Rendezvous With Yesterday (The Gifted Ones #2)(79)

Her tone left no doubt that despite her diminutive size, she would have little difficulty doing so if challenged.

Alice’s scowl shifted into a worried pucker of her brow. “How did you know?” she asked with a hesitance she hadn’t displayed earlier.

“Know what? That you and Robert have never been lovers?”

“Aye. Even those who live here were uncertain.”

Beth shrugged. “I just knew. Why did you lie and say you were?”

Alice cast the doorway an uneasy glance.

“It’s all right. No one is listening.” She had sparked Beth’s curiosity now.



“The men mock me,” Alice admitted uncomfortably. “As do some of the women. Because of my height. I thought they would cease if Lord Robert showed an interest in me or if I could at least make them think he did.” Her gaze fell. “It worked for a time, but then you came and their taunts grew worse.”

Beth sighed. She could see the men making Alice miserable for being taller than they were. And there were always petty, malicious people who enjoyed saying nasty things about others because of differences in their appearance. Beth had been ridiculed herself often enough to know the hurt such could generate. During her childhood and adolescence, she had been made fun of for being short, pale, freckled, and more. To this day, she did not understand people who had to jeer at and look down on others in order to feel good about themselves.

She never would.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” she announced. “If you intend to continue whispering behind my back, glaring, sulking, scheming and turning your friends against me, or if you ever try to seduce Robert, then I will kick your ass out of here, because I do not need the headache. And by here I mean Fosterly. I don’t want to see you in the keep. I don’t want to see you in the inner bailey. And I would rather not see you in the village. If, on the other hand, you cut the crap and start anew, just do your job and don’t give me any grief, then you are welcome to stay.”

“But what of my punishment? I shamed you in front of the others.” Her nose and eyes reddened. “Will you have me whipped?”

“Whipped?” Beth repeated, appalled. “Hell, no!” Sheesh. She couldn’t believe she was actually starting to feel sorry for the woman, but damned if Alice didn’t look like she was struggling not to cry.

Beth frowned. Hadn’t Michael mentioned something about the previous owner of Fosterly treating the servants harshly? And that a lot of them had died because of it?

Had the bastard actually whipped women for mouthing off?

“Why don’t we just start with a public apology?” Beth proposed.

Alice lifted a hand to wipe her nose, and Beth realized that the obnoxious, contemptuous act she had put on earlier had been precisely that—an act. “As you wish.”

Beth turned to the doorway. “Michael—”

“I shall send them in right now,” he said, out of sight.

She closed her mouth and looked at Alice. “Do you think he heard it all?”

Alice nodded miserably.

Ignoring the stares of the servants who shuffled back into the room, Beth swiftly thought back over their conversation, recalled all of the things she had said about Robert, and wished she could go back to bed and start the whole day over again.

Since she couldn’t, she simply avoided looking at Michael, who was the last to reenter.

When everyone had reclaimed their former positions, keeping their distance from Alice this time, Beth did not have to say a word.

Alice dropped to her knees and bowed her head. “My lady, I do beg your forgiveness.” Beth opened her mouth to grant it, but the woman spoke again before she could. “I did shame you by calling you whore, not because I believed ’twas true—for I know otherwise—but because I was jealous of the affection Lord Robert holds for you, an affection that I admit he has never bestowed upon me, though I have led many to believe so. I was angry from the taunts I have suffered since your arrival and ashamed of the lies I have told. I should not have sullied your name when ’tis clear you make him happy. I vow I will never speak against you again and do humbly beg your forgiveness.”

Speechless, Beth stared at the top of the woman’s bent head.

Wow. She had expected a quick, grudging, Sorry I called you a whore and had gotten quite an impressive speech instead. Alice must feel thoroughly humiliated and know good and well that the taunts she had endured during the past few days were nothing compared to those she would be subjected to when all of this became common knowledge.



“Thank you, Alice.” Beth smiled as the woman rose. “That is the nicest apology I have ever received.”

Alice bobbed a curtsy.

A snide male voice spoke behind Beth. “I knew Lord Robert would not take up with a behemoth like her.” Several snickers followed.

Alice’s face flushed crimson.

Beth swung around furiously. “Hey!”

Everyone jumped and stared at her, wide-eyed.

“I do not want to hear one more word spoken about this, not to me and not to her,” Beth ground out. “Anyone who does will have to scrub every garderobe in the castle from top to bottom. Is that understood?”

In the blink of an eye, the smirking audience turned into bobble-head figures, hastily nodding their agreement.