The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne (Rescued from Ruin, Book One) by Elisa Braden

Author:Elisa Braden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: historical romance, marriage of convenience, viscount, sensual romance novel, regency 1800s, revenge and redemption, rescued from ruin

*~*~*

The heavy cleaver landed with a loud thunk, embedding itself into the dense wood of the butcher block. Cook wiped her hands on her apron and scowled at Mrs. Garner. “I’ve half a mind to take a wooden spoon to his backside, I do.”

Mrs. Garner shook her head in disgust. “She don’t deserve none of this, tha’ much is certain. Never known a sweeter soul. Whatever her brother might’a done.”

“Hmmph.”

“A real shame, it is.”

Agnes entered with a basket of onions. She was a haughty one, with her pretty face and buxom figure. But Mrs. Garner knew working the kitchen would humble her in no time, the lazybones. “What’s a shame?” the girl asked, setting the basket on the floor.

“Just never you mind,” Cook barked in her gravelly voice. “Fetch me a bundle of mint from the garden, and be quick about it.”

Agnes huffed resentfully, but did as she was told. Cook cast a glare at the girl’s flouncing exit, then turned back to Mrs. Garner. “Regular Jezebel, that one. You sure you want to keep her about?”

Mrs. Garner scoffed. “She couldn’t tempt his lordship before he married. Think ye she could do it now?”

Cook laughed roughly. “Not likely. Only one woman’s got that boy’s breeches on a string, and that’s his wife.” She lifted the lamb shank from the board and skewered it on the spit. “Never thought I’d see it, either. After the sad business with Master Gregory and all.”

Shuddering, Mrs. Garner felt a chill run over her flesh. “She chose the blue room fer her paintin’. I tell ye now, I’ll not go in there. Gives me the shivers jes’ thinkin’ about it.”

Connell entered, arguing quietly with his wife, Georgina. “It’s wha’ ’is lordship wants, Georgie. Think ye I should thank Lord Atherbourne for making me ’is coachman by disobeying ’im?” He dumped an armful of split wood next to the fireplace.

Georgina, a slight, flaxen-haired chambermaid—one of Mrs. Garner’s best—took on a challenging posture as he turned back, brushing his hands down the front of his coat. She swatted his arm, sending dust pluming up from the cloth. “After you let Hugo knock the poor lady sideways, she could have demanded you be sacked, Connell O’Malley. If anyone should be thanked, it should be her.”

The coachman looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Now, don’t go gettin’ in a dither. It’s not good fer the babe.”

Georgina cast a skittish glance over her shoulder at Mrs. Garner, probably wondering if the housekeeper overheard. She needn’t have worried. Mrs. Garner knew everything that went on in Wyatt House, including that her best chambermaid was expecting her fourth child. The truth was, the lass should have been sent home after the first one. But she begged to be allowed to continue her work, said that her mother was happy to care for the wee ones while she and Connell saved up for a house of their own.

Their situation was unusual, but that was true of many of the servants working for Lord Atherbourne. Billings was mostly deaf and well past the age when he should have been shuffled off to retirement.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.