Page 15 of Gambling with the Earl
Guy raised his gaze over the servant’s balding head and encountered the flashing green eyes of the serving girl from the causeway. Kitty. The one so keen to enter his bedchamber. Well, she had finally gotten her wish.
“I see.” Surprise stole his capacity for any further comment.
“I told her she should be flogged for insolence.” Thomas sniffed, his beady eyes lighting up at the prospect.
Did the man have a streak of cruelty running through him?
Kitty opened her mouth as if to speak and then closed it again. He could see a tumult of emotion crossing her face. Denial, frustration and most intriguingly of all, a faint sparkle of authority. She would like to put Thomas in his place. He could see it as plain as day. Although she would do so calmly. Guy couldn’t imagine Kitty ever losing control. She radiated a quiet certitude.
Instead of offering an explanation, Guy simply pursed his lips. “And what do you have to say for yourself, girl?”
For the briefest moment her eyes clashed with his, steel on steel, before her expression dropped demurely to the floor.
“I was merely carrying out your orders, my lord.”
“Orders,” spluttered Thomas, but Guy held up a hand to stop him.
“My orders,” he confirmed. “That’s quite right. No harm has been done.” He cleared his throat. “No one shall be flogged today.”
Again he caught a flash of green. A surge of watchful, determined patience.
“But she wasn’t working, she was just standing there,” Thomas protested.
This time the serving girl couldn’t help herself. Her gaze shifted warily, and her lips tightened. If he hadn’t been watching her closely, he would have missed it.
What was her story, Guy wondered. How had she come by such inner poise and confidence? Again he puzzled over what had brought her to these shores, to the infamous castle of the Earl of Rossfarne.
It was a puzzle he would like to solve.
“I begin to think I have tasked you too severely, Thomas,” he said. “We will permit Kitty entrance to the solar. She will be responsible for it, from now on.” He waved his hand in the air, not completely sure what was involved in a chambermaid’s duties.
Thomas looked displeased but knew better than to question his master. “Very good, my lord.” He ducked his head and ushered Kitty from the room.
Guy turned towards the window. “I would like you to stay, just for a moment.”
“Me, my lord?” his manservant queried.
“You may go, Thomas.”
He kept his back turned until Thomas’s shuffling footsteps had left the room and the chamber door was closed once again. Silence stretched between them, but he waited patiently. Who would break it first? As a servant, this wench should know not to speak before he did.
“How may I assist you, my lord?”
Not a trained servant then. She had given herself away. Guy whirled around, ready to confront her, but the sight of her downturned head and neatly folded hands made him pause.
“I wish to know more about you, Kitty.” He took a step forward and was struck by her lemony scent. He breathed it in. It was a fragrance he could lose himself in, if circumstances were different.
“More about me, my lord?” Her voice rose with alarm.
“Yes.” He stopped a few feet away from her and folded his arms. “Where did you say you were from?”
She swallowed, clearly uncomfortable. The skin of her cheek was smooth with a faint clustering of freckles around her upturned nose. An auburn curl had sprung loose from her cap to sit upon her slender shoulder.
“Not far from here.”
“But you said you had travelled for many days,” he countered quickly.
“I did.” She straightened up and met his gaze levelly. He thought again that he had never beheld such beautiful sea-green eyes. “But I did not come directly to Rossfarne. I asked elsewhere for work first.”
