Page 12 of A Cinderella to Redeem the Earl
He strode back to the chatter and laughter in the ballroom. Everything was moving along very nicely. Nothing and no one would stop him from dealing justice to those who deserved it.
Chapter Three
Pamela stretched and snuggled back beneath her covers. She hadn’t been this cosy since she had been forced to leave her bedroom at the vicarage behind.
In those days her dreams had been full of Alan, her future husband. Both sets of parents had approved their marriage and she had romanticised her future as a soldier’s wife. His death, an accident while on manoeuvres, had been a terrible shock, not the least because they had anticipated their wedding vows. An awful truth she would have to admit to any man who might propose marriage in the future. She shook her head at her foolish thoughts. As if that was ever going to happen. Marriage was out of the question.
She was now an independent woman, earning her own living. It wasn’t quite as easy as one might expect, but it provided a good deal of satisfaction.
Somewhere in the distance a cockerel crowed. She had work to do. A kitchen to ready for the next onslaught of His Lordship’s ‘servants’, people who earned their keep by turning cards and rolling dice in the employ of a man she didn’t trust an inch. She grimaced. She did not believe a word of his explanation the previous evening and not just because he had made her stomach flutter in a most inappropriate way.
That he had done on purpose. Standing so close. Looking down at her as if she was a mouse to be gobbled up by a cat.
She could not help recalling how handsome he had looked in his evening clothes, the way he’d surveyedhis domainas he called it. He’d looked elegant and devastatingly charming when he’d smiled at one of his guests. Her stomach fluttered anew.
Dash it. She would do very well to avoid him if that was the sort of reaction he caused.
She forced herself to throw the covers back, but instead of the usual chilly air of a servant’s attic, the room was warm and welcoming.
She lit a candle and prepared for her day.
As she washed and dressed, she found herself humming. She paused. What was that song?
A waltz. How odd. She must have heard it the previous evening.
She brushed her hair and pinned it neatly under her cap, then went to prepare the breakfast table in the dining hall. Most of the houses she had worked in fed the servants early in the morning, before they began their duties, but here there were no servants except her. All she had to do was prepare a breakfast for the Earl and his friend Monsieur Phillippe.
At the kitchen door, she halted on the threshold. Her heart gave an odd little thump.
Oh! What on earth washedoing here? The Earl himself.
‘Good morning, Mrs Lamb.’
She glared at him. ‘I hardly expected to see you so early this morning, My Lord.’
He blinked and shook his head as if to clear it. No doubt he had imbibed too much the previous evening. ‘Really—why not?’
‘If I am not mistaken, your guests did not depart until the small hours, which means I expected you to be still abed. Now if you will excuse me, I have breakfast to prepare.’
‘That is why I am here—I am starving.’
‘Breakfast will be available in the servants’ hall shortly, as per your instructions.’
He gave her that charmingly boyish smile, the one that caused her mind to go blank and her heart to flutter. ‘I am hungry enough to eat a horse right now.’
He sounded like a wheedling lad instead of the arrogant nobleman she knew him to be. But she could hardly deny a meal to her employer.
‘Very well. Would scrambled eggs suit you?’
‘A bit of bacon with it wouldn’t go amiss.’
She couldn’t hold back a chuckle. ‘Very well, bacon and coffee. Shall I bring it to the servants’ hall or...?’ There had to be a dining room, she just hadn’t seen it.
‘I don’t want to put you to any trouble,’ he said, almost meekly. ‘I can eat here.’ He sat down at the end of the kitchen table.
Meek? Hardly. This man would never be anything but demanding and commanding. And his presence in her kitchen unnerved her. ‘I have a great deal to do this morning.’ Oh, dear, that sounded a bit rude.
He seemed to take it in stride. ‘Then you should not waste your time bringing me a tray.’
