Page 69 of A Rake's Redemption
“Who is Goldie?” Dr. Baxter asked.
“The horse I was riding yesterday,” Inis said.
The doctor raised a brow. “And you think you need totalkwith the animal?”
Inis nodded carefully, not wanting the room to start spinning again. “She’ll think I blame her for what happened.”
His face took on a look of concern. “Animals do notthink. Perhaps your mind is not quite clear after all.”
From behind him, Elsie made an unintelligible sound and Inis grimaced. “Ye doona understand.”
Dr. Baxter continued to study her. “It is not reasonable to converse with a horse, Miss O’Brien.”
“Miss O’Brien seems to have special skills with animals,” Alex said.
The other man looked skeptical as he turned to leave. “Be sure to call me if she takes any other fanciful notions—”
“Rest assured, I will take note of any fanciful notions that may enter Miss O’Brien’s head,” Alex said gravely.
But Inis saw him smile before he turned and walked the physician to the door.
…
“I am going to be a raving idiot if I am imprisoned in this room any longer,” Inis said to Alex the third morning after the incident.
“You are not imprisoned,” Alex said as he put a breakfast tray down on the small table next to where she sat. “I’m simply ensuring nothing disturbs your rest.”
Inis grimaced. “If ye want me to be undisturbed, ye should tell Mrs. Bradley and Mrs. Olsen to stop bustling about me all day. I am nae a bairn in need of a mother.”
Alex smiled and pulled up the other chair. She was beginning to sound more like herself. “I think they enjoy coddling you.”
“I’ve nae need to be coddled. Or cooped up inside this room.”
“The doctor said you were to do nothing strenuous for a few days.”
Inis practically snorted. “The only thing strenuous I’ve done was get out of bed and sit in this chair. And Elsie tries to help me with that.”
“That’s because I asked Mrs. Bradley to assign Elsie as your personal maid while you recover.”
Inis stared at him, and he was quite sure it was not with appreciation.
“I work for ye,” she said. “What will the other servants think if I’m assigned a maid?”
“It does not really matter what the others think,” Alex said. “As we discussed, you are no longer known as my groom. That was a jest. You have become a houseguest.”
That comment evidently didn’t meet with Inis’s approval, either, since the stare turned into a glare.
“Only for the purpose of fitting in with thetonso your scheme will be successful.” Inis nearly spit the words. “The servants here ken what I am. I doona want to give myself airs.”
Alex tilted his head to study her. “Actually, that is probably exactly what you should do.”
“Are yedaft?”
Alex managed to keep his lips from twitching. “You did quite well just now.”
A look of confusion crossed Inis’s face. “What do ye mean?”
“You just asked me if I were daft.” Alex assumed the haughty posture his pompous-ass brother used. “You dared to speak so to an aristocrat.”
