the room.
“Lady Northton,” he said as he hurried over to her, “I can’t allow you to be in here doing…doing…” He paused and scanned the room. His eyes grew wide. “Lord Northton likes to keep an orderly room.”
“Does he?” She found a couple of red and purple shirts and removed them. “These are inappropriate. These are the colors a prostitute would wear. He is a married gentleman, and it’d do him well to remember that.” She ran to the window and tossed them out before he could stop her.
“Are you saying that Lord Northton is a prostitute?” the butler asked in shock.
“Those colors will send ladies the wrong message,” she replied. “He needs to be mindful of what he wears. I can’t wear those colors, and neither can he.”
“To be fair, you can wear a certain shade of purple,” Miss Britcher said at the doorway of the room.
Kitty rolled her eyes.
The butler cleared his throat. “Be that as it may, I can’t let you continue this…this,” he gestured around the room, “assault on Lord Northton’s bedchamber.”
She thought she heard a chuckle trying to escape his throat but couldn’t be sure.
“If he has to carry you out of there, he will,” Miss Britcher warned.
Since there was nothing else she could think of to do in the room, Kitty returned to her bedchamber. Miss Britcher didn’t hide her relief.
As the butler left Aaron’s bedchamber, Miss Britcher called out, “Aren’t you going to clean the room?”
The butler took a glance at it and shrugged. “Everything seems to be in order to me.” Then, with a spark of mirth in his eyes, he closed the door behind him as he stepped into the hall.
Kitty felt herself relax. It was nice to know that, besides Michael Stonewall, she had an ally in this townhouse.
***
“This isn’t funny,” Aaron said as he faced the two giggling maids in his bedchamber. “I can’t salvage those shirts my wife threw out the window. Those must be disposed of at once. My bedding, however, can be saved. I demand you wash everything.” He paused. “And stop laughing.”
The maids hurried over to the bed and started removing the bedding Kitty had soiled while in the room. Aaron couldn’t believe Kitty could be so childish. Imagine someone who considered herself all grown up acting like that. And leaving such a ridiculous note. As if he would have any lady in this bed! He went to the dresser, picked the parchment up, and ripped it into pieces.
One of the maids stopped as she was removing a blanket. She jabbed the other maid in the side, and when the maid looked down at what the first maid was pointing to, she burst out laughing.
With a grunt, Aaron demanded, “What is it?”
The second maid lifted a yellow gown and showed it to him. “It seems that someone left this for you.”
His face grew hot. “That wasn’t left for me.”
“Then why is it in your bed?” Mr. Stonewall, who’d been quiet up to now, asked.
The maids chuckled, and one threw the gown at Aaron.
Aaron caught it without thinking. Then, realizing what he was holding, he let out a shriek and dropped it, an action which earned him the laughter of everyone else in the room.
How dare Kitty do this to him? “No more laughing! That’s enough. All of you! I demand you pay me the respect I deserve.”
Though they seemed to make an effort to obey him, he caught a chuckle from one of the maids.
Turning to her, he gestured to the bed. “Wash the bedding. Now!”
He marched out of his room and strode down the stairs. Ignoring Mr. Stonewall, who was struggling to catch up to him, he went to the drawing room. Good. Kitty was still there. A seamstress was taking her measurements.
“I want her first dress to be ready this evening,” Miss Britcher was telling the seamstress. “She must have something to wear tomorrow.”
Miss Britcher stopped talking when she noticed Aaron. If Kitty noticed him, she didn’t give any indication of it. The seamstress, however, paused to offer him a greeting.
“Miss Britcher,” he said, “I want to have a word with you.”
At that, Kitty’s eyebrows rose.
“I’m not ready to talk to you yet,” he snapped at her. “I’m much too upset.”
Kitty put her hands on her hips. “You’re upset? I’m not the one with a love letter on my pillow.”
He scowled at her. “Miss Britcher, follow me to another room.”
He started to head out of the drawing room when Kitty said, “You can’t