Chapter 150
Valerie didn’t trust having a soldier in her home around the girls. If they weren’t careful they could wake to one of the girls being attacked by him. He could certainly overpower them.
"It is improper of you to be touching her hair as you please. I do not know what kind of relationship you two had before but it must end now. Stop touching her," Valerie commanded Zayne.
It was obvious that Rose didn’t know any better as she sat there allowing Zayne to touch her. Despite living in a brothel, in Valerie’s opinion, a woman should still have the sense to know that being so close or intimate with a man meant trouble.
Rose misunderstood what Valerie implied and said, "I am no longer his maid. That ended when I came home and I did not mind his touch. Sometimes," she added as it bothered her now. "He has helped me to get used to others’ touch again."
"Do you not hear what you say? You don’t mind his touch? You are a woman not yet married. Unless you have plans of wedding him, I suggest you do not present yourself so comfortably around him. Not only was it the brothel but now you were also his maid. We have much to hide," said Valerie.
"It is only us who know. No outsiders will find out about it and even if they do, she is the victim in all of this. Right?" Anna questioned, turning to her aunts for help.
Anna was disappointed to see that her aunts either tried to shush her or avoided her gaze. "What? I don’t want it to get out as well but if it does, she is the victim. Who wants to live in a brothel?"
Anna didn’t think much of Rose once being Zayne’s maid as she now had the upper hand. Many of the women in town were interested in Zayne as it wasn’t every day they got to see a stranger but it was clear to Anna that Zayne was smitten by Rose.
’They might marry,’ Anna thought. ’Would that be bad?’
Zayne let go of Rose’s hair just as Victor entered the room.
Valerie searched for Madeline, expecting her to enter after Victor. It was times like this when Madeline acted like a child that Valerie did not think she was a good fit for the wife of a lord. "Victor, you’ve come at the right time. I have offered to find Rose a good tutor. All the good ones have been taken but they cannot say no to me."