Page 36 of Atone, Adonis

But she only shook her head, as if what he’d said was nonsense. “Will you ask the chef to—”

“Ask the chef to what?” An angry voice cut through her sentence from the darkened hallway behind her. “As if I didn’t have enough to do without random requests from—”

Clara, the chef, appeared in the kitchen then, her mouth agape as she realized who she’d been addressing.

She dipped into a curtsey, her graying, ginger hair sticking out from beneath her cap. “I apologize, my lord,” she said. “I did not realize it was you in my kitchens.”

“They’re my kitchens. And this is the Countess, so they are also her kitchens. Proper introductions will be made tomorrow. The mistress and her brother have moved into Sedgewick Manor.”

The chef curtsied again. “I’m aware, my lord.” And then to Julianna. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, ma’am. The footman will be along in a moment. Your brother is awake and asking for you.”

“Thank you. I should go to him,” Julianna said.

She was already halfway to the door when she stopped and turned back, the first faint light of dawn creeping through the high kitchen windows.

“How is he?”

The chef’s mouth flattened even more than usual. “Agitated, my lady. He has been calling your name.”

Julianna did not spare Fred another glance before she hurried from the room, which was, he told himself, how it should be. He remained still, one hand resting on the edge of the worktable, completely at odds with himself. He was relieved and aggrieved all at once. He could breathe a little easier now that the moment between them had been broken, before he’d done something unforgivable. Like take her into his arms and kiss her and kiss her and kiss her.

And yet the same interruption left him with a restlessness that felt even more dangerous than before.

He reached for the ladle simply to give his hands something to do.

“That will be all,” he said at last to the chef. “You may go.”

Chapter

13

Two days later

Julianna found Thomas sitting upright in the master bed, although she knew Mrs. Sykes to be off that morning. The effort to do it alone must have cost him dearly, and one thin hand still clutched at the coverlet, fingers curled into the claws he’d used to haul himself upright.

“I would have helped you had you waited,” she said, closing the door behind her.

Thomas glared at her, his eyes fever-bright. “You weren’t here. And I am not an invalid, no matter what those papers would have.”

So Thomas was having an off morning then. She crossed the room quickly, reaching to straighten the pillows behind him. But he caught her wrist before she could touch them.

“Where have you been?”

The strength in his grip startled her as he held her fast. He had never been a large man, and the illness had steadily diminished his strength for years, but there was nothing weak in the force he held her with now.

“Packing up Farrow Cottage. We won’t be going back there.”

“With him?”

His fingers tightened further, almost painfully around her wrist. She’d gone perfectly still when he’d first grabbed her but she pulled herself free now and frowned down at him. “You ought to rest, Tom. You aren’t yourself.”

“You and I both know resting won’t do me any good. I am dying and you have hardly been to my room at all. There have been only footmen and that blasted nurse. On my very first night I awoke only to learn you were cavorting in the kitchens with Chester.”

“I don’t know what you mean, Thomas. All I’ve done is be here with you.”

“Don’t forget how well I know you, Julianna. You are always gone now. And when you are here you’re distracted.”

She could only stare at him. “We’ve only been in the Manor for two days! That is not fair.”