Mrs. House gave him a compassionate look, but shook her head.
“We kept an eye on her as always, and I truly believe she was just exhausted from the excitement of the day. With a good night’s sleep, she should be her usual self by tomorrow morning. However, one of us will be there if she an…issue,” she replied. “Have your new wife urge her to drink plenty of tea and water tomorrow, though. I fear hydration may play a part in her condition.”
Cedric blew out a breath of relief through his slightly parted lips.
“I will get word to my wife. You will keep an eye on her tonight, though? To be sure?” He asked.
“As always,” Mrs. House replied.
When she said nothing else, Cedric cleared his throat. As always, he felt a bit guilty for the circumstances he had insisted Mrs. House and some of the other staff take on.
“How awful is it?” He asked. “Be honest, please. Is there anything I can do to make you or the others more comfortable in the room? You must feel terribly boxed in after a time.”
When Cedric had first brought Adeline to his home after the funeral, he tried to pair her with a member of his staff at all times. However, Adeline seemed to despise any sort of company and had attempted many times to chase them away, just as she chased away any of the governesses or nannies Cedric had tried to bring in during the last year.
So Cedric had gotten creative. He’d used the room next to Adeline’s and had constructed a secret viewing box for whoever was on shift to keep an eye on their mischievous ward without her ever having to know. It was disguised as a painting; one they could swing open and enter Adeline’s room through in case of an emergency.
It was, Cedric knew, a large sacrifice on Mrs. House's and other staff members’ part. Adeline hardly ever wanted to leave her quarters, so they could not leave either, often for hours until they were relieved of duty by the next watcher. Adeline’s issues had also been known to occur at night, so it also meant that whoever was on night watch got very little sleep. His house was, in all ways, devoted to Adeline’s life, even if she did not know or appreciate it.
“It is not so bad as you think it is,” Mrs. House replied, her tone earnest. “The room vast and decorated in a very lovely manner. There are plenty of windows and fresh air. It is not as if we are stuffed into a closet to watch over Adeline. And please remember, Your Grace, we are just as willing participants in this arrangement as you are. Every one of us volunteered for this.”
Her words did little to appease Cedric’s guilt, and he rubbed his thumb anxiously back and forth over his bottom lip. Not long ago, it was Deborah’s lips that were caressing the sensitive flesh, and he so wished he could go back to her room and seduce her into another kiss. After all, the first had given him such pleasure that he’d nearly lost his mind. If that maid had not walked in…
Cedric pinched his bottom lip hard, using the pain to pull himself back to the present.
“Adeline spent the entire carriage ride back here talking to my new wife,” Cedric shared as his lip throbbed, “Perhaps their relationship may heal some of Adeline’s behavioral issues, and you could stop hiding the work you do for her.”
Mrs. House offered a kind smile.
“That would be lovely,” she agreed, and Cedric looked up just in time to see sadness fill her bright blue eyes.
“What is it?” He demanded.
“She was just. Well, I do not know for sure, of course, but she was surely such a very different child before her mother died,” Mrs. House explained, shaking her head. “She just seems to be in so much pain and just does not know what to do with it. We want to be there for her, but she just will not allow it.”
Cedric nodded, knowing all too well what it was like to be a person Adeline did not want to be around. Their only difference was that upon her first tantrum, which led to an issue, Cedric had stopped trying to be there for her. The child wanted her solitude- or at least, thatwaswhat she wanted before she met Deborah.
Mrs. House tilted her head as she looked at Cedric, her brow raised. Cedric stared evenly back at her, waiting for her to say her piece. Instead, she silently rose from her chair and walked over to him. He made no protest as she ran her fingers through his dark hair, then over his well-trimmed beard. When he was younger, with no mother to tend to him and his father with no care to have a barber to take care of his trimming, Mrs. House had taken on the responsibility herself.
“You look quite tired yourself, my boy,” she said softly.
“Hm,” Cedric hummed, meeting her eyes. “Long day for all of us, I suppose.”
Mrs. House smirked.
“I truly never thought you would take a wife,” she mused, and Cedric let out an exhausted laugh.
“That seems to be everyone’s thought,” he replied.
“It has been a while since you have had any…visitors.I suppose this means that door is permanently closed now?” She asked, giving his cheek a gentle pat before stepping away
Cedric smirked back, knowing precisely what sort of ‘visitors’ she referred to, even if he had never let them spend the night.
“It does indeed,” he had agreed.
Though he would never admit to Mrs. House or anyone else, it had been a year since his last tryst. Ever since Adeline became his ward.
As Adeline’s condition and her behavior worsened, so did situations in Calder. If it was not an agricultural issue, it was an economic one. If it was not economic trouble, it was the weather. Problems only seemed to keep arising for him, and he had not had the urge or want to seduce women as he used to, at least, not until a few hours ago.