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would be the recipient of her venom.
    “Where’s Annabelle?” The bite in her intonation didn’t augur well for Molly’s plans. If Priscilla picked at her stepdaughter, the girl would baulk. It’d make Molly’s plan to ease her into the earl’s arms and bed that much harder. 
    “She’s out riding with the earl, ma’am”
    A hiss streamed through Priscilla’s lips. She sounded like a kettle. “I didn’t approve of any such outing. You should have stopped her.”
    Injecting the right amount of subservience into her voice, Molly replied, “I’m only her maid. It’s not my place to question my betters.”
    “Don’t bandy words with me, you impertinent chit,” Priscilla snapped. “I hope you at least had the sense to see that a servant accompanied them to observe the proprieties.”
    “I believe the gamekeeper and a groom left with them, ma’am.” She didn’t feel the need to reveal that as she was leaving the tack room, Graeme and the under-groom who’d ridden with the young couple had returned without them.
    Priscilla’s non-existent bosom heaved with her discontentment. “Tell Annabelle I was not pleased with her performance last night, but I won’t dwell on it since it may be advantageous.” A look of avaricious calculation spread across her adversary’s face. “When she returns, we’ll pay a call at the neighbouring estate with the earl’s mother. An unmarried marquis who wants to set up his nursery resides there. He’d be a more impressive feather in my cap than a mere earl.”
    Like a magpie, Priscilla was always seeking the bigger and shinier bauble. She would never be satisfied.
    Outraged on behalf of her absent mistress, Molly blurted out without choosing her words, “You don’t know anything about this man. At least you made inquiries about the earl’s habits and found out he wasn’t a dissolute rake.” Too late, Molly realised her grave misstep. She bit her unruly tongue and mentally kicked herself.
    The glitter of I-have-you-by-the-short-hairs triumph in Priscilla’s eyes filled Molly with the panic of a rabbit cornered by a hound.
    “How would you know that I commissioned a report on the earl?”
    “It would seem the prudent thing to do, ma’am, to see if he was a suitable match for your stepdaughter.” Weak, but it was all she could think of in a pinch. Shit, shit, when would she learn to keep her tongue behind her teeth? Annabelle was the one who’d found the stack of reports in Priscilla’s writing desk.
    “You’ve been snooping into matters that are not your concern. You’ll report everything Annabelle does to me. If she so much as sneezes at the wrong time I want to know. I’ll have the housekeeper move a cot into the dressing room for you. She is not to be alone with the earl. Do we have an understanding?”
    The unspoken threat hung in the air. There’d be hell to pay for Molly if she didn’t follow the edicts Priscilla laid down.
    Molly’s sense of self-preservation warred with her loyalty to her mistress. For all her sophistication, Annabelle needed help to stop the woman from offering her up like a golden- egg-laying goose to catch the man with the highest title.
    She gave Priscilla a curt nod, knowing full well she’d never betray Annabelle.
    “Don’t think you can pay me lip service and go your merry way.”
    Annabelle skipped into the room, her face animated. The smile on her face died as she noticed the tension between her stepmother and maid. “Overseeing my wardrobe choices, Priscilla?”
    “Look at the state of your skin, you’re as tanned as a cow-herder.”
    “I thought I looked rather fetching with a bit of colour in my cheeks, as opposed to being pasty white.” The unspoken like you in Annabelle’s treacle-sweet reply drew an outraged gasp from Priscilla.
    Molly shook her head to caution Annabelle not to ruffle her stepmother’s feathers.
    Mrs Calder’s face reddened to an unattractive puce. “A lady does not go in the sun. But