AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There is no need for you to look at it at all. Just take the quill and sign. Here.”
“Another day.”
“I need it now!”
The earl began to cough. Lady Trestan exclaimed angrily. The sound of glass breaking was too much for the nurse. She rushed back in and exclaimed in dismay.
Sarah quickly moved down the corridor, well aware that her presence would be unwelcome and hoping to escape before Lady Trestan saw her.
She failed in this. The countess swept out of her husband’s room before Sarah turned the corner. Ink had splashed all down the skirt of her silk gown, most likely ruining it. She looked furious, and seeing Sarah did not improve her temper. She bared her teeth like a cornered fox. “If you think you can supplant me, you are even more of a fool than I imagined,” she hissed.
“What?”
“Did you think I hadn’t noticed? Because I detest the smell of sickrooms?” Lady Trestan gave a little shiver. “You’ve been observed. I’ve been told how you’re oiling about, taking advantage of a sick man, extending your sway over him.”
Sarah was confounded. “I wasn’t doing any…”
“Pfft. Why else would you bother with your ‘reading’?”
“For Kenver,” Sarah said crisply.
“Kenver asked you to do it?” The countess’s eyes narrowed. “What is he plotting?”
“His father’s continued existence?”
Lady Trestan looked blank for a moment. “But Kenver would…” She bit off these words, scowled, and turned away.
“You might try vinegar on that stain,” Sarah said before she could stop herself. She knew immediately it was a mistake. The information had just popped out, as bits and pieces of her reading often did.
The countess whirled and glared at her. “Do you dare to mock me?” She shook the document in Sarah’s face. “This is important. It must be executed.”
“I’m surprised you don’t just sign for him,” Sarah replied dryly.
“The bank manager knows his hand too well.”
Which implied that she often did sign for him, Sarah noted. But this was none of her affair. She edged past the countess to go back to the sickroom.
“I forbid you to go in there,” the older woman said.
Sarah faced her. “Who visits is up to the earl,” she said, and entered.
Lady Trestan came in on her heels. She grabbed Sarah’s arm and jerked. “Get out.”
“Alice!” said the earl. He tried to push up from the pile of pillows. “Stop it.” He fell back.
“Do not tell me—” Lady Trestan began.
“We need quiet in here,” interrupted the nurse. “Or else we’re likely to have a relapse on our hands.”
Three pairs of eyes fixed on the countess. With something very like a snarl, she whirled and departed. To do what, Sarah wondered. Whatever it was, she didn’t think it would be pleasant.
Eighteen
When Kenver heard that his father’s valet was to take Sarah’s place in the sickroom and that Sarah had been ordered not to show her face there again—nearly in those insulting words—he felt a flash of rage. “Who says so?” he asked Sarah.
“I received a note.”
He reached out. She gave it to him. “That is Mama’s hand.”
