than a Bratva bitch for a bride, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.” At the word ‘Bratva,’ she spat. Just off the counter and toward the floor, but eww.
“I beg your pardon,” I whispered, unable to believe she’d not only spat but had called me a bitch without even knowing who the hell I was.
“You heard me.”
I had heard her, but my ears were still ringing, and my surprise was difficult to contain.
Unsure what to do, but knowing that walking out and tattling to Eoghan might make things worse, I rearranged things mentally. I was going to make us a smoothie, but now, with a housekeeper who loathed me under my roof, I suddenly realized I couldn’t trust her.
Not her food, nor the chores she undertook to make my life easier.
Would Eoghan take her side? I couldn’t see that, not when he’d treated me so fairly, but also, I knew I had to expect this reaction from other people who were old-school Five Points. There was a lot of bad blood between our families, our brotherhoods, so I knew I’d face this more than I’d like.
I gnawed on my bottom lip as I moved around her, aiming for the fridge. The day before the wedding, a delivery van had arrived at my house and had taken all my belongings from my father’s home to the apartment. So all my stuff was here. Everything from my personal jewelry to old schoolbooks and the protein shakes I used.
Because cooking wasn’t my strength, and I knew I’d have to feed Eoghan breakfast, I’d taken to making us shakes with my products, even though I figured he’d be the kind of guy who had protein shakes with raw eggs and gross stuff in them. But with the housekeeper’s food potentially containing saliva—I mean, that might be reaching, but I wasn’t taking any chances for the moment—that meant I’d have to start expanding my culinary repertoire.
Wanting to groan at the thought, I grabbed the avocado, lettuce, ginger, and apple from the crisper, tucked the almond butter under my arm, along with the almond milk, and hiked it over to the side where the blender was.
The kitchen was giant, beautiful, a marvel—if you liked cooking. All marble counters, an oversized island with a stove and a sink where I usually did my prep, but I tucked myself to the side. I winced when I had to use a drawer on the island where she was working.
When she actually shoved me aside, I just stood there, my mouth working. “Excuse me?”
“I should think so,” she scoffed.
And yeah, she’d totally mistaken my meaning.
My jaw tensed as I glared at her, well aware she was completely ignoring me. “Who the hell are you anyway?” I ground out.
And when she ignored me some more, I grabbed her arm and forced her to look at me. The hatred in her eyes wasn’t something I was comfortable seeing, but fuck, it didn’t hurt my feelings. There were many people who loathed my family. I could just chalk this bitch down as another one.
“I’m Winifred. Eoghan calls me Winnie.”
I scowled at her. “Well, Winifred, you can dislike me all you want, but you need to remember—this is my kitchen now. My roof. You do not treat me with disrespect, even if you hate my guts.” I wasn’t about to let this old bitch walk all over me, but neither could I make her like me.
“Eoghan pays my wages.”
“Yeah, he does, and if I tell him I have a problem with you, if I tell him what you just did? We both know you’ll be looking for new employment.”
Winifred sniffed. “He wouldn’t believe you.”
