Chapter 516
[ 474 words ]
Chapter 516:
A part of her found it absurdly funny. She offered a small, polite smile. “I’m not a maid,” she explained, her voice calm. “I’m just lost. I was looking for the main study.”
He didn’t even listen. He waved a dismissive hand, a gesture one might use to shoo away a fly. “I don’t care what your excuse is. Go back to the laundry room, or the kitchen, or wherever it is you people belong. And get out of my sight.”
The amusement vanished from Caroline’s face. Her smile faded. She straightened her spine, her posture shifting from apologetic to something much harder.
“I said,” she repeated, her voice now cool and clear, “I need to get to the study.”
𝘖rgаni𝗓𝖾 y𝗼𝗎𝗋 𝗹𝘪𝘣𝗿a𝘳𝘆 𝘰n ga𝗹𝘯𝗼𝘃𝘦𝘭ѕ.𝖼𝗼𝘮
Her refusal to cower seemed to infuriate him. He surged to his feet, unfolding to his full height. He was tall, well over six feet, and he used his size as a weapon, looming over her, trying to intimidate her with sheer physical presence.
“Are you deaf, or just stupid?” he snarled, stepping closer, invading her personal space. “I told you to…”
He stopped mid-sentence.
The sun, breaking through the canopy of oak leaves, hit her face directly. It illuminated the clear, intelligent green of her eyes, the fine, aristocratic line of her cheekbones, the stubborn set of her full lips. He had expected a plain, mousy servant. He was confronted with a woman of startling, unconventional beauty.
A flicker of surprise, of stunned appreciation, crossed his face. His tirade faltered, the words dying in his throat.
The lapse lasted only a second. He caught himself, and to cover his momentary loss of composure, his demeanor became even more vicious.
He let out a short, ugly laugh. “Oh, I see,” he sneered, his voice dripping with insinuation. “This is the new tactic, is it? The lost little doe in the woods routine? You think playing hard to get is going to catch the eye of one of the men in this house?”
That was it. Caroline’s patience snapped.
“If the men in this house are all ill-mannered thugs like you,” she shot back, her voice like ice, “then I made a mistake coming here in the first place.”
His eyes widened, then narrowed into dangerous slits. His pupils contracted. In this house, in his entire life, no one, especially not someone he perceived as a servant, had ever dared to speak to him that way.
He took another step forward, so close now she could feel the heat radiating from his body. His face was a mask of controlled fury. “You have no idea who you’re talking to,” he said, his voice a low, threatening growl.
Caroline didn’t flinch. She didn’t retreat. She tilted her chin up, meeting his furious gaze with her own unwavering one. A silent, furious battle of wills was waged in the dappled sunlight.
He was the one who broke first.
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