Tea For Two by Cheri Chesley Read Free Book Online Page B

family.”
    “Then why didn’t you leave the area?” he
asked. “Surely you had to know such a secret would be found
out.”
    “I was fifteen, my lord, and had just become
both orphaned and the sole provider to three small children,” she
reminded him. “We had no money to leave, and nowhere to go. I have
no other family.”
    “I’m sorry, that was callous of me,” he said.
“Of course you couldn’t go.”
    “I tried,” Shannah admitted. “I only took a
position in your household to save money to take the children and
settle elsewhere. But it never seemed like I could save enough, and
I knew so little of the world. Besides, after a while it seemed
like no one would find out. Nobody suspected anything. I’d grown
comfortable in my life, until you showed up at my doorstep.”
    “I’m not sorry,” he said, leaning forward. “I
hope you understand that I only mean to help. Identifying Royce as
Christopher’s son will open up a world of possibilities for the
child. He’ll have a comfortable home, an inheritance, access to the
finest schools, and more.”
    “He has a comfortable home now,” she
protested, her eyes welling with tears again. “He’s happy where he
is.”
    Brendan took her hands again. “But how long
will that last? I’m not trying to disparage all that you’ve done,
Shannah. You’ve worked miracles for those children, all three of
them. I just want you to see, to realize, that you don’t have to do
it alone any more. Royce is my nephew, too, and that makes you all
family.”
    Shannah eyed him skeptically. “And your
entire family would feel the same? Even your mother?”
    “I know my mother can be difficult,” he said.
“However, I think a grandchild—her first grandchild—would go a long
way toward softening her heart.”
    “I won’t have Royce mistreated.” Shannah
pulled her hands free from his and sat up straighter. “I mean it,
Lord Brendan. He is precious to me and I won’t have him hurt.”
She’d never spoken so forcefully to her superior before, but he had
to know that she meant every word. “And I don’t expect special
treatment for me, or Matt, or Kora. We can work for our
living.”
    He looked confused, as though he didn’t quite
understand. “But I’m offering you a comfortable home, and
opportunities for the children that they won’t have otherwise.”
    Shannah felt a vague sense of having been
insulted. “What are you suggesting, exactly? That you will provide
a home, and food, and a future for the children? Where is my place
in this?”
    Brendan stood and walked around his chair. He
didn’t answer right away, but paced for a few minutes. “I haven’t
worked out all the details in my head, Shannah. Please don’t be
offended. I’m only offering to help.”
    “But you aren’t, exactly,” she countered.
“You and I both know that the moment you tell your brother about
his son, I will lose all legal claim to Royce. The second my nephew
becomes a Wyndham, I’ve lost him. And there is no place in your
future for Royce’s poor relations. We are not part of your society,
my lord, and we never will be.” Shannah got to her feet. “I am your
servant. I was born to the working class and I will die there. You
can’t change that.”
    “Is that what you want?” he asked. “To die a
servant? Should I offer you and Matt and Kora positions in my
household? Perhaps Kora would like to be a scullery maid. Or Matt
could be a footman, or maybe work in the stables with the horses.”
He stepped around his chair and took her by the shoulders. “Is that
what you want, Shannah? Do you honestly think I could let the woman
who saved my nephew from death polish my silver for the rest of her
life and never give her anything more?”
    “I saved my nephew,” she said, her
voice growing heated. “I never asked for anything from you, my
lord, save the wages I earned by my work. I can and will raise
those children to the best of my ability.”
    Brendan shook her