Page 19 of An Innocent Maid for the Duke

‘Rose Nightingale.’

He made a face of disbelief.

‘Is too,’ she said.

‘Very well, Miss Nightingale. How long have you worked at Vitium et Virtus?’

‘Four months or so.’

‘Do you live in or out?’

She hissed in a breath. Why did he want to know that? Only a few of the employees here lived in. He must know that, being an owner and all.

‘Out.’

The answer was received with a heavy silence.

‘I will collect my things and leave.’ What else could she say? Clearly she had lost any regard he might have held for the woman he thought she was. An ache scoured the inside of her chest. She was wrong to have let herself be swept up in what was really was no more than a foolish dream.

‘You want to leave?’ he asked.

She frowned at him. A horrid suspicion entered her mind. Did he want to continue where they had left off only...? Now he knew who she was...what she was, would he treat her differently? With less respect?

‘I think it is for the best.’

He regarded her for a long moment. ‘You are going home?’

‘Yes.’

‘To your family.’

Truth. She had to tell him the truth. She had said she would. And then he really would despise her utterly. ‘I have no family left that I know of.’ She lifted her chin.

‘Oh, Rose,’ he said, shaking his head, sorrowfully.

‘I have done nothing to be ashamed of.’ Her face flushed again. ‘Nothing that has brought harm to anyone else.’ Even if she was a bastard. Born on the wrong side of the blanket, the nobs called it. She called it irresponsible.

To her surprise, he looked startled, as if her declaration surprised him. What? Did he think because she had no family,shewas some sort of undesirable? Or worse yet, a woman of low moral character? She closed her eyes briefly. That was it, most likely. And now, like a lackwit, she had as good as told him there was no one in the world who cared what happened to her. ‘Besides, it is none of your business where I go from here.’ She turned away.

‘Rose, wait.’

She swung back to face him.

He rose to his feet. ‘You don’t need to go.’

‘Are you saying I haven’t lost my position?’

He approached her warily, as if she might bite him if he got too close. ‘No, I mean. Well, obviously I would find it difficult when...’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘When?’

He rubbed a palm over his jaw in an odd upward motion. ‘I mean, I do not like to think of you...well, scrubbing the floors.’ He gestured at the rag and bucket in the middle of the floor.

She frowned. ‘There is nothing wrong with scrubbing floors.’

‘You could be so much more.’

Anger bubbled up at the disdain in his tone. More? Such as being his mistress, perhaps? What else could he mean? ‘I am perfectly content, thank you. I certainly don’t need to make my living...’ She stopped before she said something really rude.