“Holy crap, this feels good.” Propping her ankle on her knee, she rubbed her abused toes.
He averted his gaze. What a pitiful man he was, tempted by a slender female foot. Clearing his throat, he clasped his hands behind his back.
“You wished to speak with me?”
She dropped her foot and looked up at him, the vibrant blue of her eyes shining with excitement and just a tinge of regret. She opened her mouth to speak, but just then a voice called from the kitchen doorway.
“Ramsey,” Cook called. “Mrs. Harper is asking for ye. Look sharp, my girl.”
Miss Ramsey groaned and shoved her feet into her boots. “That housekeeper makes the Stormtroopers look soft and cuddly. Can I catch you later?”
Avery nodded. “Of course.”
She smiled at him. “Thanks, Avery. You’re the best.”
Worry grabbed hold of his spine as she walked away.
Whatever she’d been about to tell him had been important. He did not know her very well, but he knew that she would not waste his time idly.
With a lingering glance at the setting sun, Avery set off toward the training room. Although he no longer felt the burning need to punish his body as he had before, the exercise would calm him.
And with the tempest roaring in his soul, that was a comfort he sorely needed.
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Completely Punchy. She fought the urge to giggle as she rolled to her side with a smile.
No more scrubbing chamber pots and toting ash buckets. She was going to be like a Regency era Eliza Doolittle, only without the slipper fetching for Professor Higgins. She nearly cracked her jaw with a yawn as Henrietta flopped into bed behind her. Leah rolled her eyes as a bony heel connected with her calf. And to think she’d actually wondered if the little demon would miss her.
“Oh heavens! A spider!” Henrietta screamed.
The bed jostled violently. Henrietta’s full-blooded shriek had Leah leaping out of bed and reaching for the nearest blunt object to defend herself with, in this case a heavy candlestick.
“Henrietta, where is it?” Leah brandished the metal object toward the room at large, searching wildly for the murdering eight-legged bastard as Sara and Teresa snorted with laughter. Wait, what?
“Oh,” Henrietta gasped, doubled over with mirth.
“Your face, you should have seen…” She collapsed on the pillows in a heap of full-throated laughter.
A chill settled over Leah’s shoulders. The mocking laughter echoing in her ears, she set the candlestick down carefully and smoothed her shift over her hips. Slowly, methodically, she stepped toward the bed and the still-gasping- with-giggles Henrietta. Kneeling on the mattress with one knee, Leah leaned close to the young maid.
“You listen to me, and you listen good,” Leah said in a low tone. The girl stopped laughing, eyes widening slightly at Leah’s words. “I’ve let you off easy until now.
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ever going to meet in this lifetime, and she’s had all she
can take. Just remember, that whatever’s coming? You asked for it.”
Henrietta wasn’t breathing, just staring at Leah’s face with the glassed-over look of someone who realized they’d stepped in a giant pile of trouble.
With a calm smile and a gentle “good night” to the room full of silent girls, Leah settled into her pillows once more with a happy sigh.
This was going to be so satisfying.
i
She had to get up early the next morning, but it was so worth it. Fortunately, her internal clock had been honed to a fine edge since college. Jamie had a nasty habit of forgetting to pay the electric bill.
All three of Leah’s servant roommates slept like the dead. She kept all her delightedly evil snickering inside, though. No need to tempt fate.
When she’d laid out her plans to the best of her ability, she stuffed her pouch of contraband into the brown leather bag that Avery had given her. With her nearly nonexistent packing completed she descended the back staircase with a happy sigh. All she had to do now was tell Mrs. Harper she quit and hit the road for Lady Chesterfield’s.
She’d be sorry to leave Avery and Cook, but the rest of them? Not so much. Lady Chesterfield seemed incredibly nice, and Jamie had told her all about the young maid, Muriel. She hadn’t expected to actually get to meet her, so this was going to be awesome. Spending her days with people that didn’t resent her? What a novel freaking idea.
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