Page 32 of Sinfully Mine
“You are so kind, Mr. Worthington.” Hester shot Drew a smug look. “I accept your offer.”
Hester had picked her champion. Worth.
Grout snored softly, his head falling back against his chair.
“Too much brandy,” Phelan said from his spot across from Constance, who he regarded as if she were a delicious biscuit he wished to eat. Phelan had always found Constance desirable.
“Grout.” Constance nudged him with her arm.
Grout snorted and wiggled his form about, blinking his eyes. “Dear lord. Have I fallen asleep at your table, Sinclair? Apologies. I should probably retire early. The fault of the brandy I imbibed earlier; I fear.” He blushed, looking at Constance.
“You are excused.” Drew lifted his glass. “We’ll carry on without you.” Drew liked Grout, though he didn’t understand the man’s obsession with Constance. He was probably in love with her, which wouldn’t end well. Constance, for her part, treated Grout as if he were some sort of a pet. A large bulldog, for instance.
“Oh, Grout, do go up. We’ll resume tomorrow.” She patted his cheek.
“Thank you, my lady.” He stumbled to his feet, stubbed his toe against the edge of the door and bestowed an abashed smile at the room. “Mrs. Black, it was a pleasure.”
“Tell me there is a lamp, Andrew.” Constance glanced at Drew. “Least he trips and injure himself.”
“There is,” Hester interjected. “At the top of the stairs. He should have no trouble finding his room.”
Constance pulled her attention from Drew, casting an irritated look in Hester’s direction. “How kind of you to mention it.” Her elegant shoulders rippled gracefully, pushing the tops of her breasts upward and drawing the attention of the men in the room. Drew included. Constance was impossible not to notice.
Hester’s mouth tightened into that tight little rosette.
Grout bumped the door again. “Pardon.”
Worth leaned into Hester, whispering to her in a low tone until her cheeks pinked. She gave him a shy smile and picked up the cards before her. Nodding to what was in her hand, she looked to Worth for direction.
Drew had the urge to snap something.
Worth’s neck, for instance.
Instead, he picked up his own cards and refilled his wine. “Well then, shall we play?”
Chapter Sixteen
Hester covered heryawn with the cards in her hand, trying to blink the sleep from her eyes. She didn’t usually drink wine and she’d had more than one glass. Difficult to pretend interest in the game they were playing while she struggled to keep her eyes open.
Worth lifted the bottle of wine seeking to refill her glass. “No thank you, Mr. Worthington. I believe I’ve had enough.”
“Yes, Worth,” Sinclair drawled in a raspy snarl from across the table. “Mrs. Black has hadquiteenough. She gets up at an unspeakable hour to perform her chores.”
Did Sinclair need to behave so boorishly?
He’d said few words during the meal, at least to her. Mrs. Ebersole had outdone herself and while the dinner might not have graced that of Lady Prissypants’ table in London—the woman decried the absence of aspic for goodness sakes. No one liked aspic—Hester found the meal delicious. She only hoped she had time once she awoke in the morning to place a large pile of cow dung at the base of the steps leading to her now ruined garden. That would ruin Lady Prissypants’ slippers for sure. You couldn’t get dung out of velvet.
Laughter bubbled from Lady Prissypants’ lips. “Chores? I do apologize, Mrs. Black. But Sinclair couldn’t possibly be implying that you actually muck the stables and the like?” She shivered in horror.
“I do not muck the stables, my lady. But I do milk the cows. Collect eggs. Feed the chickens. But that is before I head to the fields.”
Lady Prissypants stopped laughing. “Oh, dear. You’re serious. I can’t think of anything worse.”
Being a useless ornament is far more terrible.
“Who do you think wrung the chicken’s neck you dined on tonight, my lady?” Hester inquired politely. “Blackbird Heath does not operate on its own, I fear. Hard work is required to profit.”
Lady Prissypants paled at the mention of the chicken. Good lord, where did she think her meal had come from?
