Read Online 080072089X (R) by Ruth Axtell - Free Book Online

MacKinnon . . . I’ve done nothing wrong.” The young woman was near tears. Casting fearful glances at Valentine, she continued at Rees’s nod. “Mlle. Valentine accused m-me of l-leaving a mess in her ladyship’s room the night h-her ladyship came home early, but, sir, Lady Wexham insisted I leave her things as they were. I-I tried to tidy up, sir, honestly I did, but she wished only for me to leave. She said that Valentine would take care of things in the morning—”
    Valentine harrumphed. “I’m sure ze countess did not mean for you to rummage about in her armoire and wrinkle her gowns when she told you to leave her things.”
    Rees swallowed, realizing exactly who had left the disorder. “Ahem. Did you leave her armoire in the state Valentine describes?”
    Virginia shook her head vigorously. “Oh no, sir, indeed I did not. Her ladyship didn’t even permit me to open it.”
    “Very well.”
    “Is zat all you can say!” Valentine spat at him. “You will let her get away with zis because she is a silly young thing—”
    Before she began to hurl insults at him, he pulled himself up, towering over her. “That is enough! If Virginia says she did not do what you accuse her of, that is final. You will have to see to the tidying up yourself.”
    “How—how dare you!”
    “Because I am butler in this household. If you do not like that fact, we will go to Lady Wexham and ask for her account. If she did indeed tell Virginia not to open the armoires, then she did not.” He knew full well Valentine was not going to want to go to the countess. But he didn’t like having to make more an enemy of her than he already had.

    He had not been in the household more than a day when she had sought him out in a dim passageway of the house and begun to flirt with him. The last thing he needed was an entanglement with a French lady’s maid.
    Valentine continued eyeing him with malevolence in her dark eyes. She was not an unattractive woman, slim, of medium height, with dark hair and eyes. He judged her to be around his own age, thirty or so. But he found nothing attractive in her disdainful attitude.
    It had crossed his mind that to enter into a flirtation with her would possibly help him ferret out information about the countess. Didn’t they say that servants were privy to most things in a household—and a trusted lady’s maid to her mistress’s most guarded secrets?
    But Rees had drawn the line at going to those lengths. If there were secrets to be discovered, he wasn’t going to dally with a maid to uncover them. The fact that she, too, was French meant that she could very well be working with the countess.
    He nodded in a clipped fashion to the women. “Very well, be about your business, the two of you.” One benefit of being butler was that his word was law.
    Valentine sniffed and flounced away. Virginia smiled gratefully and bobbed a curtsy before backing away. “Thank you, sir. Honestly, I didn’t do anything but what I was supposed to—”
    He smiled in reassurance. “It’s all right. I’m sure there is a logical explanation for it all.” Which none of you will ever discover.
    Mrs. Finlay entered from the kitchen, ushering them to the table. “Breakfast is served.”
    With a gesture to Virginia to precede him, Rees made his way to the head of the long table. It was set with a white cloth and a place for each of the servants. The two scullery maids were scurrying from kitchen to table with steaming dishes.
    The footmen, other maids, housekeeper, and outdoor staff found their places and stood behind their chairs, waiting for his appearance before taking their seats. It had been both humbling and daunting to realize hisposition as butler. He was only a servant above stairs. An ineffaceable line of demarcation existed between him and the world of his employer.
    But below stairs he was king, all of the other servants deferring to him, even Mrs. Finlay, though as housekeeper she was almost his equal, the