longer.”
Thomas cursed loudly, then stomped out of the room.
Tilly pulled herself away from Sullivan to approach the maid. She hadn’t been here long enough to have learned all of their names, but she thought this one might be Patsy. “Are you all right?”
The maid stood, and straightened her skirts. She curtsied. “Yes, my lady. Thank you. I’m sorry.” She shook her head, her bright blue eyes filled with tears. “I wasn’t told that would be part of my duties.”
“That is not part of yours or any other of my employees,” Sullivan said. “My brother is a bastard, so allow me to apologize on his behalf.”
She curtsied again, but her chin wobbled.
“Perhaps you should take the rest of the day off, Patsy,” Tilly said. “Go to the kitchens and tell them I instructed them to give you something warm to drink and one of the cook’s famous lemon tarts.”
Patsy smiled through her tears. “Thank you, my lady, that is very kind.” Then she looked to Sullivan.
“Go and do as my wife instructed,” he said.
The pretty girl nodded and fled the room.
Sullivan gripped Tilly’s arms again and turned her to face him.
“I’m sorry if I overstepped—”
But she didn’t get to finish because his lips crashed onto hers. He kissed her thoroughly, their tongues sliding against each other. Her body reacted to him immediately. She grew slippery between her thighs and her nipples tightened. It had been so long since he’d embraced her. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest. She gripped his thick muscled arms, running her hands up and down the hard bulk of his biceps.
He broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. “You are a remarkable woman, Freckles. But I have to admit that scared the hell out of me. If he had put a hand on you…”
She looked up into his warm brown eyes and she felt her heart tighten in on itself. She swallowed. “I might have been impetuous in striking Thomas. Perhaps I could have simply instructed him to get off the girl.”
“No, he deserved that.” His brow furrowed. “Though, in the future, I’d prefer you not strike a gentleman unless you know I’m close by to protect you should he decide to strike back. I would never hit a woman, but not all men are so forward thinking.”
She nodded.
“How is your hand?” He lifted her hand and inspected her knuckles. The skin wasn’t abraded, but her hand was red and swollen.
“Now that you’ve brought it to my attention, it hurts some. But I shall survive.” She needed to apologize, say something about what a fool she’d been regarding to Thomas and not trusting Sullivan. He’d never given her any reason not to trust him, yet she’d been guarded with him from the beginning.
“Do you need something for the pain?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Can we walk? In the gardens, perhaps?”
“Of course.”
He looped her hand into the crook of his elbow then led her through the back of the house and out into the gardens. They walked in silence for several moments, the only sound that of their shoes on the tiny rocks that lined the paths. Lush sweet pea blooms surrounded them, permeating the air with their fragrance.
The garden went deeper than she’d anticipated and finally opened up to a small garden maze. The shrubs were short and squatty and barely came up to her knees. Not a very effective maze, but walking around in it would serve her purpose.
“This maze is pathetic.”
He chuckled. “It was designed for us when we were children. It was more impressive when we were smaller.”
That made sense, but she wasn’t in the mood to be agreeable. They walked in silence, curving through the maze until they reached the center.
“I owe you an apology,” she said abruptly.
“For what?”
She exhaled slowly. “For not believing you. For everything.” They wove through the shorter shrubs until they came to what she presumed to be the center. There was a tall tree and a stone bench. He clasped her hand and pulled her to the bench.
“It matters not, Tilly,” he said, his voice gentle.
“It does though. I defended him.” She searched his face, not certain what she was looking for. “He is a bad man.”
Sullivan sighed heavily. “Yes, I believe he is.”
“I am truly sorry for not trusting you. You’ve never given me a reason not to, and I have treated you most poorly,” she said.
He cupped her cheek. “Freckles, there was no way you could know the truth. He is very