Chapter Two
Caught in the crosshairs, Aubrey smiled and decided the only honorable thing he could do was come clean. “You’ve found me out.”
Maeve stood, hands on her hips, eyes flashing with fury. Dear God, she was spectacular. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m Aubrey Nelson.”
She recoiled in horror, which was the only word that could possibly be used to describe the expression on her face. Then she turned and walked swiftly from the room, shoulders set and head held high on that magnificent neck.
Aubrey cursed under his breath, feeling like an absolute heel for upsetting her.
Holding his hat in his hands, Mr. Plumber bowed his head. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir.”
Aubrey went around the table to shake the man’s hand. “Thank you, and I apologize for the confusion. That was entirely my fault. Miss Brown has done an excellent job since she’s joined the staff.”
“I couldn’t help but notice the house and grounds appear to be in a state of . . .”
“Disarray?”
Mr. Plumber seemed relieved that Aubrey had stated the obvious so he wouldn’t have to. “Yes, sir.”
“Apparently, there was a problem with the former staff at the end of last Season. Windows and doors were left open, the caretaker walked off the job and the gardener is apparently long gone, as well.”
Mr. Plumber’s eyes bugged. “They left the windows open all winter?”
“I’m afraid so. When Miss Brown arrived, there were rodents, seagulls and all the accompanying mess.”
“My goodness! And this was done deliberately?”
“From what I’m told, yes.”
“The pipes! Does the house have indoor plumbing?”
“It does, but the water is shut off at the end of the Season, which is why the pipes didn’t freeze and burst.”
“Well, that is a relief then. Why would they allow the house to be vandalized?”
Aubrey ran his fingers through his hair, wishing now that he’d taken the time to bathe.
But he hadn’t wanted to miss the chance to dine with Miss Brown.
“My mother . . . She’s a bit of an . . .
” He was going to say “ogre” but thought better of it.
“She’s rather exacting, and from what I’m told by Miss Brown, the staff quit in protest after last Season.
” Fearing the man would think better of his plans to spend the summer running the household, Aubrey quickly continued.
“But that won’t happen this year. The staff will answer to me and only me.
I’ll see to it that you’re not bothered in any way by my mother. ”
Mr. Plumber exhaled a sigh of relief. “That is very good of you, sir. However, I can’t help but notice there doesn’t appear to be any staff other than Miss Brown.”
“And Mrs. Allston, the cook.”
“We need housemaids, footmen, gardeners, stable men, kitchen help. . . We need, well, everything. A house of this size and prominence won’t run itself without a sizeable staff.”
“I understand, and I plan to see what we can do about hiring more help.”
“Very well then. I shall endeavor to help in any way I can. I understand the family is hosting the Duke and Duchess of Westwood for the Season?”
“That is correct. They’re close personal friends of mine, and I invited them and several other friends from England to summer with us.
” Aubrey glanced at the doorway Maeve had fled through, anxious to go to her, to apologize, to grovel, if need be.
“If you’d please excuse me, I need to find Miss Brown and clear up a misunderstanding. ”
“Of course. I’ll ask Mrs. Allston to show me to my quarters and then get to work after I’ve had a chance to clean up and change my clothing.”
“Thank you very much. Please, have something to eat as well.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you, sir.”
Aubrey left the room and headed for the backstairs because they were closer, taking them two at a time until he reached the second floor and began a search for her.
He quickly realized that she could be anywhere, and if she didn’t want to be found, she could hide out very effectively in a house of this size.
His heart beat fast from exertion and dismay.
He’d hurt her, and he hated himself for that.
What had he been thinking? Why hadn’t he told her the truth from the outset?
He didn’t know anything other than he’d been caught off guard by an unprecedented reaction to her and hadn’t wanted to ruin any chance he had to get to know her by telling her he was a member of the family she worked for.
Instead, he’d ruined everything by lying to her.
He should’ve learned from the mess Derek had made for himself.
Derek had taken on the identity of Jack Bancroft, his estate manager, after Derek met Catherine and discovered she disdained the aristocracy.
After they were married, she’d learned he was actually the Duke of Westwood.
He’d faced the formidable task of making his wife fall in love with him all over again—this time as the duke.
It had worked out well for them in the end, but not before they’d both suffered significant—and unnecessary—heartbreak.
And what exactly was Aubrey hoping for with the delightful Miss Brown, he asked himself as he methodically searched the house, finding each room filthier than the last. So many damned rooms. What family needed that many rooms anyway?
The first time he’d seen the home his father had acquired in Newport, Aubrey had cringed.
Nothing screamed “new money” quite like a forty-room cottage on the coast, filled with gold and glitter and priceless antiques that had conveyed with the house.
Though the Nelsons had always been comfortably upper crust, Aubrey hadn’t been raised with the kind of wealth his family now enjoyed since his father’s company cornered the market on component parts for railway cars.
Nelson Industrial had made its fortune manufacturing the wheels, couplings and other parts that had been in massive demand as the railway system rapidly expanded.
The family’s fortunes had truly exploded when the company began competing with Pullman by also producing high-end cars for first-class travel along with baggage cars, mail cars, stock cars and its latest addition—refrigerator cars.
The demand was so intense, the company could barely keep up and had expanded as rapidly as the railway system itself.
Last year, when the company adopted the revolutionary assembly line process Ransom Olds had first used in 1901 to mass produce automobiles, the Nelson company’s production capabilities had quadrupled along with their fortune.
That fortune fueled a lavish lifestyle that now included this monstrosity of a house in fashionable Newport.
Despite the ostentatiousness of the house, however, Aubrey adored Newport, the shore, the summer parties, the sloop he kept at anchor in the harbor and the general sense of harmony that came from being near the ocean.
“Where in the hell could she be?” He was running out of doors to open on the second floor when he entered the ballroom, which had clearly been a favorite spot for the seagulls that’d wintered there.
Almost every surface was covered with white, sticky bird refuse and more feathers than he’d ever seen in a ballroom, and that was saying something after spending two Seasons in London.
Strolling to the far end of the vast ballroom, he threw open the doors that led to an expansive veranda that looked out on the ocean, which today was calm and sparkling in the late spring sunshine.
Standing at the rail, arms wrapped around herself and head bent, was Maeve Brown.
Her posture and the heaving of her shoulders indicated that she was crying. He was gutted to know he’d caused that.
“Miss Brown.” Aubrey spoke softly so as not to startle her and managed to startle her anyway.
She whirled around, her face red and ravaged by tears.
“I’m so very sorry for misleading you.”
“How could you? I spoke freely to you about your own mother!” She hiccupped on a sob and then covered her mouth, as if trying to contain future sobs.
“Everything you said about my mother is true.”
Her eyes flashed with fury that he richly deserved. “She is my employer. I was under the impression I was speaking to a fellow member of the staff, not a member of the family that employs me.”
“I realize that, and I apologize profusely for misleading you.”
“Why did you?” Her fury had abated somewhat, leaving a small voice that he already knew was unlike her. The Maeve he had met earlier didn’t suffer fools—and he’d indeed been a fool to deceive her.
“I . . . I liked you.” He swallowed hard.
“And I wanted to know you. When you mistook me for the butler, I saw an opportunity to relate to you as peers. It was wrong of me, and I’m truly sorry to have misled and upset you.
I’ve never done anything like that before, and I shouldn’t have done it to you.
I hope you will accept my sincere apology. ”
She stared at him for a long, charged moment before she spoke again. “What do you mean you liked me?”
He took a step closer to her. “I meant that I liked you.”
She recoiled, which wasn’t exactly the reaction he’d hoped for. “How can you like me? You don’t even know me.”
“I want to know you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here, Mr. Nelson—”
He took another step. “Aubrey.”
If there’d been anywhere for her to go, she would’ve moved farther away from him. “—but I’m not interested in playing that game. I’m here to work. I’m a housekeeper. I do not associate with men of your social strata.”
“I understand that, and I respect it. But I still like you.”
Her face flushed with the rosy color that made him breathless. “Stop it. Don’t look at me that way. I’m not that kind of woman.”
“I know you’re not, and I’m sorry again. I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s just that from the first second I saw you, I just . . .” He rubbed a hand over his stomach, which churned with nerves, another thing he’d never experienced when speaking to a woman.