Page 32 of A Duke, a Virgin and a Baby
“Why are you here, Mother?” Anna questioned coldly.
“Will you not at least greet me? Surely, I raised you with better manners than that.” Sally huffed, looking irritated.
“I do not owe you anything, seeing as you have turned up at my home, despite the fact that I expressly told you that you are not welcome here. Not after what you did.” Anna stated with a glare.
“Dear, you must let bygones be bygones at this time. I thought that perhaps you might be with child – my maid informed me that you were searching for a nursemaid. But you are –” Sally gestured at Anna’s light form with a strangely pinched expression and then she smiled. “While I would have so loved to have been here for the birth of your first child, I am more thankful than anything that both you and the baby are well. Was it a boy or a girl? Can I meet them at once?”
“Did you hear nothing I said, Mother? Please leave my home at once. Do not push me to resort to demeaning tactics.” Anna demanded angrily.
Sally sighed, as though the conversation was wearing her down more than anyone else.
“I do not understand why you insist on being so… stubborn. You are such a sensitive woman – even as a child, you had such fragile emotions. And now, you insist on harboring this grudge, over something that was done for your benefit! How will you raise your child when you are too busy focused on petty notions? Just let me see the child, Anna.”
“There is no child! Your maid heard wrong. I wasn’t making inquiries for myself but for a friend –”
The statement was hardly out of Anna’s mouth when a wail of distress shattered the air around them.
“Anna –”
“Leave, Mother. Now.”
Sally stepped in her way and said, “I will stay and help you take care of my grandchild.”
“I do not need –”
“You need all the help you can get. Surely no one can be better than the mother who raised you?”
“Ah, yes. Because you did such a fine job,” Anna drawled sarcastically, unable to bear the sound of Nicholas’ cries any longer and dashing up the stairs in the direction of the nursery.
Her mother followed her closely, still demanding to have her way, much to Anna’s frustration.
“When did you even have this child? It hasn’t been a year since you got married but I suppose the duke wished to have an heir as soon as possible –”
Anna was fed up then – by her mother’s pestering and the unnerving sense of Nicholas in distress – and she whirled around, raising her voice higher thank she had ever done against her mother.
“Mother! Stop! You are not welcome in my home and you never will be! Get out of here, now!”
Sally stared at her with her hand pressed to her chest, shock written all over her face at Anna’s outburst.
“How could you say that? I have done everything I could so you could have a great future and it seems as though everything has worked out for you thus far. Yet this is how you choose to repay me?”
“What on earth is going on here?”
CHAPTER TEN
“Your Grace!” Sally exclaimed, rushing forward to curtsy to him, only for Julian to walk right to Anna’s side, barely acknowledging her.
“What is wrong? Are you all right?” he asked, his voice void of concerning but holding something much simpler and plain.
Anna could not speak, the anger within her rapidly dissipating and leaving nothing but shame in its place. She could not believe she had been so unruly – and in front of her husband no less. Embarrassed, she lowered her head and tried to gather her thoughts, barely able to get a word out before Julian spoke up again,
“You,” he stated, looking at Sally. “I know you.”
Sally’s face was alight with joy.
“Yes, Your Grace. We have not met properly. I am –”
“Leave this place at once. My wife already instructed you to do so, multiple times before. Your continuous presence here is overstepping your boundaries. After all, I am certain that she told you never to set foot in here. If we were really to call it what it is, what you have done is trespass onto this property.” Julian told her, his tone much colder than what Anna had used when she spoke.
