Marblestone Mansion 01 - Scandalous Duchess

approve of.
    When the telephone rang, everyone jumped. “Have mercy,” Halen gasped, “I will never get used to that.”
    Alistair went to the phone, picked up the receiver and put his mouth close to the transmitter. “Marblestone Mansion, Alistair here…Aye, one moment please.” He laid the earpiece on top of the box. “‘Tis for Mr. Hannish,” he muttered, rushing out of the kitchen.
    Sassy sat staring at the telephone and McKenna noticed. “Tempted, are you?”
    Sassy smiled. “Indeed I am. I can resist anything but temptation.”
    A few minutes later, Alistair came back and put the earpiece in its cradle. “Mr. Hannish is in the study.”
    “ How does he look?” McKenna asked.
    Alistair sorrowfully shook his head. “Like the troubled lad he is.” He glanced at all their distraught faces. “We best get back to work. ‘Twill do no good if we look as miserable as he feels.”

    Sassy didn’t think she was afraid of much, even Olivia MacGreagor. She managed to avoid the woman on a ship that seemed only half the size of the mansion, and she could do it here too. Nevertheless, when Sarah sent her up to put clean towels in the second-floor water closets, Sassy walked around the corner and came face to face with Olivia MacGreagor.
    Olivia’s eyes were the same kind of hateful, spiteful eyes Sassy had seen far too often before, and it took a moment to remember she was not in the orphanage. “Are you lost?”
    “ Are you lost, what?” Olivia asked.
    Sassy shifted her eyes from side to side. “Are you lost…just now?”
    Olivia huffed and turned around. “I rang for tea but no one has come. Find Sarah and tell her to hurry up. I die of thirst.”
    “ Aye, Mrs. MacGreagor.”
    Olivia stopped in her tracks and slowly turned back around. “What did you call me?”
    Again, Sassy shifted her eyes from side to side. “Mrs. MacGreagor?”
    “ I am a duchess and you will address me as, ‘My Lady.’”
    Sassy didn’t like her tone of voice. In fact, Sassy didn’t like her and it didn’t take long for her indignation to surface. “I will not.”
    “ What?”
    “ We American’s dinna hold with titles.”
    “ You filthy gutter rat!” Olivia grabbed the side of Sassy’s hair and began to hit her with the heavy, wooden brush she held in her hand.
    Sassy heard herself cry out. She dropped the towels, raised her arms to protect herself and slumped down, but Olivia still had a hand full of hair and the beating continued.
    Behind Olivia, Sarah dropped the tea tray, grabbed the duchess around the waist and pulled her away. “Mr. Hannish, come quick!” she screamed loud enough for the whole mansion to hear.
    Hannish heard the crash, rushed out of his study and ran across the parlor. He took the stairs two at a time, turned down the hall and saw Sassy on the floor holding her bleeding head. Horrified, he quickly knelt down beside her, put his hand on her back, and then looked at the wooden brush Olivia still held firmly in her hand. “What have you done?”
    “ She deserved that and more.” Olivia wrenched free of Sarah’s grasp and disappeared back inside her bedchamber. “I suppose I shall have to ring for more tea.” She reached for the cord, jerked it and tossed her brush on the bed.
    By the time Hannish carefully helped Sassy get up off the floor, a crowd had gathered in the hallway. “Bring her to my room,” McKenna said.
    “ Can you walk?” Hannish waited for Sassy’s nod, put an arm around her just in case and shouted orders as he walked her down the hall. “Keith, clean up the glass. Alistair, do not let my wife out of her room, I shall see to her directly. Prescot, call the doctor and tell him to hurry.”
    “ No doctor, please Mr. Hannish, ‘tis just a bruise or two,” Sassy begged.
    Hannish eased her through McKenna’s bedroom door, helped her sit on the bed and then moved out of the way.
    “ Charlotte, hand me a wet cloth,” McKenna said, sitting down on the bed beside Sassy. “Take your hand away and let me have look.” Already, the redness on Sassy’s temple was turning blue and the blood was coming from a cut just above the red mark.
    It was taking Charlotte longer than necessary to dip a washcloth in the water basin and wring it out. “Charlotte?” Finally, Charlotte handed the wet cloth to her and McKenna held it against Sassy’s head, hoping to make the bleeding stop. Then she smiled. “I fear you might have a black eye soon.”
    Sassy returned her smile,