Free Lady in Green by Bárbara Metzger Page A

should have removed it. I am sorry.”
    Deuce take it, the crone didn’t look sorry. She looked like a cat in the cream pot. He cleared his throat. “Yes, well, I thought I’d try a bit of Mrs. Tuthill’s cooking. No, you needn’t fix a tray or anything, I’ll eat in the kitchen.”
    Lord Gardiner took a step in that direction and tripped over the robe again. This time he caught himself on the hall table, merely tipping a vase of flowers which splashed cold water on his feet. Annalise continued on her way to the kitchen, pretending not to see. “Damnation!” he cursed, which she pretended not to hear. “Do you sew?”
    “Of course, my lord. All housekeepers sew.”
    “Do you think you might hem this up for me? I’m afraid I’m not the man you thought I was,” he said, trying to make a joke of it while she laid out a place setting for him at the heavy oak table.
    Or perhaps you’re not the man you thought you were, Annalise silently commented, wondering whether he’d have an apoplexy if a pin should accidentally be left in the sewing.
    There was that smirk again, Gard noted. The witch was laughing at him, he knew it! Well, he’d have a bit of fun himself.
    “I was wondering about your name, Mrs. Lee. I cannot help noticing that you wear no ring. Is the honorific merely because it is customary for your position?”
    Some of the wine she was pouring spilled over the edge of the cup. Now he was smiling, which made the already frazzled Annalise forget her role even further. Here was this half-naked man, dark hairs showing all over his chest where the robe lay open, who had just left his doxie upstairs, making sport of her, Annalise Avery! “That’s none of your blasted business. My lord,” she added belatedly.
    That wiped the smile off his face in a hurry. No one addressed the Earl of Gardiner in such insolent tones, especially not some hatchet-faced harridan who seemed to delight in his discomfiture. “Who the bloody hell do you think you are?” he bellowed. “I pay the—”
    “I apologize, my lord,” Annalise hastily interrupted before he could waken Henny. The fat would really be in the fire then, her old nanny seeing her charge alone with a belligerent, bare-chested man. She’d most likely reveal it all, landing them in the basket for sure. “I… I forgot my place, Lord Gardiner. Of course you have a right to know something about your employees. I am afraid I’m just…sensitive about my ring,” she told him, improvising madly. “You see, after my husband fell at Corunna, I gave my ring to buy medicine for the wounded soldiers. I…I prayed that someone did the same for my Jamie.”
    Her thin, work-worn hands trembled, and she brought her apron up to cover her tears. My God, what had he done? Ross thought in dismay. He stumbled to his feet. “Don’t give it another thought, Mrs. Lee. Please accept my apologies. I never wished to bring back unhappy memories, I swear. I, ah, I’ll be going now,” he decided, his appetite having disappeared altogether. He grabbed up a handful of the robe, inadvertently revealing muscular calves in his hurry to be gone.
    Annalise only peeked a little, sobbing even louder into her apron.
    *
    Upstairs, his lordship quickly changed his clothes after checking on the still-sleeping Corinne. He left her a handsome douceur , for her time if nothing else, hoping she wouldn’t spend it on Blue Ruin. The ring he’d intended giving her, a pretty pearl and sapphire affair, he left in the pocket of the maroon robe. The blasted thing only reminded him of poor Annie Lee and her lost ring, and the misery he just caused her. Fiend seize all women and their meg rims !
    Downstairs, Annalise was helping herself to his lordship’s supper, falling to with the best appetite she’d had in weeks. At this rate, she’d have her weight back in no time. At this rate, she’d have that scoundrel out of her life even sooner.

Chapter Nine
    “You’re mighty chipper this mornin’,