Page 25 of Falling for a Footman

“What’s this? William told me that you could not attend dinner tonight,” Curtis demanded behind him, and James spun around to see the butler stand behind him in the perpetual semi-darkness of the servant’s hallway.

James’s teeth crunched against each other, and his nails dug into his skin as his hands curled into fists. Any other time. Could the butler not have caught him at any other time than when he had just been thinking about Mrs. Fuller? James was still unable to think about her without becoming angry and he really did not want anger to guide his encounter with the butler.

“Yes, it is true. I meant to talk to you myself, sir,” James said as pleasantly as he could, but even he was able to hear how tense he sounded.

Curtis simply raised one of his thin gray eyebrows in question.

“My stomach is not sitting well with me, and I would like to be excused from serving dinner,” James explained.

He knew that the chances of him encountering the gentleman farmer, Mr. Huntley, or Colonel Southerden before were small. Especially since James had not served in the same regiment as the colonel. Yet it was better to be on the safe side. If he was recognized during dinner, it would ruin everything that he had worked for this past week and a half.

“You do not look unwell to me,” Curtis observed.

James sighed inwardly but met the butler’s gaze head on.

“I am able to carry out my duties... as long as I am close to the privy,” James explained and hoped that the image of a footman having to run from the dining room because he needed to use the privy was enough to deter the butler from having him stand in the dining room all night.

James could see Curtis’s dark eyes move back and forth as the man was clearly contemplating what he had heard, then he stated: “Well, unless you’re in your bed, you are well enough to work,” and strode away.

James had to check himself not to groan out loud. This was just what he needed.