next instant, so he couldn’t be sure.
She cleared her throat. “I wished to ask how long you expect me to be Lady Northton’s chaperone.”
“I hadn’t thought about it,” Aaron replied after a moment. “I can’t let her go to another townhouse until she gives me a healthy heir, and there’s no telling how long that will happen.”
“I assumed that I would leave when she conceives,” Miss Britcher said.
“Even if she conceives, there’s no guarantee the child will be a boy. She might have a girl.” Heaven help him, but Kitty might end up with nothing but girls. He hadn’t bothered to consider that scenario before. What a dreadful thing it would be if he had to keep her here for years and years while he tried for an heir.
“So you plan for me to stay here indefinitely?” Miss Britcher asked.
“You’ll have to. I need to make sure the son she has is mine.”
She paused then said, “I’ve been with your wife for a while now, and she’s done nothing that causes me to believe she needs a chaperone. I’ve watched sixteen ladies in all, and in that time, I’ve gotten good at detecting which ladies are likely to cause trouble and which ones aren’t. Lady Northton has done nothing to make me suspect she’ll do anything inappropriate. My services won’t be required once she conceives. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that they’re not even needed now. She leads a quiet and respectable life.”
He stared at her in disbelief. When he hired her, she was a stern lady. He’d found her intimidating, and he figured if he found her that way, then Kitty wouldn’t dare defy her. But as it turned out, Kitty had somehow managed to fool the lady into thinking she didn’t need a chaperone.
Aaron stood up and put his hands on his hips. “What kind of madness is this?”
“Madness?”
“Of all the ladies I interviewed, I didn’t think you’d be capable of being bewitched.”
She blinked in surprise. “Bewitched?”
“Yes. It’s like my wife has put you under some kind of spell. That’s the only reason I can explain the nonsense you’re speaking.”
“Nonsense?”
“Miss Britcher, I hired you because you impressed me. I figured you would remain steadfast no matter what, and I thought you’d be able to withstand the subtle lies my wife would utter in order to get her way.” He pointed to Mr. Stonewall. “She already has him under her spell. He does everything she tells him to. Please, Miss Britcher, don’t be the same way.”
“I’m not under anyone’s spell,” Mr. Stonewall spoke up.
“You are under her spell,” Aaron said. “You do everything she wants.”
“She’s my employer,” he replied. “My job is to do what she wants. When you tell the cook to make a meal, you expect him to do it. If the cook doesn’t make exactly what you want, you’ll fire him. If I don’t follow your wife’s orders, I’ll be out of a job.”
“So you’re willing to admit my wife is deceptive?”
Mr. Stonewall’s expression went grim. “No, my lord. She is not the one in this townhouse who concerns me. You are.”
Aaron couldn’t believe what he was hearing! “You’ve been with me this entire time. All I do is read books, visit White’s, and talk to a friend. If someone were to sum up my life, that would be all there is to it. I don’t engage in any dalliances, and though I’ve been accused of it, I don’t look at a lady with lust. There was no need to go into all of that nonsense of telling me where to look whenever I’m around a lady. I’m not the one who has the desire to engage in matters of the flesh.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t accuse your wife of being a seductress,” Mr. Stonewall replied.
“I accuse her of being a seductress because all ladies are seductresses. It’s in their nature.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is!” Aaron slammed his hand on the desk in irritation. “Stop telling me what is and what isn’t true. I’m a grown gentleman. I’m not a young lad who needs to be told how to think.”
“So you are determined to be miserable?”
“How can I be anything but miserable now that I have to worry about a wife who needs to be watched every moment of the day so she doesn’t have someone else’s child?” He glanced between Mrs. Britcher and Mr. Stonewall. “Do you think I enjoy having to pay a chaperone to make sure my