Page 112 of Doxy for the Ton
“Is he your suitor?”
Mimi shook her head. “No, Biddy. He’s…a friend.”
“I wouldn’t say no to a friend like that,” Anna said. “Right handsome, he was. I think—”
“Anna, why don’t you get on with your work rather than rattling on? You don’t want to be called a gossip.”
“No, Mrs. Briggs.”
By the time they’d finished their tea, there was no sign of Alexander. Mimi rose to clear the tea things and then took the tray to the kitchen. She heard a noise in the scullery and came upon Alexander, swilling out four porcelain pots, his face a greenish hue.
“Are you all right?”
He glanced up. “I’m better for seeingyou,” he said. “I saved the worst pot for last, and thought I was going to lose my breakfast.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Mimi said.
“Ah, but Ido,” he replied. “I said I wanted to learn about your life. Unless you’ve never had to rinse out a chamber pot.”
“I’ve cleaned plenty in my time,” she said. “Those very pots, in fact.”
“Then I cannot refuse to do it.”
“Why, because you wish to prove that a man can do anything a woman can?”
“No,” he said, moving close until she could feel his hot breath on her lips. “It’s because I wish to prove how much I—”
“Mimi!” Mrs. Briggs called out from the kitchen. “Them potatoes need scrubbing.”
Alexander pulled away and resumed his attention on the chamber pots. Mimi returned to the kitchen, her cheeks warming.
“Thereyou are, darlin’.”
Shortly after, Alexander emerged carrying four chamber pots.
“Let me see them,” Mrs. Briggs said. He held them out and she leaned over, peering inside. “A passable attempt,” she said. “Next time you should scrub them for longer.”
His eyes flared, and Mimi suppressed a laugh at the expression of horror in them. Then he nodded and exited the kitchen.
“Don’t forget to clean the fireplaces!” Mrs. Briggs called after him.
“He’s trying, Mrs. Briggs,” Mimi said after he’d gone.
“Aye, he’s a trial, all right. But I’ll tell you something for nothing. If I were twenty years younger, I’d…”
She winked and licked her lips.
“Mrs. Briggs!” Mimi laughed. “You’ve treated him abominably today.”
“Nothing his servants don’t have to put up with, I’m sure. Now, why don’t I scrub the potatoes and you slice them for me?” She tipped a bag of potatoes into the sink. “I’ll give him his due,” she said. “He’s taken it like a soldier and marched on. I didn’t think he had it in him.”
“Is that why you’ve been so hard on him today?”
“I wanted to discover what he was made of,” Mrs. Briggs said.
“And what have you discovered?”
“That he’s made of finer stuff than he let on,” Mrs. Briggs said, placing a cleaned potato on the table. “There’s iron on the outside, but inside…” She let out a sigh, and her expression softened. “He keeps it well hidden, but there’s a tender heart in there—though I’m sure it’s not something he holds for just anyone.”
