Page 28 of The Marquis' Game of Seduction
“It was nothing,” Colin said. “I hope only that you’ll think better of it next time you decide to stride out into the night during a rain storm. Myself and Anna and Judith and even Doctor Miller have quite a schedule. And we can’t tally all night long, just ensuring that you remain alive. Not every time it rains. Okay?”
He hovered over her for a moment. Rose could almost see the gears creaking about in the back of his mind. After a long, dramatic pause, he added, “Now, I do hope that you’ll take the rest of the day—even the week—to rest. It’s the number one thing required of you right now, so that you can return to your actual duties: assisting in Duncan’s education.”
Colin’s words were sterile and charged. He didn’t allow her another moment to answer. He turned on his heel and stalked toward the door. Before she could part her lips and form a single syllable, he disappeared out of the door and crunched down the hall.
Rose inhaled. Her breathing felt staggered and strange, like it was hitting an obstacle in her throat. She stared at the ceiling for the next minute, until she heard more footfalls creeping down the hall. She yanked her head around (again, adding the throbbing effect) to see Anna dart back in, carrying a tray of tea.
Goodness. Rose realised that she’d forgotten all about Anna and the tea. It seemed that Colin had, as well. Anna blinked around the now-empty room and shrugged her shoulders.
“”I suppose he forgot?” she asked.
“He grew angry and stalked off. Much in the style of a very passionate, very important man,” Rose said. She scrunched her nose and tried to laugh at her own joke.
Anna lent her a brief giggle, although she did it with panic glittering behind her eyes. It was obvious that she didn’t like the idea of picking fun at the master. Again, Rose was reminded of what Anna had said about not knowing where else to go if the job ever fell through.
“Relax. He’s far away from us, now,” Rose whispered.
Anna spread the tray of tea and biscuits across the mattress. Rose shifted a bit and tilted upright in bed. Anna assisted her with her tea—dropping a bit of sugar into the dark liquid, stirring slowly with a tiny spoon. Rose attempted to nibble at the edge of a biscuit, but even the slightest of chewing made her feel like a boulder was knocking against her skull.
“What is it with the Marquees?” Rose asked Anna then.
“I don’t suppose I know what you mean,” Anna whispered. But as she answered, she seemed to stare some place behind Rose’s head, rather than directly into her eyes.
It felt like a strangely dishonest way to answer.
“Yes you do,” Rose affirmed. “You know. He’s so distant from reality. Sometimes, it seems like he wants to peer out and grab at reality and live back in it again. But ordinarily, it feels as though he’s trying to create an even bigger divide between himself and the rest of the world. What is it? And has it only been just since his father passed away?”
Anna stitched her eyebrows tighter together. Rose hardly noticed. She was even speaking so quickly that she hardly noticed the ache of her head.
“And another thing. What about his mother? I requested more information about her illness—yet he danced around the subject and more-or-less told me it wasn’t my business…”
“The Marquees likes his privacy,” Anna whispered.
The words were so painfully stifling that Rose wanted to smash her fist into her thigh and berate Anna for following the Marquees’ rules. But Anna continued to stare straight ahead, somewhere toward the window. She gripped a biscuit and chewed slowly at the edge. Rose scrambled for any other topic of conversation, not wanting to craft her own divide between herself and the actual only friend she had at the estate.
Just because Anna was nervous about the entire operation didn’t mean that Rose could treat her like a second-class citizen. Hell, they were both second-class citizens. They had to stick together.
“Again, I’m terribly sorry, Anna,” Rose whispered. “I never meant to create drama. I’ll be like you from here on out. I’ll keep my head down. I’ll keep the peace. Someday soon, it will be difficult for anyone here to remember my name.”
Anna’s smile crept across her face. After a pause, she whispered, “I think that would be very unlikely, due to the twinkle in Lord Remington’s eyes. But we shall see, won’t we?”
Chapter 14
The evening after the incident, Rose attempted to stand from her bed by herself. The moment her toes touched the ground, she realised her mistake. It was like she was suddenly on board a ship, the deck tilting beneath her. She fell back, gasping for air, and blinked at the ceiling with confusion. The back of her head felt like it was on fire. She reached up toward her forehead, half-expecting to find blood pouring out of the gash in her skin once more. Luckily for her, it kept itself at bay.
“Goodness,” she muttered. “The last thing I need is to injure myself even more, simply because I couldn’t remain in bed a moment more.”
Bored, she reached for her book and struggled to read for a few minutes. She scrunched up her eyes as she tried to take in the words. Yet somewhere in the back of her skull, the story grew muddled and lost. She smashed her book against her thighs and grimaced. Was it possible that her ill-fated attempt to see whatever it was that was going on in the tower had changed her life, and her mind, forever?
But no, no. The doctor had informed Colin that all would be well in time. She had only to be patient. It was only the first day out, only the very first night. It was just as Carrie had always told her at the orphanage. “The problem with you is that you cannot handle the passing of time. You think it all has to happen right now for you. And you give no weight to tomorrow.”
Finally, Rose forced herself to slumber. When she awoke the next morning, she strained herself to slip off the side of the bed once more, to dot her toes against the chill of the floorboards. It was still early morning—perhaps around breakfast time—and she was grateful that she hadn’t allowed the morning to drip away from her again.
Also, she was grateful to discover that her skull didn’t feel as though it was a mighty bell, in the midst of its hourly ring. Rather, it felt very nearly like a normal head. She breathed a sigh of relief at this first feeling of normalcy. Perhaps everything would turn out all right.
Just then, there was a scattering of footsteps outside the door. There was a hushed whisper, then another. Rose strained to hear, yet she couldn’t make out precisely who the voices belonged to. But she didn’t have to wait long. The door sprung open and the hallway spit out Duncan, followed by Anna.
It seemed that the two had been in some kind of spat, regarding whether or not they should awaken Rose or not. Duncan pointed a rather rude finger toward his governess and cried, “Look! I told you. She’s already awake!” Then, he spun round and glared at Anna, like he wanted to prove something.
