"Shite! Shite! Shite!" Williams bustled into the kitchens, out of breath, his chest heaving as he sank onto his haunches. "Just what we need, I tell ye! Shite!"

The earl's cook, Miss Martha, released her hold on the ladle and it clattered to the ground.

"Bluidy 'ell, Williams, wot are ye blatherin' on aboot? Don't ye know ye shouldn't be stressin' yerself so? What would the Doc Marin say?"

Worry etched over Martha's brow she stepped forward - as if wanting to comfort Williams - before her eyes took in the avid audience she had in Charlie and Jimmy. She regained her strict stance and fierce scowl, glowering at the stable master.

"Think of the earl, why don't ye? Ye think ye can affor' to replace a dead man when 's 'as other things to be doin'?"

"Oh please, Miss Martha," Williams burst out, coming to a stand as his chest strained, "yer concern for my wellbeing makes my heart all aflutter," he scowled and Charlie coughed out a laugh. "Why, it puts all other compliments to shame, it do!"

Jimmy elbowed her and they shared a smile, Jimmy's freckle-filled face seemed to dance and liven at their antics.

"Ack!" Miss Martha said, shaking her head and tumbling her sweat-dampened hair from her loose upswept curls. She clenched the rag in her fists that had held the hot ladle. "The last thing a mon needs is more'n 'is fair share of compliments, 'e do. Yer 'ead is nigh on too sizes too big fer yer body as it is."

Jimmy giggled, and Charlie watched his brown eyes spark with hazel flecks. Had she ever been so young as this? Had she ever been so teased as Martha and Williams gently bickering?

Those two kind of reminded her of her parents. Though...mayhap less refined, she thought, as Williams cast a dirtied sleeve over his forehead, leaving a streak of dried mud marring his skin.

Her fingers stroked her chess piece absently, the curved head of the Queen bringing her comfort.

"I've no time to squabble with ye all," Williams said, approaching Charlie and grasping her wrist. She was pulled towards the kitchen door leading back outside. "The dowager countess be comin' up the drive with the Lady Georgianna."

Charlie's steps halted abruptly, and Williams glared at her, his hand inexplicably tight about her wrist.

He raised a brow. "What now, lad? There is no time to waste!"

It must have been true - haste needed - for Jimmy shoved the last bite of tart into his mouth, sucking a thumb into his mouth and licking up the strawberry jam as he ran from the kitchens.

"Nothing, sir," Charlie said slowly. "It's just...the earl's mother is here?"

"Are ye 'ard of 'earing, now?" Williams asked, his gaze meeting Martha's over Charlie's head. "I don't know of any other dowager countesses that would seek to visit our earl."

Charlie's curiosity spiked. "He doesn't have a mistress, then?"

Williams choked, his face flushing. "Even if he did, it t'would be no business of yers." Charlie's feet scampered as Williams pulled her into motion. The cool evening air was ruined by the smoke that clogged her throat tight. "But nay, lad," Williams said, glancing at Charlie from the corner of his eyes, "the earl ain't one for such things. He has always been too much interested in his work."

The words brought a small pang to Charlie's chest. The earl was a recluse. For as long as she had heard of him, it had been mere whispers. His prowess with horses. His ability to make money - a scandal indeed to a society that valued fripperies and leisure and frowned upon a good day's work.

Did he truly have so little amusement? Charlie had yet to see the earl do anything else but check on his stable hands and staff. Rounding up horses and looking after his tenants.

She shook off the thought only to remember Williams' words of before.

The dowager countess be comin' up the drive with the Lady Georgianna...

Charlie's brows settled into a frown.

Who the devil was Lady Georgianna?

"Much needs be done. What with the stables in shambles. Imagine the ladies' happenin' upon a nail, I ask ye?" Williams said, his voice breaking into Charlie's turmoil. "Not to mention the ash still smoking about, right makes it hard to breath!"

"And lud, the humid air is making the stables smell quite out of sorts. They will be greeted with splinters and horse shite!"

The laugh tumbled out of Charlie, shocking her. She clipped her lips together. Instead of anger or irritation at her surge of humor, Williams' eyes twinkled at her.

"I can see how that would be rather....unappealing," Charlie replied, a smile on her lips.

Williams trundled off then, a "hurry on" on his lips as he went about his duties directing his other staff. Charlie took that time to slow her steps, looking upon the scene in fascination.

The earl's mother was here.

She stopped, taking in the gleaming black carriage. Charlie squinted, making out the Claymore family crest - a hawk in flight. It appeared to move on its own, emblazoned in black guilt and insinuating mayhem.

A vision of Greyson the way he was last evening fluttered across her vision. The heavy shadow of him. The way his fingers singed every nerve and torched each follicle of hair. His eyes that had lowered, languid and ever watchful, roaming the curves of her body.

It was broken by the carriage door opening with nary a sound. Two women descended from it.

The first made Charlie suck in a sharp breath. The resemblance between her and Greyson was unmistakable. An older version with gray around her temples and throughout the heavy masses of black hair. She had an elegant twist that was complemented by a royal purple hat jauntily placed atop her head.

Her travelling gown was a matching purple with a black ribbon that cinched into a tiny waist. The puffed sleeves trailed down to a delicate laced cuff that circled her wrists. She stood on tiptoe to hug her son, and Greyson placed a kiss on her cheek.

Her slippered black high heels with purple buckles shone from the light.

"Mother," Greyson said, pulling back to give the woman a soft smile.

How the devil did this slip of a woman birth a man like Greyson?

Charlie's thoughts scattered when the next passenger alighted.

The lady was a beauty. Instead of the earl's mother's purple gown, she wore a bright emerald green one. It highlighted the red strands in her otherwise gleaming auburn hair. The sleeves were short, showcasing the palest, creamiest skin, Charlie had ever seen.

This was a woman, Charlie knew, who hardly ever had a hair of place.Her bone structure - the distinct aura of an aristocratic lady - was filled with an elegance and poise that Charlie envied.

She had never felt so lacking in her men's clothing until now. Or the breeze that tickled her bare neck, devoid of her mass of brown curls.

The woman glanced about the wreckage absently, her expression remaining stoic. That changed when Greyson moved towards her. The woman's face slipped into a dazzling grin that changed her elegance into a female delight Charlie figured was absent in most cases.

Lady Georgianna.

Greyson clasped the lady's gloved hands in his own, he swallowed heavily, eyes sad, before bringing the lady's hands up to his lips for a kiss. The gentle smile on his lips had Charlie feeling oddly. As if at any moment, Charlie's feet would stomp or she would run up to the earl and...and punch him, for heaven's sake!

Again!

"Georgie."

Charlie's musings were forgotten as Greyson spoke the name. Charlie narrowed her eyes at the earl's back, hoping to burn a hole through his jacket. The beast!

Georgie?

The intimate name made Charlie's teeth clack most unattractively.

What was this Georgie to Greyson? And why was she arriving with the earl's mother?

Could she be his match? Charlie wondered.

Had Greyson's mother selected a bride for him?

The color leached from Charlie's face. Not only from the thought, but from how much that very thought sent panic trilling through her veins. Surely, Charlie urged herself, she did not care one wit what the earl's future plans were.

Her reprieve with the earl was just that. A brief reprieve from her life before she could reclaim it. Take her monies and retire to the country where she would never have to see an unfriendly face again. It would be just her and Sophie.

There was no need for a gentleman. Especially if ones such as Henry and Simpton abounded.

"What has happened here, darling?" His mother's voice was gentle, her eyes sweeping the soot-darkened air of the stables. She stepped forward and around her son, shielding her eyes with her gloved hand. "The stables...Oh, my son..."

Greyson stood next to his mother, placing a hand on the small of her back. "A slight mishap. We are investigating it now."

His mother turned to him. "Was it recent? Do you know -"

"Mother," Greyson interjected, his hands coming up to his mother's shoulders and squeezing. "No need to worry yourself. I have got it handled."

"That's not particularly what it looks like, Greyson. Perhaps you should give yourself another looksee," Lady Georgianna said, mirroring the dowager countess' actions and gazing at the damage with one hand covering her eyes. "I understand with your old age and all it might be hard to see the full effect, granted, but it is there."

Greyson groaned, casting the woman a bemused smile. "You sound like Thorne."

If anything, the woman's face became even more hard, any teasing glint having left her features.

Lady Georgianna turned then, taking in the scenes from the ruined stables back to the untouched manor on the property.

Charlie gasped.

She couldn't stop the sound from escaping her lips. It must have been quite loud indeed, for it snagged all three collective gazes.

It was Lady Georgianna's that met hers first, and the woman narrowed her eyes on Charlie who shuffled her feet. The lady's gaze swept down Charlie's face to her stained shirt to the large trousers and mud-slicked boots before resting once more upon Charlie's face.

Charlie wished she could have done the same, given the woman the same minute inspection, but Charlie's eyes remained riveted on the lady's face.

By God, what had happened?

On the left side of her face pockmarks and shiny red skin marred her delicate features. It began at the tip of her chin, creeping like blood vines across her cheek and up to her hairline. It pulled one side of her mouth taut, the lips tinged in white from the pigments of her skin having been lost.

Greyson's body moved a few steps to the right, blocking their view of her. Charlie frowned wondering what to make of that.

"This is a surprise visit," Greyson said now, casting one last scowl over his shoulder at Charlie. The message was clear. Get to work. Charlie looked about her, finding a half-filled barrell of broken boards.

Charlie grinned.

Get to work.

Right, she nodded. Let's see Williams take away this task from her now. Charlie found a few wooden beams to her left and proceeded towards them, grasping the end and dragging it out with a clatter.

"I suppose you would be, Greyson Alexander Leopold," his mother said, a smile in her voice. Charlie glanced up, and her eyes snagged on the back of the earl whose ears had reddened.

Was he...embarrassed?

Her head tilted in wonder.

The earl always seemed so self-assured - so in control. Charlie was finding there were many sides to this man.

She knew Greyson as protective. Even now, in his embarrassment, Greyson hovered over his mother and the beautifully imperfect Lady Georgianna, his wide shoulders blocking any threats from their persons.

Then there had been the playful side she had glimpsed. The way his eyes had glimmered in the ballroom when he smiled at her flying tart and sent her flirtacious smiles instead.

Of course, that led Charlie to those brief moments when she had glimpsed his restraint and heat - a discombobulating discovery, to be sure.

The way the predator seemed to lurk within his eyes, waiting and watching for some unseen moment to occur, for something to combust and break open, wreak havoc on those around him.

Charlie licked her lips, and Greyson must have an eery sense of when others were thinking of him for his head turned. Their eyes struck and it was a match that flared between them. She was helpless to resist it. Charlie recalled the weight of his body and the intensity of his stare.

An answering wetness bloomed in her thighs and she desperately cut the thoughts off, her breath short and sporadic.

His eyes remained firmly on her person that Charlie was surprised flames did not flare up behind her to rid him of the last of his stables.

Did he know where her thoughts had led?

Good lord, Charlie thought next, what if his mother and this Georgie had noticed?

Charlie broke their connection first. But it was Greyson's voice, steady and unaffected by the banked moment, that brought a sting of outrage to her breast.

If she hadn't seen the desire between her and the earl, the conflagration they made when he touched her thigh or when she slid her hands through her hair, she would be quite irked indeed.

Charlie wanted nothing more than for Greyson to feel just as off balance as she was at this moment. She wanted that unflappable exterior to break and catapult to the ground.

"I am sorry I cannot welcome you as much as I would wish to," Greyson said, his voice low. "I would understand if..." the earl's voice trailed off, his eyes falling on the mysterious Georgie before he finished, "you would wish to reside elsewhere in the interim."

That's when it hit her.

Damnation! Is that why Greyson had come to her last night?

Had the flames of last evening reminded him of the woman that had been injured? Had he been thinking of Georgie while he was with her? Needed to confirm that the newest member of his stables had not been similarly injured?

If it were any other lord Charlie would have laughed at her preposterous musings.

But this was Greyson.

She had never met a man with more honor or compassion. Met one more protective. Of course he would check on his newest staff member.

By God, Charlie thought. She was going to be sick.

He had been thinking of this Georgie.

It didn't matter that she had been a man. Perhaps his passions had transferred, wanting nothing more than to find comfort in someone.

She was a ninny for believing otherwise.

Sophie was right.

"I am sorry you had to travel so far and come upon this as your welcome in any course," Greyson said. Charlie turned away from his, lifting the board and dropping it unceremoniously into the pile of rubble. She felt Greyson's gaze boring into her back, but Charlie merely went for another board, dragging out the largest one from the middle of the pile and delighting in the shards and splinters that broke and cracked.

Greyson's voice came from farther away, his attention focused back where it should be.

His Georgie.

"I have been remiss, keeping you ladies about outside with all this smoke."

"Well, if you deigned to visit us once in awhile," his mother sniffed, her nose tilted high in the air, "we wouldn't have had to make this journey to begin with."

"Come now, Mother," Greyson murmured, giving his mother a buss on the cheek. "You can't stay mad at me forever. Especially with one resembling the delicious color of a ripe grape."

Lady Georgianna coughed out a laugh, and Charlie found an answering smile on her own face. The subtle charm coming from him was a facet she had glimpsed, albeit briefly, at the ball.

Greyson glanced at the lady, his smile wide. "Something amusing, Georgie?"

"Only that your attempt at flattery to subdue Mother's temper is so obvious as to be insulting to your intelligence. You aren't fooling anyone, dear."

Her hand landed on his hand, and Charlie had to forcefully stop herself from walking up to them and taking her touch...well, off.

The crack of the board as it was catapulted through the air and onto the barrel split through the easy camaraderie. Another dark glance was sent to her person, but Charlie ignored it.

Greyson chuckled. "Ah, I see. You're merely jealous then that you have yet to be complimented." Greyson pressed a kiss to her gloved hand. "You look positively radiant as well. Like a green grape."

His mother laughed, and Lady Georgianna pulled her hand away from him. "Well, with unimaginative comparisons like those I can see why you have yet to land a wife."

Greyson led them towards the manor then, one lady on each arm. Charlie waited, a hope in her chest that Greyson might yet turn about and glance towards her again. Whether for an assurance that Lady Georgianna was no competition to her at all or because they had shared a friendship of sorts, an intimate acquaintance. Instead, Greyson kept to his path, his broad shoulders disappearing into the shadows of the keep.

"Well, are ye gonna work, lad, or stand about gawkin?" Williams voice broke into Charlie's muddled thoughts. She turned about, spying the stable master unloading a trunk from the back of the carriage. "Come help me with these and then we have the horses to look after."

Charlie walked over, shaking off the dust that clung to her skin.

The earl and his mother, however, came back to her. The way they had interacted. The gentle teasing. The questions about one's journey.

Charlie loathed the pang that hit her. She wondered what it would be like to be ensconced in such a close bond. To be reprimanded for not coming to visit and to release each other of all obligation in the next.

Charlie took a small parcel handed down from the carriage all the while berating herself for being silly. It would be the best for all involved if she kept to herself - did her duty both to herself and to Greyson for his kindness.

Then Charlie would disappear.

It was the only assurance she had for a secure future.

Even if it didn't include children.

A mother.

A father.

A Greyson.

Charlie's thoughts were knocked securely around when an arm rammed into hers, hard. She set the trunk on the ground, mumbling an apology. She looked up and froze. It was not a face before her, but a black figure, faceless for the black hood that hid his features.

And then he brushed past her, smelling of liquor, rounded the coach and was gone.

Charlie caught her breath, looking about her, but the one hand on the top of the carriage continued on, oblivious to the strange sight. Williams had disappeared with a trunk inside, delivering it to a waiting footman.

What the devil had happened?

And why did it make Charlie's hair stand on end?

^^^VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!^^^

Oh, and can anyone find a good picture of what they envision as Lady Georgianna?? Winner gets a dedication! :D And my undying gratitude!