nearest blunt object to defend herself with, in this case a heavy candlestick.
“Henrietta, where is it?” Leah brandished the metal object toward the room at large, searching wildly for the murdering eight-legged bastard as Sara and Teresa snorted with laughter. Wait, what?
“Oh,” Henrietta gasped, doubled over with mirth. “Your face, you should have seen…” She collapsed on the pillows in a heap of full-throated laughter.
A chill settled over Leah’s shoulders. The mocking laughter echoing in her ears, she set the candlestick down carefully and smoothed her shift over her hips. Slowly, methodically, she stepped toward the bed and the still-gasping-with-giggles Henrietta. Kneeling on the mattress with one knee, Leah leaned close to the young maid.
“You listen to me, and you listen good,” Leah said in a low tone. The girl stopped laughing, eyes widening slightly at Leah’s words. “I’ve let you off easy until now. But you’ve just messed with the biggest bitch you’re ever going to meet in this lifetime, and she’s had all she can take. Just remember that whatever’s coming? You asked for it.”
Henrietta wasn’t breathing, just staring at Leah’s face with the glassed-over look of someone who realized they’d stepped in a giant pile of trouble.
With a calm smile and a gentle “good night” to the room full of silent girls, Leah settled into her pillows once more with a happy sigh.
This was going to be so satisfying.
She had to get up early the next morning, but it was so worth it. Fortunately, her internal clock had been honed to a fine edge since college. Jamie had a nasty habit of forgetting to pay the electric bill.
All three of Leah’s servant roommates slept like the dead. She kept all her delightedly evil snickering inside, though. No need to tempt fate.
When she’d laid out her plans to the best of her ability, she stuffed her pouch of contraband into the brown leather bag that Avery had given her. With her nearly nonexistent packing completed she descended the back staircase with a happy sigh. All she had to do now was tell Mrs. Harper she quit and hit the road for Lady Chesterfield’s.
She’d be sorry to leave Avery and Cook, but the rest of them? Not so much. Lady Chesterfield seemed incredibly nice, and Jamie had told her all about the young maid, Muriel. She hadn’t expected to actually get to meet her, so this was going to be awesome. Spending her days with people that didn’t resent her? What a novel freaking idea.
She’d been sitting at the servants’ table for about twenty minutes when the screams trickled down the stairs. Smiling, she picked at her fingernails. Any minute now…
“You stupid, evil, horrid woman!” Henrietta flew down the stairs, dressed only in her shift with her face completely blackened with coal dust. The very ends of her braids were coated with tar, and left sticky black spots on the white cotton. “What have you done to me?”
Leah pursed her lips and examined her cuticles. “I told you last night. You’ve brought every bit of this on yourself.”
With a shriek of pure rage, the girl ran toward Leah with fingers curled into claws.
Leah didn’t move. She wasn’t concerned at all.
“Henrietta!” Sara descended the stairs, pale face wan. “Your clothes!”
“My clothes?” Henrietta whirled. “What is wrong?”
“They’re…they’re on the ceiling.” Sara’s voice trailed into a whisper.
“What? They cannot,” she turned to Leah. “You did not…”
“I didn’t what? I don’t remember asking to be scared shitless last night.” Shoving her chair back, Leah propped her hands on her hips and glowered down at the dumbstruck maid. “I didn’t do what I did to get even with you. I did what I did to teach you a lesson. Actions have consequences, and I don’t tolerate bullies. This is a little something called Karma. You get back what you put out. And so far, all you’ve put out is meanness. So here’s what you’re going to do.”
Henrietta sank into the chair Leah pointed to. Underneath all her shenanigans and bullshit, she was still just a young girl. Teaching her this lesson would be the best thing Leah could do for her if she did it right.
“You’re going to go wash your face. You’re going to clip off the ends of your braids, because that tar isn’t coming out. You’re going to get your clothes down from the ceiling beams, get dressed, and apologize to Teresa and anyone else in the house you’ve tried to scare into giving you your way. And then you’re going to not pull any of this shit again, or the next time something bad happens to you, it’s liable to be a lot worse. Karma’s a bigger bitch than you or I ever will be. Do you understand?”
Sullen tears tracked down Henrietta’s cheeks, leaving pale white strips in the coal. “Yes,” she whispered. She looked up at Leah with a pitiful frown. “I am sorry.”
Leah nodded. “Thank you for the apology. Go ahead upstairs.”
Sara followed a surprisingly meek Henrietta back upstairs, and Leah sank back onto the chair with a relieved breath. Hopefully the girl would think twice about her attitude from now on. Leah’s retribution was pretty tame compared to what Henrietta deserved.
Biting her lip, Leah toed the leather bag with her boot.
Yeah, she’d taught Henrietta a lesson, but she didn’t really feel good about it. The girl was young, and she’d had it hard, but that didn’t excuse the way she’d been acting. Leah sighed and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. She had done the right thing, she thought. Hopefully.
Footsteps on the stairwell drew her attention. She stood, grabbing her bag and holding it in front of her like a shield.
“Ramsey, whatever are you doing dressed in that manner?” Mrs. Harper looked down at Leah, wrinkling her nose as if she smelled something bad. Leah sniffed her armpit, she hoped subversively. Yeah, the basin baths hadn’t been the most thorough, but she’d done the best she could.
“I’ve been asked to take a position in another household,” Leah said, delivering the line Lady Chesterfield had given her with aplomb.
Mrs. Harper laughed aloud. “Whatever can you mean? Your service has been barely suitable in this home. Who could have…”
Leah smiled, biting back the snarky comments she wanted to fire back at Mrs. Harper. “Thank you for the kindness you’ve shown to me while I’ve been here. I won’t ever forget you.”
Turning on her heel, Leah marched toward the door. This wasn’t exactly how and when she’d planned to do this, but damn it, she didn’t want to spend another half hour here with Queen Q-tip. Ignoring the housekeeper’s protestations, Leah closed the kitchen door firmly behind her.
And stopped dead.
Damn it, it was only five in the morning and still pitch-black out. What a way to botch her grand exit.
With a sigh, Leah leaned up against the wall. If that wasn’t bad enough, she still hadn’t managed to say good-bye to Avery. Well, this was great. Peachy. Glancing above her, she counted the windows. The one at the top was glowing softly with candlelight. With a grin, she bent down and scooped up a pebble. There was more than one way to get a valet’s attention.
Tilting his chin skyward, Avery scraped the last of the shaving soap away. Wrapping his throat and cheeks in the soft, damp cloth, he sniffed as he wiped his skin clean. He tried not to think of the marks and bruises that this skin would very likely bear after the upcoming tourney. Tossing the cloth aside, he grabbed his breeches from the wooden chair by his bedside. He’d just buttoned them when a sharp pinging sound at the window drew his attention.
Glancing sideways with a bemused scowl, he picked up his shirt. Another ping rang through the room, followed by a third.
“Damn and blast,” Avery muttered, tossing his shirt aside and going to the window. He must make haste for
