Kisses and Scandal (A Survivors Series Anthology ) - Shana Galen Page 0,72

an exasperated look and Raeni rushed to clear the dirty table so the next set of customers could sit there.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have a tray, which meant she carried the dishes in several trips to the kitchen. Then she had to ask for a clean rag to wipe the table. Rag in hand, Mrs. Price stopped her. “The coffee is ready. Bring it to those gentlemen before they leave. They’ve been waiting almost a quarter of an hour.”

“But I was to clean the table.”

“In a moment,” Mrs. Price said. She gestured to a tray on the counter. Raeni eyed it with no little trepidation. A coffee pot sat in the middle surrounded by empty cups and saucers of milk and chocolate. Raeni approached the tray and wondered how she was to carry it across the room without tipping it. She tried to remember how Caroline had done it, the tray balanced on one shoulder. Carefully, Raeni hoisted the heavy tray and balanced it on her shoulder.

It wasn’t so difficult. She couldn’t see past the tray, but it would only be for a moment. Most of the room was still visible to her. She started toward the table of men, walking quickly but carefully, and just then the bell above the door tinkled. Raeni glanced in that direction. A man entered, and for a moment he looked so much like her father’s overseer that she stumbled. She managed to keep the tray steady long enough to realize it wasn’t him after all, but by then her legs had gone to jelly out of fear. She lurched forward, the tray making it impossible for her to see the man in the expensive coat who had stepped into her path until it was too late. She plowed into the man, her tray crashing down, the coffee on it splashing over him. He yelped and jumped back as the hot beverage scalded his skin. Raeni tried desperately to right the tray, but she could do little but watch it slide as her own momentum carried it and her into the man.

He tried to catch her, and she tried to step back, but the wet floor was slippery and she lost her footing. She went down and the man went down beside her. From the floor, Raeni looked up at the dark beams running along the ceiling. She’d be fired now. She’d probably be let go without even the day’s wages. The coffee, milk, and chocolate on her gown were as close to a meal as she was likely to have today or in the foreseeable future. But she wouldn’t give up that easily. Perhaps if she sought out Mr. Gaines, stood straight and begged—without showing too many teeth—for him to give her another chance, he might take pity on her.

Mrs. Price’s face came into view, but she wasn’t looking down at Raeni. She was looking at the man Raeni had taken down. “Sir! Are you injured?” Mrs. Price asked.

Obviously, no one cared if Raeni was injured. Still, Raeni thought a better question for the man might be where did you come from and why weren’t you watching where you were going?

“I’m fine,” he said, his voice a low bass.

“Oh, I do apologize,” Mrs. Price was saying. Raeni wanted to roll her eyes. Why was she apologizing when it had been his fault? She’d better apologize too, especially if she hoped to beg Mr. Gaines for her position.

She pushed up to her elbows just in time for Mrs. Price to toss her an angry look. “This girl is new. But I’ll let her go right away. This won’t happen again, Mr. Gaines.”

The words were like a cold bucket of water tossed over her. Raeni wanted to sink right back down, curl up on the floor, and close her eyes. The handsome man before her, with his soft brown eyes and walnut-colored skin, was Mr. Gaines. The Mr. Gaines. She was doomed.

Two

Thomas hadn’t flinched when the scalding coffee splashed all over him, though he might have wished a significant quantity of it hadn’t landed on his trousers and quite so close to his nether regions. He’d barely restrained a pathetic yelp when the hot beverage soaked through the fabric and singed his inner thigh.

But his immediate concern was with his customers, most of whom were craning their necks to peer at the commotion. His coffee room had been open only a few days and this was not the impression he wanted to make on the London