5. Ambrose #3
The girls were already trying to get back to the path with one of Millie’s arms slung around Annabelle’s shoulders.
Feeling useless, I asked, “Shall I fetch a cart?”
“We’ll be fine, Ambrose, thank you,” Annabelle reassured me. When we reached the path, she paused to readjust her hold on Millie’s curvy hip.
Annabelle swung her head around to find my sister reaching the lane with Millie’s mud-soaked boot held out wide in her pinched fingers.
“Hattie, will you kindly skip ahead to alert my staff that Miss Washer needs a room for the night while she heals? And call for Doctor Light, he’s here at the picnic.
We’ll need his services to make sure nothing is broken.
Mr. Washer, you’re welcome to stay as well. To care for your sister, of course.”
“Too kind,” Zeth replied so close to me, I jumped. “Far too kind, Miss Winters. I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience, and the gossip—no, we can return to town—”
“Nonsense, you’re staying. Now run along, Hattie, if you please. We’ll be right behind you.”
Annabelle’s command of the situation had the girls moving swiftly. Hattie first, then Millie and Annabelle, while Zeth and I were left to watch in amazement.
What just happened? Millie and Zeth were sleeping in Annabelle’s house tonight?
Maybe Zeth and his sister didn’t plan her injury, but the cramping in my gut told me something smelled foul about absolutely everything today. Poking around Annabelle’s house and inspecting her things, worming his way into her good graces, and devising a way to stay with her overnight.
As Zeth turned to follow the girls, I grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face me. “What is this all about, Zeth?”
“To what are you referring, Mr. Somerset?” Zeth smirked. When I gaped at him, he shrugged me off and began walking.
I followed him, his long legs giving no respite, and I had to skip a bit to keep up. “This.” I gestured back with both hands to where he’d pulled Millie from the bushes before I jerked my arm out at the girls ahead. “ That … When have you ever liked Annabelle Winters?”
“My past feelings have nothing to do with my intended future, Mr. Somerset.”
“Are you planning to marry her for her wealth?”
Zeth’s gaze shot to mine in disbelief, then he shook his head. I knew that appalled face of his anywhere. He didn’t like what I said. I wasn’t surprised when he offered no reply. No clarification, no denial. This was just like him, shutting me out and not talking.
I grit my teeth, refusing to let him push me aside this time without an answer. “I’ll take your damning silence as a yes.”
“Take my silence any damn way you want, Mr. Somerset.”
“Stop calling me that!” Something in me was breaking, and I couldn’t quite pin down what it was. I think Zeth heard it too, as he eyed me. After a long pause, he laughed.
“Look, Rosie,” he smoothly quipped my pet name, and my eyes flew to his. “My plans—”
I tripped over a root and landed on my knees in the dirt with a grunt. I ignored the pain in my knees and stared at the ground, wondering why I was so flustered and confused over Zeth, why my emotions were swirling so fast. When his shadow fell over me, I peered up at him in humiliation.
I thought Zeth was going to offer me a hand up. Instead, he crossed his arms and stared down with pity, and perhaps with a hint of concern. Huffing, I got to my feet again and brushed off my trousers. Once I straightened, he walked on.
As I matched his steps, he continued in a clipped tone, “My plans are none of your business. You made that clear long ago. So why do you care if Anna welcomes me warmly back into her life?”
“Because this isn’t you.”
“What bullshit,” Zeth sneered. “What isn’t me? Dressing well? Being witty? Men can change, you realize, and I worked hard to improve my station. Maybe I’m even proper enough to marry, eh? You should let Anna decide that for herself.”
“That wasn’t what I meant!” I opened my mouth to say more, then snapped it closed and clenched my jaw.
Would he even believe me if I explained?
This smooth-talking Zeth before me was so different from the one I’d grown up with.
It felt like he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t.
There was no way to say that without insulting him, so I hung my head in shame and stared at my shoes as they moved.
“For fuck’s sake, Amby, enough with the pouting. I’ll confess, I returned to court Anna, but I didn’t plan on moving into the Winters estate tonight. Millie injured her ankle, and Anna has a mind of her own. Is that what you want me to say?”
“Well, it’s an answer, at least.” I adjusted my jacket. He’d finally given me the truth, but I wasn’t going to let it end here. I wasn’t going to let Zeth have Annabelle. “You won’t stop my own efforts to court her.”
“What do you want? More wealth? Societal acceptance? You don’t even like women,” Zeth huffed, glaring sideways at me. “You’re just chasing Anna to appease your dad, like the good little rich boy you are. You’re a grown man now. Isn’t your act getting old?”
My fists curled, my face going hot as my steps slowed.
Zeth shook his head and kept walking. He had no idea how angry his caustic words made me.
I stared at his back, my eyes burning into him as a surge of adrenaline came over me.
Unable to think of a reply, I did the only thing that felt right and rushed up to smack the back of his head, making his cap fly off.
Zeth flinched and turned to me, looking furious.
I couldn’t help it. It was a fucking childish thing to do, but he’d pissed me off.
My blood was boiling, and I retreated right into old habits we’d done when we were kids who got into heated arguments like this one.
I stood there with my arms by my sides, drawing in several shaky, rapid breaths as I stared at him, silently daring him to do something back.
Zeth kept his dark gaze on me as he bent to retrieve his cap. When he straightened, his arm flew out to smack me in the chest with the soft material, making me flinch. His firm voice hit me harder, “Don’t you dare start something with me.”
I raised my chin and straightened. “I’m not afraid of you.”
His thick eyebrows raised. Zeth somehow appeared calm as he returned his cap to his head and stepped close.
It was oddly gratifying seeing how composed he could be, even after I’d pushed his buttons.
He stared at me as if he wouldn’t take any of my shit.
But he was still giving me the attention I wanted, and that alone made my anger melt into something else, a tension that felt like someone stretching a rubber band between their fingers and waiting for it to spring loose.
Zeth leaned forward, and I flinched as he came close to my ear and whispered, “I’m not afraid of you either, so leave me the fuck alone.”
When Zeth pulled away, my shoulders fell.
I watched him leave the trail to walk into the open toward Annabelle’s house.
By now, the girls were already there. Something sharp pierced my heart, a fresh barb sinking in.
Zeth had never told me to leave him alone before, at least not like that .
I knew all of Zeth’s emotions like the back of my hand.
However, I admit I didn’t know this new one; a colder side of him who talked to me as if we didn’t have a past together.
It put a knot in my stomach. I couldn’t figure him out, and his hurtful words got to me. I had to swallow them down and not think about them. I had plans of my own, after all, and I couldn’t let him get in the way of them.
Zeth Washer told me to leave him alone, but he wouldn’t be seeing the last of me anytime soon.