Lady in the Mist - Laurie Alice Eakes [9]
“Never you mind me asking that.” She gave him the gentle smile she bestowed on frightened young mothers. “I don’t want you to feel you need to commit the sin of lying to avoid trouble.”
He laughed. “Oh, my dear Madam Mermaid, my sins are so numerous, lying is the least of them. But thank you for the reprieve, as I wouldn’t wish to give you cause to accuse me of doing this.” He traced his forefinger along the scratch.
Tabitha’s knees turned to oatmeal porridge. Nonetheless, she made herself meet his gaze. “You recognize it for what it is, the work of a knife, and you have reason to want me to keep my mouth shut.”
“I expect a number of persons have cause to wish you to keep your mouth shut.” He smiled, with his lips, with his eyes. “You know the secrets of this town, don’t you, Madam Midwife?”
“I am often a confidante,” she answered with care. “But I’ve never been threatened before.”
“Before you ran into me.” He propped his shoulders against the polished oak of the front door and crossed his arms over his broad chest, as though preparing for a long chat. “Then I am in a pickle.”
“You’ll be in more of one if you keep denying me access to the mayor.”
“All too true.” He didn’t move. He said nothing else. In the village square beyond the fence surrounding the front garden, wheels rumbled on the bricks of the street and two men exchanged greetings. Inside the gates, birds set up a choral symphony in ode to the bright warmth of the morning.
Tabitha’s and the Englishman’s gazes clashed. Tabitha set her hands on her hips and compressed her lips. It was the look and stance she applied to husbands who thought she was too young to know what she was doing. Most of them backed down, crept meekly away to pace the floor, or left to cause trouble for someone other than her.
The Englishman laughed. “You’re rather beautiful like that.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere with me.”
“I’m rather impervious to that glare of yours too. But I do concede I can’t keep you standing on the front steps all day.” He straightened and half turned to the door. “I’ll show you in. He should be finished with breakfast by now. You may tell him what you like, but I doubt he’ll thank you for informing him that his perfect English butler has been a naughty lad. He’ll have to punish me for form, if nothing else. Then I wouldn’t be able to wear my livery, and he has important guests coming in a fortnight.”
Speech delivered, he opened the door and stood back with a gesture for her to precede him.
She glided over the threshold and he closed the door behind her. After the sunshine, the entryway seemed as dim, chilly, and quiet as the spring nights—or a tomb. The soles of the Englishman’s shoes resounded like bass drum beats on the marquetry floor as he strode toward a door at the far end of the hallway.
Tabitha shivered. When she left home and set out for the sheriff’s to report the assault on her person, doing so seemed like a sound idea. No one should dare threaten the midwife. Gathering information came with her work, and if men threatened her for coming across something they didn’t want her to know, she couldn’t serve the community. And the community needed her. She was the only person with medical knowledge of any kind within twenty miles.
But after meeting Mayor Kendall’s new manservant face-to-face, she couldn’t outright accuse him in the event he was innocent, as he claimed. The townspeople said Kendall was proud of having a proper butler. Tabitha had thought nothing of the talk when she met him that morning. Indentured servants tended to come from the lower ranks of society. They spoke with bad grammar and nearly incomprehensible accents. They did not affect a manner of speaking she’d heard only