CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – SYLVIE
Thomas eyed me with a tinge of curiosity. “Do you think their power might be out?”
“I don’t know. It’s gone out before in lesser storms,” I replied, clutching the blanket tighter around me. At least I wasn’t going to freeze to death anymore, but that didn’t stop me being worried.
“They’ll be fine. We’re usually the first to lose power given how old the wiring is in this place.
If we have it, most of the houses in the outer area of the village will.
” He shuffled across the rug to a little closer to me and the fire.
“And I know your grandma keeps the pig in the house, but she’ll be fine in the barn. ”
“Oh, I’m not mad about that at all. I was half afraid she’d end up in my bed, if I’m honest.”
The young woman from earlier—I’d already forgotten her name—set a tea tray down on the coffee table closest to us. “Can I pour you both some tea?”
“Don’t worry, Lizzie,” Thomas said, shrugging off his blanket. “I’ll do it. You aren’t working.”
“I don’t mind, my lord,” she replied.
Wow.
That was weird.
I knew Thomas was a duke, of course, and I’d always known that he had some form of household staff—an estate as large as the Castleton estate simply required it—but I’d never quite put it all together into one.
My lord.
Huh.
That sounded somewhat fancier than ‘Your Grace.’
“Really, it’s not a bother at all.” He pulled the two mugs to the front. “Have you managed to call your mother?”
She nodded. “She’s with my grandpa at his house, and they’re fine, thankfully. They still have power.”
Thomas looked at me. “There you go. Lizzie’s grandpa lives close to your house, so if he has power, so do your grandparents.”
I smiled. “That’s a relief.”
“Do you need anything?” Lizzie asked, tilting her head to look at me. “I can show you to a room to change, if you’d like, ma’am. Your jeans are quite wet.”
I looked down at my legs.
Oh.
Yes.
They were.
I honestly hadn’t noticed.
I’d also never been called ‘ma’am’ before, so that was a new one on me.
“Oh, it’s fine, thank you.” I shifted so my feet were right in front of the fire. “They’ll dry in no time.”
Thomas’ lips tugged to the side as he set down a coaster and a cup of tea next to me. “She didn’t plan to come here. We had car issues,” he explained. “Is Beth at home?”
“Yes, I believe she just put Master Daniel to bed. Would you like me to fetch her for you, my lord?”
“No, it’s all right. I’ll get her once we’ve had this tea. Thank you, Lizzie. I appreciate this. Please make sure you get some rest.” Thomas smiled and sat down, effectively dismissing her, and she quickly bowed her head before she left.
I watched her go, then flicked my gaze back to him. “I have to be honest, ‘my lord’ isn’t my first choice of a nickname for you. It’s somehow fancier than Your Grace, isn’t it?”
He laughed, leaning over and throwing a log on the already roaring fire.
“It is. I prefer the staff to refer to me that way since that’s how it’s always been, but it’s not the same for the newer staff members.
I’m still getting used to them addressing me as the duke.
It still feels like it’s Dad’s title, especially in the house. ”
I nodded slowly. “He hasn’t been gone long, has he?”
“A little over a year,” Thomas replied, looking into the flames. “We knew it was coming, but it doesn’t make it easier.”
“You can know something is coming, but that doesn’t mean you’re ready for it.
I don’t think you’re ever ready for something like that.
” My attention flicked to the rug before I let my gaze linger on him again.
“I don’t know what that feels like, especially not in your situation where losing him was more than just losing your dad, but I think you’re doing a pretty good job. ”
“You do?”
“Yes. I mean, look at this place. You haven’t razed it to the ground, have you? You clearly have some sort of a handle on everything.”
His jaw ticked, and his blue eyes met mine as a smile threatened to curl the corners of his lips. “Why, Sylvie Harding, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“It’s the only nice thing I’ll ever say to you, so don’t get too excited.”
He laughed, planting a hand behind him and leaning back on it. “I take you into my home, I let you sit in front of my fire, my household staff make you tea, and this is how you treat me.”
“I complimented you. What more do you want? Me on my knees, thanking you for your hospitality?”
One of his eyebrows quirked, and there was a dry twist of his lips into a smirk that was almost flirty. “That would depend how you’d thank me while you were on your knees.”
The sound of a throat being cleared tore through the room, and I leant to the side to look around him.
It was Beth.
“You’re lucky your mother didn’t hear you say that,” she said, crossing the room and sitting on the sofa, much to my amusement. “Is there any tea left in that pot?”
Thomas immediately got up. “Please don’t tell her you heard that.”
“I can’t promise anything.” Beth grabbed another blanket and pulled it over her legs. “Three sugars.”
“I thought you had two.”
“Well, now I have three. Don’t make me cry.”
I dipped my head and hid my laughter in a fistful of blanket.
“Three it is,” Thomas said, putting an extra spoonful of sugar into her tea and stirring it in. “How are you feeling?”
“Tired. Hungry. Happy. Raging at the injustice of how nobody likes the end bit of the bread loaf. The usual.”
Hell, I wasn’t even pregnant, and I felt that.
“The end bit makes cracking cheese on toast,” I offered, raising my cup towards her. “The edges curl up and keeps all the cheese inside the bit of bread.”
Beth looked at me, and if it were a cartoon, she’d have hearts pumping from her pupils right now. “That’s bloody genius. Why have I never done that?”
I grinned.
“Anyway, I have some pyjamas set aside for you,” she continued. “Emily explained what happened. I think someone is putting them in one of the spare rooms for you.”
Oh.
“Oh, thank you. You didn’t have to.”
“Nonsense. You can’t sleep in your clothes, and you’ll freeze if you wear nothing.” She slid a sly gaze towards Thomas. “Although it sounds like someone here wouldn’t mind that at all.”
Thomas sat back down and picked up his mug. “If you were single, neither would you.”
“You are a pig,” Beth replied.
“I didn’t hear a denial.”
“I’m a married woman, so shut up or I’ll tell her all your dirty secrets.”
“I don’t have any dirty secrets.”
“I beg to differ.”
I laughed, shuffling back to lean against the sofa. Their sibling-like relationship was so endearing. It reminded me so much of me and Hazel, and I loved that Beth had that kind of relationship in her life after what she’d told me about her parents.
“Now there’s a conversation I’d make you cheese on toast for,” I told Beth.
She grinned.
“This is an ambush,” Thomas grumbled, but there was a sparkle in his eyes that belied his grumpy tone.
Emily strolled into the room just as he finished talking, looking at her phone. “Right, well, I spoke to your grandmother, Sylvie, and they’re fine. Apparently, Hazel and Julian were with them having dinner when the snow started, so they decided to stay with them just in case.”
Nice to know my sister and her almost-husband were having a nice, calm dinner at my house while I was getting poked in the eye by pine needles.
For their wedding, no less.
If I ever got married, I was going to have her embroider my entire dress with something ridiculous like the original one-hundred-and-fifty-one Pokémon and see how she liked it.
“May was quite relived that we had possession of her little pig, so she’ll sleep easy tonight.” She smiled down at me. “And Beth has some pyjamas being put in a spare room for you, and a couple of our housekeeping staff are preparing the room for you now. Are you hungry at all, dear?”
“Oh, no, you’ve done more than enough. Thank you.” I smiled at her. “I really appreciate it.”
“You really are very welcome,” Emily continued. “If you need anything, tell Thomas. He will make sure you have what you need.”
He glanced at me.
“Don’t get any ideas,” I told him wearily, ignoring Beth’s snort. “We might be friends now, but that doesn’t mean you can take liberties with that.”
His lips quirked into a little smile. “Me? Take liberties? I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“You’re so full of crap. There are aliens in another galaxy that can smell it.”
“Is that any way to talk to someone who stopped you being frozen to death tonight?”
“Stopped me? Goodness, I can tell you’ve warmed up with that nonsense. I would have been perfectly fine walking home. In fact, I should have, then I wouldn’t have had to listen to you bleating on at me about what a hero you are.”
“I’m glad you noticed. Thankfully I wasn’t wearing my suit of armour tonight or it would have been a little difficult to get you back here safely. Not to mention the rust that would have ended up on it.”
“Well, if you’d worn it and fallen over into a hedgerow, I’d have left you there.”
Emily rested on the back of the sofa and leant closer to Beth. “Is this what they call being friends?”
“I think so,” Beth replied, not bothering in the slightest to hide her amusement.
“Oh. It rather sounds like they’re flirting, don’t you think?”
“Every time they open their mouths, honestly.”
I glared at them both before I remembered they’d very graciously welcomed me into their home without a second thought and quickly dropped my frown. “I am not flirting with him.”
“You are,” Beth replied. “You just haven’t realised it yet.”
“I’m thirty. I know what flirting looks like.”
“Are you sure about that, dear?” Emily fought back a smile and straightened up.
“I’m going to make sure all the staff are taken care of and retire for the night, I think.
Thomas, there’s enough soup left for both of you in the slow cooker if you end up hungry.
Sylvie will be staying in the Bronte room tonight.
Will you make sure she gets there safely? ”