The Secret Wallflower Society - Jillian Eaton Page 0,9
different man than the one he’d become.
Which was why he felt empathy, not anger, towards Leo when he lashed out during one of his dark moods. It was also why he’d stuck loyally by the earl’s side when any other man would have abandoned him to his fate long ago. Because family did not abandon family, and although they did not share blood, the Corishs were the only family Leo had left.
“The young lady was quite insistent.” Bracing himself for the inevitable blowback, Robert clasped his hands and squared his shoulders. “She said she was a friend. Her name is…” He paused to consultant the small ivory calling card the woman with the red hair had shoved into his hand before she demanded he ‘march his arse to the study and get Leo out here or else’. Robert didn’t know ‘what else’ meant, but he was surrounded by enough strong women to know better than to challenge such a phrase. “The Countess of Cambridge.”
Leo lifted his head sharply. An untended lock of inky black hair swept over his brow. He shoved it out of the way. “What did you say her name as?”
“The Countess of Cambridge,” Robert said after consulting the card once more to ensure he had the title correct. The fiery young lady pacing a hole in the carpet in the green parlor hardly seemed old enough to be a man’s wife, let alone his widow, but he’d given up on making sense of the ton and their eccentric ways. Marrying because of money instead of love. It just wasn’t proper. But who was he to say anything different? He may have been happily married to the same woman for nearly four decades, but at the end of the day he was just a lowly servant.
And no one – including the Earl of Winchester – wanted to hear his opinion.
“I don’t know anyone by that name. Send her away.” His jaw clenching, Leo picked up his quill and resumed his work.
After a quick glance at the desk to ensure there were not any firearms within reach, Robert remained where he stood and it took less than a minute for the earl to notice his demand was not being followed.
“Is there a problem?” he snapped, thick brows gathering like angry storm clouds above flashing blue eyes. “I told you to send her away, Mr. Corish! What part of that do you not understand?”
“It’s not so much that I don’t understand the order, my lord,” Robert said carefully. “It’s that I don’t know if I should follow it.”
Leo’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits of ice. “You’re fired. Get of my sight.”
Make that two hundred and thirty eight, Robert thought silently. He still didn’t move. “I am sorry to hear that, my lord. Given there is no one currently on staff qualified to take my place, should I have tea and biscuits sent in to Lady Cambridge before I go? I have a feeling she is going to be here for a while.”
Leo thought about that for a moment. Robert could all but see the gears turning in his head. And it took everything within him not to cross the room and lay a heavy hand on the earl’s shoulder and tell him that everything was going to be all right. That he didn’t have to be so hard all of the time. That if he didn’t learn how to bend, at a least a little, eventually he was going to break. But there were some lines even a personal valet couldn’t cross, and he’d toed the edge of them enough to know that if he showed Leo any warmth or kindness he would be fired for the last time.
“The Countess of Cambridge, you said?”
Robert nodded. “Indeed, my lord.”
“Tiny chit, bright red hair, has feathers or some sort of other lavish adornment sticking out of her head?”
So the duke really did know who the woman in the parlor was.
That was interesting.
Very interesting.
“Indeed, my lord.”
Leo muttered an indecipherable comment under his breath. Robert couldn’t hear what it was, but he knew the duke well enough to know it hadn’t been complimentary. Standing, Leo stalked to his generously appointed liquor cabinet in the corner of the study and poured himself a glass of brandy. He drank it in one swallow before immediately pouring himself another. Studying the amber contents for a moment, he took a small, measured sip and then set the glass down.