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Chapter Two

Georgie Manning smiled up at the unkempt Mr. Rafferty.

“Excellent!” she announced to no one in particular.

“I’ll reform you! You’ll learn a trade, you’ll have a purpose in life, and you won’t need to sleep inside doorways anymore.

I don’t exactly know where the butler sleeps, but I would expect he’d have his own room in the servants’ quarters.

Not that that there are any servants, really, except Bertha, who cooks for us, and there’s a girl who cleans, but it never seems to be the same one, and Mama said the last one took some of the silver, which is a shame, because the Manning silver is very old and very famous, but most of it was too big for her to cart away with her, thank heavens.

” She was talking too much, and she knew it, but she couldn’t help herself.

She always prattled when she was nervous.

The man towering over her made a noncommittal noise. “If you have all that silver, why don’t you sell it?”

She made a face. “Oh, it’s entailed, like the country house. It’s considered a national treasure. The best we could do is donate it to the crown, and that wouldn’t do us any good. Father is a baronet—he doesn’t need to be a viscount or an earl, and that’s about the only reward we could expect.”

The man nodded, saying nothing as she herded him back out the door and down the broad steps. For such a crowded venue, they were able to pass with relative ease, and she realized that all the guests were giving them a wide berth.

“You seem to terrorize the guests,” she said. “Everyone moves out of my way. It must be because you’re so fearsome.”

“I doubt it,” said her companion. “They just don’t want to mix with the dregs of society.”

She frowned at that. “Well, we’ll show them. They’ll have to mix with you when you’re our butler.”

“Not exactly.”

They’d reached the carriage, and she waved old Edgars back to his perch as she reached up high for the doorhandle.

Instead, an arm reached across hers, as Mr. Rafferty easily opened the door and let down the steps before taking her arm and assisting her up into the carriage.

She had the impression of strength, and then he followed her in, the coach sagging beneath his weight.

Her father really would need a new coach sometime soon, she thought with that nagging bit of worry in her stomach.

Her father was going to need a great many things that were out of reach, but at least she’d provided him with a butler.

“Well, people have to be polite to the butler,” she continued her argument. “What would the world come to, if people refused to converse with other people’s butler?”

“Society, as we know it, would collapse,” he said wryly.

She cast him a quick glance. He had a sense of humor—most servants were dreadfully serious.

But then, this man was no ordinary servant.

“Well, that might be a good thing.” She sat back on her seat, surveying him.

It was dark, of course, and he was nothing more than a very large, dangerous-looking shape.

“Mother is always telling me I rush into things without thinking them through, and I expect she’s right, but I really do think you’re an excellent idea, unless you’re a criminal and a murderer, in which case it’s not so clever of me, but I trust my judgment and I can sense you’re a good man. ”

“Completely harmless,” he answered in his deep, slow voice, and she could see the white of his teeth as he smiled beneath the shaggy beard. “Do you always talk so much?”

“Only when I’m nervous.”

“Do I make you nervous?”

She didn’t want to answer that. “You’re going to have to shave, I expect,” she said suddenly.

“And bathe. And I suppose I’ll need to find clothes for you—you really don’t dress like a butler.

It’s a shame you’re so awfully tall. We’ve never had anyone in service as big as you are, so we have no livery that would fit. ”

“Butlers don’t wear uniforms, they wear black,” the man observed.

“So, they do,” she said thoughtfully. “You see, you already know more about the job than I do! You’re going to be splendid. We just need to find you some clothes.”

“I can take care of that.”

“You can? But if you can find clothes worthy of a butler, then why do you dress in rags?”

“Because no one’s going to give money to a well-dressed beggar, now are they?” he said reasonably.

She nodded. “You’re very wise.” She glanced out the window. “Here we are,” she announced as the carriage slowed.

She almost thought there was a trace of hesitation in her companion, but he opened the door and let down the steps, moving out first so he could assist her down. For a man who lived on the streets, he was very adept at gentlemanly gestures, and she looked up at him in sudden suspicion.

“You’re not some nobleman in disguise, are you?” she asked. “Some foreign prince or bastard son of the king or something like that?”

He appeared amused. “Not that I know of. Why do you ask?”

“Because you seem to know what you’re doing. I won’t have anything to teach you in your new position.”

“You’re not really that familiar with all the things a butler does, are you?” he said.

“Well, I suppose not, but...”

“Then you’ll just have to hope I catch on quickly. Perhaps your cook will help me.”

“Bertha? She always fights with the butlers.”

Again, that flash of smile in his dark face. “I’m very easy to get along with.”

“You know, you are,” she said, thinking about it.

For all she knew, she might have brought a criminal into the house, but she couldn’t summon up any misgivings.

There was something about him that just felt.

..right. She couldn’t bear to think of him disappearing into the slums again.

“I think my parents are going to love you.”

“It’s always possible. Your sister despises me.”

“Oh, fiddlesticks!” she said. “Norah despises everything. She’s been sulking ever since we came to London, and I don’t see why, since she’s the toast of society with every man falling at her feet.

But she’s not interested. Not that it matters.

The family is going to be very pleased with me for bringing home a new butler.

” She started up the front steps, but he didn’t move, and she stopped to look back at him, sudden worry assailing her. “Aren’t you coming with me?”

“Butlers don’t enter the front door, Miss Georgiana, they use the servants’ entrance.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, of course they do. All right, we’ll use the servants’ entrance,” she said cheerfully, taking his arm and leading him along the sidewalk to the iron gate.

“You’re supposed to use the front entrance.”

“You’re going to be perfect at this,” she said encouragingly, patting his arm.

“You already know all these little details. And there’s no use for me to use the front entrance since we have no butler to open the door for me.

I’d just have to rouse the household and then I’d have to explain you and it would all be incredibly tiresome.

We’ll spring you on them in the morning—you’ll be a lovely surprise. ”

“I’m not much for springing,” he said wryly.

“Oh, they’ll love you. And most likely they’ll love you a lot better after you’re bathed and shaved and wearing decent clothes.” She took a deep, happy breath. “This is almost like Cinderella!”

“Cinderella?” he echoed, sounding puzzled.

“A fairy tale,” she clarified. “About a girl who lives in rags and cinders, which is where she got her name, and her fairy godmother arrives and dresses her in a beautiful gown and sends her to a ball where she meets the prince and falls madly in love with him. I’m your fairy godmother.”

“I don’t have to marry a prince, do I?” he drawled.

There it was again, the flash of humor. It wasn’t very butler-like but she laughed anyway. “No, but you will have to shave yourself, unless Bertha volunteers, but I wouldn’t let her if I were you, because she’s got a bad temper and she’d probably cut your throat.”

“I can manage.” They’d reached the side basement door, and he looked down at her. “This is where we part.”

“No, it isn’t. I can’t get in the front door, remember?”

“How do you usually get in at night?”

“We leave it unlocked.”

“So we won’t have to wake anyone. Use the front door, Miss Georgianna, and I’ll use this one.”

“But I need to explain you to Bertha,” she protested, but he’d put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around.

“I can explain. You go up the front steps and I’ll stay here and watch until you’re safely inside.”

A sudden uneasiness filled her. “You aren’t just going to turn and run away, are you?” she said suddenly. The thought was wrenching.

“No.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then? You promise?”

“Yes. Now go on.”

She was reluctant to leave him, but he wasn’t giving her much choice.

She kept her gaze on him as she went around to the front of the house and started up the steps, but he didn’t move, watching her as she reached the door.

It opened, of course, and she turned back to him, to wave, to wish him good night. But he was already gone.

Rafferty edged back around the side of the house and went up the two steps to the sidewalk, closing the iron gate behind him.

If he was going through with this, and it looked like he was, he was going to need to shave off his beard and find a decent dark suit.

He’d had a bath two days ago, but it looked as if another one was necessary, and he had an unusual fondness for bathing, something he hadn’t been able to indulge in much during the last few months.

If he was going to win over the mettlesome Bertha, he’d best be on his good behavior.

Not that he had any doubts—there’d never been a woman he couldn’t charm if he put his mind to it, and the Mannings’ bad-tempered cook would fall as all the others had.