Winter's Heat: A Nemesis Unlimited Holiday Novella Read Free Page B

staff member trimmed the lamps in one of the innumerable parlors, Michael asked, “These toffs coming to stay—what sort are they?”
    The other footman shrugged. “They’re all the same. Mind, some aren’t too bad, and give us vails when they go, but there’s not much difference between ’em. Rich and lazy.”
    Michael used to think the same thing, until he’d met Simon, who came from the highest ranks in society, and played the part of a gentleman of leisure, but it just served as a disguise for his real work for Nemesis.
    “Any of them I need to be on the lookout for?” Michael pressed. “Some drunk lordling going to puke on my shoes? Or maybe that Lady Larkfield will pinch my arse.”
    “We keep basins in the sideboards in case a toff can’t hold his wine,” the footman answered. “And Lady Larkfield—who knows? Never met her, so I can’t say if your arse is safe. Her husband’s cousins with the master. From what I heard, they used to be close. Lord Larkfield used to summer here as a kid.”
    “But he and the master aren’t tight anymore.”
    “The master hates London. And his cousin married, then stopped coming out. Maybe his bride didn’t like the country. Heard they’re quite the glittering pair.”
    Glittering like cheap tinsel , Michael thought. “Can’t wait to clap eyes on them,” he said.
    He hoped that he’d be able to get more information from the Larkfields’ valet and lady’s maid. No one was closer to the family than their personal servants, with access to their master’s and mistress’s deepest secrets. If anyone was going to have information about the Larkfields’ connection to the orphanage, it’d be them.
    Good to learn that Lord Larkfield used to come to Covington Hall as a child. He’d know the estate well. How that fit into the picture, Michael couldn’t yet figure, but it was a small piece of a knotty puzzle. Then there was the riddle of how to fix the rift between him and Ada. At least with Larkfield, Michael could map out a strategy. Ada would prove a much more difficult mystery.

Chapter Three
    The carriages started arriving late the next morning. Ada had been up for hours, even before the six o’clock summons, lying in her narrow bed in a cramped attic room she shared with the two other temporary maids. By rights, she ought to have fallen into a dead sleep last night. It’d been months since she’d acted as a housemaid, and working as a clerk in a mercer’s shop was far less taxing.
    But after the servants had finished their tea and evening duties, she’d tossed in her bed like a stirred coal. So much so that one of her roommates had thrown a pillow at her and threatened to tie her to the bed if she didn’t settle. For the rest of the night, Ada had drowsed, trying to get as much rest as she knew she’d need. Yet it was almost impossible, with her thoughts tumbling. She couldn’t stop mulling over the terrible Larkfields using children’s forced labor to pay for their esteemed lifestyle in London. Of the great responsibility entrusted to her by Nemesis. And, most of all, of Michael.
    They hadn’t spoken for the rest of the previous day, but she never lost her awareness of him. He looked too cursed handsome and elegant in his livery. Somehow, he lent the blue and silver ensemble a dangerous masculinity.
    She’d been careful not to look or talk to him when the servants had sat down to their meals, but the other maids and lower female servants were more free, asking him questions, flirting. It was a wonder she’d been able to eat at all, with her jaw locked tight in unwanted jealousy. It riled her, that possessiveness. She shouldn’t feel anything for him.
    Why did the Lord the heavens have to bless him with such a velvety voice? It was a luscious torture.
    He left you, thick-brain , she’d reminded herself. Said all sorts of lovely things about how special you were and kissed you until you melted like candle wax. And then he disappeared without a word