her bodice with an ugly cameo brooch that had belonged to her paternal grandmother. Apparently, it depicted her great grandfather’s profile. He had a Roman nose and a jutting chin and Mina only ever wore it when she was in a bad mood. She slipped the watch into the concealed pocket at her waist and surveyed the result. There, the very picture of respectability, she told herself in her dull black gown. For some reason she did not derive from that the satisfaction which she felt she ought.
She found Edna in the kitchen, who took one look at her and pulled out a chair for her at the kitchen table and poured her a cup of tea without once mentioning taking it in the parlor.
“Look like you’re in need of a strong cup of tea, Mrs Nye,” she said dourly.
“I am Edna,” Mina agreed. “But I’ll just take a quick wash in the scullery first.” She slipped through and gave herself a hurried wash. She’d need a bath later too, she thought with a grimace. “Church tomorrow,” she observed, raising her voice so Edna could hear her in the kitchen. “And when we get back, I shall help you with the Sunday lunches again.” She was surprised when Edna didn’t answer, and refastening her cuffs, she walked back through to the kitchen. “Edna?”
To her surprise, Nye was dominating the kitchen with his presence, leaning against the sink, a confrontational gleam in his eye. She started almost guiltily on sight of him, but quickly recovered herself, walking over to the kitchen table to take her seat there.
Edna sent her a pinched look of alarm, but Mina hastened to give her a bright smile of reassurance. “Nye and I have come to a new agreement about my duties,” she said in a pointed tone, then raised her cup to her lips and took a sip of slightly stewed tea. Setting it down again, she raised her eyes to find Nye’s narrowed at her.
“This morning,” she added firmly in a voice that carried. “I mean to scrub that bathroom upstairs until it’s gleaming. Then when I am done, I shall take a bath.”
Edna gulped the last of her tea, as though she could not get away from the tense atmosphere fast enough. “Yes, Mrs. Nye,” she said uncertainly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to stripping them beds.”
Mina nodded. “I have some laundry of my own to do this afternoon,” she said absently, thinking of her abused nightgown and the bedsheet with its telling smear of blood. She didn’t want anyone else’s hands scrubbing those clean.
At Edna’s hasty withdrawal, Nye walked over to the table. He stopped beside her and waited there until she lifted her eyes to meet his again.
“Seems I’ve forgotten the terms of our ‘agreement,’” he bit out. “Maybe you should remind me of them.”
“Very well,” she said determinedly. “Now our marriage stands proven both in terms of deed and fact, I shall pick up any household duties I see fit.”
He hissed out a breath. “Is that so?”
“It is,” she said, raising her teacup to her lips again.
His gaze flickered a moment, then he shrugged. “Seems fair,” he said, immediately setting her on her guard.
“It does?” Her eyes darted to his suspiciously.
He nodded again thoughtfully. “You can lord it over household matters,” he said generously. “As I mean to be master where it counts most.”
“And where’s that?” Mina asked doggedly, though she already had a dim suspicion which direction he was heading in his thinking.
“In my bed,” he said richly.
“Your bed?” Mina huffed. “I don’t even know where that is.”
He snorted. “You’ve slept in it since our wedding night.”
Her mouth dropped open. “That’s your bedroom?”
He looked amused. “Who else’s?”
“But…” Her mind spun. “The bed didn’t even have any sheets on it!”
He shrugged again. “I told you, I don’t sleep.”
She gave a derisive snort. “For someone who doesn’t sleep, I’ve never met anyone harder to rouse from slumber than you, Will Nye!”
Annoyingly, as soon as the words had left her mouth, she felt herself blush hotly, remembering the last time she had called him Will. The only time he had bade her call him it. Setting her cup down, she pushed the saucer away and made to stand. His hand on her shoulder prevented her.
“Stay there a minute,” he growled. “Unless you want me to drag you into the scullery.”
“The scullery?”
“Or maybe bend you over this table,” he said huskily.
Mina blinked. What? “Bend me over…” Her words trailed off