Cimmerian Shade

Chapter 9

“Confusion now hath made his masterpiece”- William Shakespeare

The carriage ride was one of the most awkward experiences she had gone through since arriving in England. The duke sat across from her, stonily silent, and Alla was too fearful to say anything, and determined that if he were to burst out in anger it would not be because she had spoken her mind. No, she wasn’t about to poke the tiger.

“Driver, Stop!” he called out, furiously.

Alla’s heart raced. They couldn’t be home already. Looking out of the window, she saw that they were definitely not home.

“Your grace?” she timidly tried, hating the way her voice wobbled.

He held up a hand, silencing her. She immediately closed her mouth, and they sat in silence for a while, until he finally spoke. “You will apologize to Miss Taylor,” he told her in a barely controlled voice. “I do not keep servants in my employ who speak to their superiors in such a manner, so if you wish to retain your employment you will do as I say. Am I understood?”

“I understand you completely, your grace, but I cannot apologize to her. My very being forbids it,” she calmly explained.

“Your pride forbids it,” he snapped. “Your stubbornness forbids it.”

“You’re wrong, your grace, I—“

“I am not wrong, Miss Bates! You have fought me at every turn thus far because of those very faults. You act this way towards me; the person who is your employer and superior in every way. Now you shirk propriety aside and refuse to adhere to the standards of—“

“Society?” she angrily interrupted, “because you do not like that I told the woman exactly what I thought?! How dare I have wit? Is that right, your grace? She can speak to me however she wishes because she holds a higher status. Who gives a whit what she says to me because servants don’t possess feelings? Is that what you tell yourself at night? I’ll not let her speak to me as if I don’t matter! I’ll not go through that again. I will make a stand for myself, because no one else will.”

A couple of tears ran down her face as she ranted at him. “You are the most disagreeable man that I have ever met in my whole life. You care for no one’s feelings but yours, and those who hold a like status!” She ended her tirade, breathing heavily where she sat as she stared unflinchingly at the duke. He could bloody well fire her. She didn’t care anymore.

Brandon knew that he shouldn’t allow her to speak to him in such a way but her tears swayed him. He slowly leaned forward, draping his arms across his thighs. “The reason I speak to you thus, is because I do care about the feelings of others. You wounded Miss Taylor’s pride,” he held up a hand when she opened her mouth to interrupt. “You wounded her pride, because she wounded yours. I was not going to say that you refuse to adhere to the standards of society,” he gave her a hard look to let her know what he thought about her interrupting him. “I was going to say that you fail to adhere to the standards of morality.” He held up a hand again when she opened her mouth. “The proper thing to do when you are rude to a person is to apologize.”

Alla angrily wiped the tears from her face. “And what of her apologizing to me?”

“She is not in my employ,” he said simply. “I have no influence over her actions or words.”

Alla rolled her eyes, causing his nose to flare and his jaw to tic again. “Please, your grace. I am not completely ignorant of your feelings for each other, I know very well that—“

“You know nothing,” he snapped. “Dare you roll your eyes at me again?!”

“I know that you care for each other. It’s not right,” she stated emphatically. “Caring for someone does not mean that you are blind to their faults, it means that you love them in spite of them.”