Chapter Sixteen
Kate tilted her head back and stared up into Brand’s eyes, reading there a new intensity that hadn’t been present before. Whatever it was, it sent a shiver of anticipation down her spine and Kate couldn’t help but tilt her head to the side, pressing her cheek more firmly against his hand. “What would you do, Brand?” she whispered in return, mesmerized by the web that suddenly snared them.
Harrowby ducked his head, brushing her other cheek with his as he inhaled the scent of her. He brushed his lips there hearing her gasp of awareness and feeling her draw in a trembling breath of her own. His lips skimmed up to her temple as his fingers curved around her jaw.
A wave of dizziness passed over Kate as she felt his harsh exhale brush her ear, felt his firm lips drag across her skin as his mouth moved to press against her forehead. She closed her eyes, gasping for breath and feeling as shaky as the last leaf in fall. Kate felt a quivering in her belly unlike anything she’d ever known.
However, greater than the tumult of her own feelings, she felt the fight Harrowby was having with himself.
Man versus earl.
What an enigma Harrowby was! So proper. So restrained. The man who apparently wanted a woman quite badly and the aristocratic gentleman who didn’t trifle with the help. There was a primitive man lingering just below that stuffy exterior. Kate could feel the conflict between those two halves within him and, while she wanted to respect the belief system of one opponent, inwardly Kate found herself rooting for the caveman who lived inside Brand as well. The man who took what he wanted, damn the consequences.
As appalling as it was to Kate’s twenty-first century ideal that women could be equal in all things to a man, whether in business or in pleasure, the concept of being taken by a man – particularly this man – held as much appeal in that moment as it had that night in his library. She just wanted to throw her head back in surrender and let him have at it, much as a victim mesmerized by some fictional vampire.
The image came to her mind then, fed from that thought, of Brand’s mouth at her throat, sucking, nipping, and Kate quivered again feeling her desire for him skyrocket. Dropping the fishing pole and basket she held, Kate wrapped both arms around Brand’s shoulders hugging his big body to her.
“Brand,” she whispered, aware that he had dropped his goods as well and was sliding both arms around her waist hesitantly. He was fighting her and himself. Part of him wanted to give in, but the other held him back.
Mindlessly, Kate turned her head pressing a hot kiss just below his ear taking pleasure in the shiver that shook his length. “Kiss me, Brand,” she whispered in his ear. “Kiss me like you did in the library.”
He pulled his head back and met her gaze, his blue eyes now as dark as the deepest seas. They swirled and churned with emotion. Then his gaze dropped to her lips sending such a tingle through them that Kate reflexively licked them. Rolling his eyes in defeat, Harrowby groaned loudly raising his hands to cup her cheeks before his thumb brushed across her lower lip. Kate reveled in its rough texture, sweeping her tongue across the digit as it passed drawing an even deeper moan of surrender before he unhurriedly lowered his head and grazed his lips across hers.
Frustrated by his leisurely approach, Kate grasped his shoulders tightly, drawing him closer as she parted her lips in welcome. For a moment, he gave in, dazzling Kate as he devoured her mouth roughly before he pulled himself back and away from her.
“I cannot, Kate,” he murmured, before belying those words and pulling her back into his embrace before resting his forehead against hers. “I cannot take advantage of a person under my protection.”
“Maybe I’m just taking advantage of you, Brand,” Kate whispered back still clutching his broad shoulders firmly, but then her fingers snaked up into the hair at his nape curling and tugging at the short hairs there.
“A novel concept.” He released a chuckle before reaching up to unclasp her hands so that he could step back. “But I cannot fathom that it is a truism.”
Though she wished she might lure Brand back into her arms, Kate knew that the earl was once again firmly in charge and released a heavy sigh. “I just want you to know this isn’t normal behavior for me, Brand, especially in the workplace. I don’t flirt with my bosses and I certainly don’t date them, but maybe it’s because I don’t really consider you my boss.”
“Are you not in my employ?” he asked, not understanding her meaning.
“I am but, maybe because of the whole separation of classes thing, I guess I think of Hendricks as my boss,” Kate explained. “You’re more like the CEO of the whole Harrowby corporation and just a little too high up on the food chain to seem like a real authority.”
“I don’t understand what you are saying at all.”
Despite his shaking head and obvious puzzlement over her statement, she could tell Harrowby wasn’t truly as disgruntled as he sounded. “You like it, don’t you?”
“Like what?”
“Constantly being thrown off kilter by me,” she clarified. “I think that you like that I take your well-structured world and turn it on its end even for just a little bit.”
Brand took a step forward once more. “Or, perhaps what I like is…”
“My lord! My lord, are you here?” a harried voice called from nearby and a curtain dropped over Harrowby’s relaxed demeanor in an instant putting the starchy earl firmly in control. He hurried to pick up the discarded fishing gear and put a good distance between him and Kate before an even more starchy man whom Kate recognized as Harrowby’s valet came rushing around the corner.
“What is it, Timson?” Harrowby asked, once again reeking of all the nobility he displayed when in the company of others.
“Mrs. Ryder and Mrs. Ralston have arrived, my lord,” Timson rushed on.
Though he looked every bit as uptight and prim as he did every night at dinner in the servant’s dining room, Kate got the definite impression that the proper valet was thoroughly rattled to the core. By the threat of Brand’s mother, Kate wondered. How terrifying could the woman be?
“Very well, Timson,” the earl replied stiffly. “I will come straight away. Also, would you please inform Mrs. Hendricks that I have retained Miss Kallastad to serve as Master Nathan’s tutor for the time being. Have her see to it that Miss Kallastad is relocated to a room in the nursery.”
Timson shot Kate a look that spoke of surprise and maybe something else. Skepticism? Speculation? As if he suspected that the new role was meant more as a smoke-screen to disguise a more illicit purpose and considerably less than a bona fide job. Kate merely lifted her chin and stared back at him steadily until he looked away. “Of course, my lord,” the valet answered his master with a small bow of subservience.
Not to be outdone, Kate bobbed a respectable curtsey offering, “Thank you again for the opportunity, my lord. I promise you, you won’t regret it.”
Harrowby darted a surprised glance at Kate at the clear docility and respectfulness she injected into her tone, only to catch her quick wink upon doing so. A grin jerked at his lips but he pushed it quickly away, Kate thought, before his valet might notice it. “See that you don’t, Miss Kallastad.” He shifted from foot to foot as if he were reluctant to leave but finally gave a firm jerk to the bottom of his waistcoat and sighed. “Very well, I suppose I must go in and greet my mother.”
Kate watched him go wondering that anyone would sound so unenthusiastic about doing so.
Chapter Seventeen
Following just a handful of yards behind Harrowby as she returned to the house with Timson at her side, Kate had the curious experience of watching the earl greet his mother who was awaiting his arrival on the large terrace that backed his palatial home. She looked older than Kate would have guessed, perhaps in her late fifties or early sixties. Her hair was a dark, steely gray that seemed to blend like the clouds on a stormy night right into the black dress she wore. Stark black, from head to toe.
She sat stiffly at a small table with a tea servic
e ready and a half-dozen footmen hovering nearby. Another younger woman who looked a lot like Brand, also in black, sat at the table with her, as did Nathan. All of them looked utterly miserable.
“You’ve kept me waiting, Harrowby,” she called when the earl was still a dozen paces away.
“My apologies, Mother,” he replied in a tone just as distant as hers did as he neared. When he was still outside her arm’s length, Harrowby stopped and bowed low. “I was walking about the park.”
“You were ever one for excuses, Harrowby.” Even from a distance, Kate could see the woman eye her son from top to bottom in a manner that was chilly at best. After a moment, she tilted her head and the earl dutifully stepped forward, offering a peck to her cheek.
Wondering at the frosty relationship Harrowby had with his mother, Kate was surprised when the earl also greeted the other woman, who Kate was certain was his sister, with an equally cool greeting which was returned in kind.
Timson led the way around the perimeter of the terrace to a small service entrance and gestured Kate inside. “Wow, is it a bit nippy out there or is it just me?” she whispered as they ducked into the passageway that led to the kitchens.
“It is not your place to speculate on the relationship between the earl and his family,” the valet returned sternly.
“I know, but… I’m just saying! Really?” Kate couldn’t get over it. From the first day she had moved away to college, she had gotten off the plane when coming home with a full on run into her mother’s arms, or her sister’s, or her dad’s, whichever one she got to first before she was passed around with joy and tears after months at a time of not seeing one another. Oh, maybe in high school she wouldn’t have reacted like that. Most teen girls consider their mothers to be not much more than a huge pain in the ass and Kate had been no different, but moving away had made her appreciate her family and the love and support they gave her.
She couldn’t imagine greeting any of them in the manner which Brand greeted his family. “How long has it been since they’ve seen each other?” Kate asked wondering if maybe it had just been recently which might account for a lack of feeling.
Timson snorted as if he had no intention of answering, but then shrugged. “My lord hasn’t seen his mother in almost two years.”
Kate inwardly cringed. “And his sister?”
“Not since her husband’s funeral six months ago.” He paused and looked back at her. “And just in case you think to ask, no, their mother did not attend the event.”
Not show up at your son-in-law’s funeral? Kate couldn’t imagine someone being so cold and uncaring to their own child. “Ouch.”
“Just so, Miss Kallastad. Just so.”
***
“We’re so happy for ye,” Margo gushed as Kate gathered her belongings together that evening after dinner. She fingered the velvet of Kate’s heavy robe thoughtfully. “Any of us might ‘ave guessed ye weren’t always a maid, Kate.”
“‘Tis truth,” Nan agreed and Mary nodded along as well. The other girls were all gathered around as Kate pulled her nightclothes from the hook near her bed and gathered her shoes and personal belongings, placing them in a basket she could carry up to the nursery. While Hendricks had actually ordered Nan to do it for her – in deference, Kate supposed, to her new ranking in the household – Kate knew she wasn’t destined to be waited on by others.
Even Milena, their housekeeper, didn’t truly wait on them in any way. She took care of the cooking since her mother – in an ironic twist considering the company she worked for – was a horrible cook and kept the house neat as a pin otherwise. Milena had had a healthy hand in raising both Kate and her sister, Anne, as well. Given her parents active, professional lives, a third pair of hands had been necessary at times.
That close relationship with a person most here would probably consider a servant had given Kate a different perspective on the role that an employee could play in their employer’s lives and, after seeing the familial relationships abounding in the Ryder family, thought that perhaps what Nathan needed most was not a family member at all.
Kate normally didn’t like to draw quick conclusions about people, but she thought that beyond Brand, the family was lacking in what she considered a nurturing environment. Perhaps Nathan needed someone who could actually care about him as Milena had cared for Kate and Anne.
“We’re going to miss ye, Kate,” Marta offered with a sad sniff.
“Hey, it’s not like I’m moving to Timbuktu here,” Kate said wrapping an arm around her new friend’s shoulder and giving her a little squeeze. “I’ll just be one floor down, you know.”
“Ye’ll be so alone down there,” Mary said. “I can’t imagine how lonely you’ll be in the evenings.”
A wry smile quirked the corner of Kate’s lips. This coming from a girl who’d probably never had a moment of true privacy in her entire life. Mary, like so many of the others, came from a large family who had shared, not only bedrooms but beds, their entire lives. They worked as a group, ate as a group and socialized as a group. Most of the girls probably couldn’t imagine that solitude might be an enjoyable thing… having never experienced it, that is. “You’re probably right, but I’ll still see you at dinner.”
“But ye’ll be at the other end of the table now,” Marta said mournfully.
Kate thought of the long dining table in the servants’ great room and suddenly the order of the seating there struck her as it hadn’t over the course of the past two weeks. Geoffrey, the butler, at the head, with Hendricks, Timson and Mr. Scott nearby. Down the table, sorted by rank. She frowned. “I’m sure I can still sit with you if I want to. Can’t I?”
The girls all shared a look. “Never seen anyone sit where they weren’t supposed to before,” Mary told her.
“That’s just wrong,” Kate muttered as she threw the last of her stockings on top of the pile before ducking down to pull her larger valise containing the clothes David had gotten for her from under the bed. “We’ll work it out, you guys. Don’t worry. I mean we all work here, right? They can’t insist on that kind of separation, can they?”
A knock came on the doorframe of the open door and they all looked around to find an upper level maid Kate wasn’t familiar with there. She bobbed a quick curtsey and spoke to Kate. “I’m Janice. I serve up in the nursery as one of Master Nathan’s nannies. Mrs. Hendricks asked me to help you move upstairs and also to be available to you in the future in case you need anything else.”
Kate glanced around to her companions. Janice wasn’t actually indicating that she was being assigned as her maid, was she? A servant with a servant? Did that actually happen? “Anything, like what?”
“To help you dress or to fetch anything you might need from the kitchens or such,” Janice clarified.
Kate almost rolled her eyes, not in annoyance but in relief. Even if it did mean that Janice was to wait on her in any small sense of the word, Kate knew that at least one duty Janice had been assigned would be beneficial. Mainly because, Kate had not yet been able to accomplish the entire process of ‘dressing properly’ on her own.
In those first two weeks at David’s, she’d managed all right on her own, but only because she’d eschewed the corsets and more elegant gowns he’d bought in favor of simpler dresses that buttoned up the front. Upon her arrival here though, with the earl’s return imminent, all the staff had been required to be at their best at all times. That meant the dreaded corset, which Margo had had to help her into the past two weeks despite the fact that it laced up the front, and the more formal uniform that didn’t allow for an excess of motion. It had been hard for Kate to imagine that they meant to get so much work done from women who could barely move.
Most of the dresses David had provided were similar in fashion to the uniform she’d worn here. Long, tight sleeves. Long, tight bodices. Long, tight skirts. Though those, at least, flowed more freely from knee down below the overskirt, which gathered about her hips before being drawn up into a bus
tle in the rear. Unlike the serviceable gray of the Harrowby uniform, her other dresses were all very beautiful in a purely aesthetic sense that dismissed the practical issues. They were bright colors, silks and fine lawns. Some with stripes or checks or lace.
However, every one of them required the assistance of another person to don and Kate was glad for Janice’s assignment. “Thank you, Janice. I’ll be glad for any help you can offer.”
Though such thanks were a standard twenty-first century workplace nicety, Janice looked a bit surprised for a moment then smiled more fully. “I’m happy to help, Miss Kallastad.”
“Oh, just call me Kate, okay?”
“O-kay,” she repeated a little more hesitantly as Kate hugged her roommates goodbye with promises to see them soon and inviting them to the nurseries to visit. Rather than lifting the heavy basket herself, Janice waved a waiting footman in from the hall and had him do the honors.
That done, she tried to take the larger valise from Kate but Kate just nodded with a smile. “Lead the way.”
It didn’t take long for Kate to put Janice at ease as the nanny showed her the nursery and, farther down the hall, her bedroom which was decorated nicely in a manner that Kate considered a perfect midway point between the dormitories above and the more lavish bedchambers below. There was a comfortable looking, four-posted bed and a chaise near the window opposite the fireplace. Soon she and Janice were chatting comfortably as they unpacked all of Kate’s gowns and hung them on the pegs inside the wardrobe that dominated one wall of her small chamber.
“There we are at last,” Janice announced as she placed the last of Kate’s shoes neatly on the bottom shelf of the wardrobe. “It’s getting late. You should probably get some rest. I’m sure you’re excited to start your new duties tomorrow.”
“I am very excited,” Kate agreed.
“Master Nathan is a very sweet lad.”
Kate tilted her head thoughtfully as Janice gave her a piercing look. No doubt she was wondering what Kate could possibly offer as a tutor to a young boy of the aristocracy. “I will do my best to treat him well.”
Time Travel 02 Nothing but Time Page 11
