Page 48 of A Rake's Redemption
Miranda turned away from the window in her parlor and looked at Fern standing just inside the closed door the next afternoon. She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. “How could that bitch survive falling down a flight of stairs? Did you not loosen the carpet enough?”
“I loosened the second step so Inis would tumble down the whole flight,” Fern replied.
“Only one step?” Miranda snarled.
Fern seemed unfazed. “If I had loosed more than one, it would have looked suspicious.”
Miranda ground her teeth and then took a deep breath. “Point taken.”
“I even left the nails lying out, so questions wouldn’t be asked about them being missing,” Fern added.
Miranda had to admit, silently, that Fern had probably handled it wisely. The maid was smart, a fact Miranda tucked away to be remembered. “Not even broken bones?”
“A sprained ankle.” Fern lifted both palms up. “The Irish are a superstitious lot. Inis mumbled something about faeries. Maybe she has some kind of magical protection.”
Miranda sniffed. “There is no such thing asmagic. The girl is a contriving bitch.”
“You are probably right, my lady,” Fern said.
Something in her tone gave Miranda pause. Servants were always acquiescent, but Fern sounded like she wanted to say more. “Probably?”
Fern lifted on shoulder. “Inis certainly seems to have Lord Ashley wrapped around her little finger.”
Miranda narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“He has hardly left her side. Elsie says he sits by the bed when she takes food up. He makes sure the warm brick in Inis’s bed is changed before it cools. He applies the cold compress the doctor ordered himself. He even had the housekeeper bring up scented soap this morning.”
“I see,” Miranda said, managing to keep her jaw from locking. “It sounds like the hoyden knows how to play the poor, helpless damsel in distress.” When Fern raised a questioning brow, Miranda frowned. “Do you not agree?”
“I wouldn’t know anything about acting, my lady.” Fern smiled in that cold, detached way she had about her. “Yesterday morning when the…accident…occurred and we maids rushed up the stairs, Lord Ashley was with Inis. His shirt was undone.”
Miranda felt like she’d swallowed a hot coal, but she forced her voice to sound calm. “Explain.”
“Lord Ashley gave Inis the only room on the fourth floor, away from the rest of the servants.” Fern shrugged. “It is possible he’d been in her room beforehand.”
The thought of him rutting with the Irish woman made the fire searing in Miranda’s stomach turn white hot. Alexander washers.
“That is certainly an interesting theory.” Miranda gestured to the small bag of coins she’d given Fern earlier. “I will add to that if you can keep me updated.”
Fern nodded. “Of course, my lady.”
Miranda nodded, too. “Meanwhile, I will think of something else that will settle this matter once and for all.”
Chapter Fifteen
Inis was not surprised when Caroline showed up Saturday afternoon. Just because she had to rest her ankle and wasn’t able to work in the stables, didn’t mean Alex intended to put her etiquette lessons on hold. May was only a month away, and no date had been set for the duke’s ball.
Inis suppressed a smile as Caroline entered the drawing room off the main parlor and looked around, an expression of amazement on her face. The delicately carved ladies’ chairs and small tables had been moved aside to make room for a four-poster bed brought down from one of the guestrooms. Inis’s half bath had been brought down as well and sat behind a damask-paneled dressing screen. Two large, well-padded armchairs and hassocks took up the remaining space beside the bed.
Inis sat in one of the chairs, her ankle propped on the hassock with a pillow tucked under it. She gestured for Caroline to take the other seat. “Alex…I mean, Mr. Ashley, thought it would be better if I were housed on the first floor,” Inis said by way of explanation, hoping Caroline hadn’t caught the slip of tongue. “’Tis easier on the servants as well, not to have to fetch and carry four flights of steps.”
“I can imagine.”
Caroline looked amused, which meant she hadn’t missed Inis’s familiar use of Alex’s name. She really needed to be more careful, particularly since some of the chambermaids resented the fact she received preferred treatment. She couldn’t deny she did. Every time she’d awakened from the laudanum-induced sleep of Thursday night, she’d found Alex sitting in the chair beside her bed. A rather uncomfortable chair at that, which was probably why the two big armchairs from his library now sat here. He’d only left her side yesterday to arrange for the furniture to be moved to the drawing room, andthen, he’d carried her down the stairs himself.
A tingle spread through her as she recalled how he’d pressed her close to him while he navigated the narrow stairwells and ordered her to hang on to him. Not that she’d needed to be ordered. Being held against the hardness of his chest with the warm scent of him assailing all her senses made her hands slide around his neck of their own accord.
“I really doona want to be a burden to the servants,” Inis said.
