5. Ambrose #2
I frowned, turning my face before I could huff steam out of my nose in front of him.
I’d asked him to call me Ambrose, not Mr. Somerset.
If he called me that one more time… Growling low, I guided the way through an arched trellis covered with lovely pink roses.
Surrounding us was the garden, where a few people chatted in the flower rows, and before us were the woods.
Behind me on the path, Zeth spoke smoothly to Annabelle. His words weren’t clear, something about our old teacher. I slowed my steps to listen as Annabelle giggled. I made a sour face they couldn’t see, rolling my eyes. Zeth had never liked Annabelle, the liar. Yet here he was flirting with her.
Sighing, I glanced over to find Hattie standing near a butterfly bush with a man leaning close to her in conversation.
It was none other than Damien Cooligan. He was gawking at my little sister’s bosom, the devil. Unfortunately, I knew too well about his antics. A couple of experiences with him led me to conclude he was nothing short of scum. I wanted my sister away from him.
When I halted, Zeth feigned concern at Annabelle. “It appears our chaperone is needed elsewhere. Pity.”
“Just one moment,” I assured him while I pushed my glasses higher onto my nose. There was no way I would leave Zeth alone with Annabelle, but I wasn’t about to leave my baby sister with Damien either. “Perhaps Hattie has seen Millie. I’ll go get her.”
In my rush, I tripped over a stepping stone. I quickly righted myself and hurried on, hoping no one witnessed the fumble.
“Oh, Damien,” Hattie giggled and smacked his arm lightly. “You’d best stop with the jokes, you’re making my brother march over here.”
Damien turned and raised an eyebrow. His gaudy red-and-gold-striped jacket was so atrocious, it blinded me.
Even so, it was hard for anyone not to notice his tall stature and light hair that fell past his shoulders in a long braid, or the way his green eyes wandered along my body before meeting my face with a smug smile.
It was a shame his good looks were sullied by his ego.
He often got what he wanted through manipulation, and I’d seen him roughhouse several people for speaking ill of him or his equally awful friends.
God be damned if I let this awful man take advantage of my youngest sister.
“Amby.” Damien nodded. “Haven’t you had enough of interrupting everyone’s conversations today?”
“No, actually, I was hoping to interrupt one more.” I looked from his smirking lips to Hattie’s curious stare. “We’re going for a walk in the woods to find Zeth Washer’s sister. Care to join us?”
“Zeth’s here? Where?” She peered around me to wave at Zeth, and I instantly regretted saying his name at all.
Damien’s gaze narrowed. “You mean that little hooligan you used to run around with? The washer boy?”
“That’s the one.”
“Oh, well I was about to go for a walk with Hattie myself.” He looped an arm around her back.
“No, you weren’t.” I captured her hand and pulled her away from Damien.
“Mm, he sounds jealous,” Damien told Hattie, his eyes still on me, watching. “Maybe your brother can go with us? I’m sure he can find a long branch or a hard twig to whittle, since he likes handling wood so much in his barn.”
I shot him an icy glare before moving away and leading Hattie along with me, and Damien chuckled crudely from behind as we left. What a cad.
Shaking my head, I led the way with her to where I left Annabelle and Zeth, who were far ahead now.
“Amby, why did you do that?” Hattie whined.
“You shouldn’t hang around Damien,” I shot out, quickening my pace from the garden path and into the woods. “He’s a rake.”
“I know that. I would have slipped away if he made me uncomfortable. I’m a big girl. Don’t you know I can handle myself?”
When I glanced at her, she regarded me in that delicate, poised way that told me she indeed had a better head on her shoulders than I did at her age. Who was I to tell her what to do?
I nodded thoughtfully. “I know, you’re much smarter than your big brother.”
Hattie hooked her arm through mine with a laugh. “Thank you, Amby. Now, what’s all this about Zeth being back and searching for his sister? I was just a kid when I last saw him. Do you remember the rope swing he made me? I was so mad when Father took it down.”
I remembered. Zeth used to pull her back on the swing and run with her, ducking right under her flying skirts to swing her high, and Hattie squealed to high heaven with joy. The splintered seat and old rope had creaked something fierce, so Father dismantled it after Zeth left. “It wasn’t safe.”
“Pish posh. Maybe Zeth can make me a new one.”
“He’s not here to make swings.”
“Then why is he here?”
“Well…”
When I glanced up, I finally saw Zeth and Annabelle walking ahead, too close together for my liking.
I stared daggers at his lean back, wondering why he was interested in her.
That frog wasn’t the worst thing he did to Annabelle.
He once put a dead mouse in her cup of hot chocolate during the winter festival.
She’d hollered so much, she’d cried. I don’t think she knew Zeth was the culprit.
Well, really both of us… I had dared him to do it, after all.
Perhaps Annabelle was being a good hostess and letting Zeth apologize for the past, or she was being polite to Zeth because he asked for help. Or perhaps she was returning Zeth’s advances…
That idea made me walk faster.
“Come on,” I told Hattie. “Let’s catch up. If you see Millie, let me know.”
“Right!” Hattie nodded and searched. Her efforts sent her blonde ringlets fluttering with each swing of her head. Then she halted, making me stumble, and pointed. “Oh, look there, Amby!”
I followed Hattie’s finger to a deer next to a tree in the distance. The animal stared at me briefly before startling. Zeth and Annabelle turned around right as it leapt away, and they joined us.
“That deer reminds me of Ambrose,” Zeth commented to Annabelle on his arm. “Cute and skittish.”
Hattie giggled loudly at the insult—such a wonderful sister—while Annabelle puckered her lips politely. A glimmer of humor shone in her eyes.
My neck flushed as I racked my brain for a retort. Nothing witty came to mind, so I continued walking. When something yellow caught my eye, I peered around a tree to see someone wedged between the bushes ahead.
“Is someone there?” I asked, and they all turned along with me.
“Fuck, Mils,” Zeth muttered rudely. He sprang into action, trudging through a mud puddle and abandoning Annabelle on the path with Hattie and me.
Just when I felt victorious about that, Zeth pulled a young woman from the bushes, and Annabelle gasped and strode over to help.
When Hattie started forward too, I grabbed her arm to stop her. “Wait.”
Something wasn’t right. Surely, this was some ploy on his part, and I wanted to see it play out as Zeth intended. Millie certainly groaned dramatically as Zeth steadied her. She even hissed as she limped from the bushes.
“What did you do?” Zeth reprimanded his sister with concern. He plucked a few twigs from the tangled curls under her straw hat. “You were supposed to—”
“Did you see the deer?” Millie interrupted. She waited for a nod from Zeth before fawning on, “It was so cute, I had to follow it. There weren’t any deer in the City.” She tossed a hand up to her brow, knocking her hat even more askew. “And then I slipped here, foolish me.”
Seeing Millie again reminded me of the pest who wouldn’t leave Zeth and me alone. Always dirty and rambunctious, wanting to be one of the boys. Now, here stood a grown young woman. Why was she wandering off into the woods and falling into bushes?
Was this some kind of game to get Annabelle’s attention? With that acting, it probably was. The Washer siblings were working together to fool them all. Those rascals were always devious. The jig was up.
Huffing, I marched over to them, but the sight of Zeth on his knees stopped me.
His fancy trousers were caked in mud, and he genuinely appeared worried as he unlaced Millie’s boot.
When Zeth managed to pull it off, Millie gasped.
The tight boot had left red marks in her skin.
Her ankle was definitely swollen. She tried to step a socked toe on some solid dirt and winced hard.
Millie swayed, and Annabelle rushed over to offer her arm, uncaring that she had to step a boot into the wet, slippery ground herself.
The mud squished loud enough to hear, but Annabelle kept her graceful posture and managed to protect her white hem like a true elite lady.
Millie took Annabelle’s arm and stared up at her with a blink of dark brown eyes.
“Here, I can help too!” Hattie passed me so suddenly that she knocked me backward into Zeth, who was still kneeling in the mud. I almost fell right over him, until his strong hands grabbed me to keep me upright. Once I was steady, I pushed him away and glowered.
Zeth got to his feet with a crooked smile on his lips. What was the devil smiling at? His mood shifts were exasperating.
“Oh, dear,” Hattie giggled and raised a hand to her lips as she pointed to my backside. “You, uh…”
I twisted and glanced at my trousers to see that a muddy handprint had claimed my ass… The rest of the group all snorted in amusement. When Zeth chuckled too, I glared at him for getting me dirty. Instead of seeing humor in his amber eyes, they filled with a possessive gaze.
Heat roared through my body, and goosebumps made me shiver delightfully. I cursed myself for wanting his touch again.
Zeth stepped closer, wiping his hands down his thighs to clean them, looking as flushed as I felt. “Shall I help you clean that off?” he asked with a hint of huskiness that didn’t belong at picnics.
“You’ve done enough.” I sneered and stepped back to give myself some distance. I tried to wipe the mud off myself, only to get it on my hand. Then I gave a defeated sigh.