The Resilient Lady Collins

Chapter 134: Growing love (3)

"Welcome back," Florence stopped when she saw Ian exiting the carriage first instead of it being Scarlet. Though he was becoming a frequent visitor she was still always surprised to see him. "Welcome back, Lady Collins and Mr. Kingsley."

"That makes me sound like my father," Ian said, touching his wounded chest. This was the very reason he didn’t want his employees to refer to him as Mr. Kingsley.

Scarlet held Ian’s hand as she stepped out of the carriage. "It is what you are. Where is Alana?"

"The princess is making use of one of the libraries and asks to not be disturbed until it is time for dinner," Florence answered.

"She is hard at work already. Good, I won’t disturb her. Can you please show Mr. Kingsley to the kitchen? He would like to make a pot of tea. What?" Scarlet questioned Ian because of his gaze. "You are Mr. Kingsley. What else am I to call you?"

"Ian, like you have always done. You do not want to play the game of who can annoy whom the most," Ian warned as he was a master of it.

"You are on my land. I will not lose to anyone here, Mr. Kingsley. I shall be waiting for my tea," Scarlet said, walking up the steps first. "Was there anything important sent for me?"

"Another letter from the palace and one from your relatives. The Callahans," Florence quickly added before Scarlet could be annoyed. Florence moved the letters from the small table by the door and placed them in Scarlet’s hands. "Please follow me to the kitchen, Mr. Kingsley."

Scarlet smiled as Florence added to annoying Ian. Florence was always going to address the guests as they should so Ian would just need to bear with it for now.

While Ian followed Florence, Scarlet read the letter from the Callahans and placed the letter from the palace to be burned. Either Luke was still inviting her to the palace for the party he was hosting or he wanted to speak about Alana. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

"He is coming to Lockwood," Scarlet said after reading the letter. "I will need to prepare a room."

Scarlet welcomed the current commander of Callahan knights and the leader of the border coming to Lockwood. It might be the reason Luke had sent another letter. He wouldn’t want the Callahans to know that he was not on good terms with her so he had to start getting on her good side now.

"This will be fun," Scarlet said, awaiting his arrival. She had been quiet by not letting her relatives know that she wasn’t getting along with Luke. She was not going to put on an act that she was good with Luke to save him from losing favour with the Callahans.

While years ago the Callahans and Woods, the people who owned the border, formed a truce to work with the Castro King, they were more loyal to the family. Luke could lose their loyalty should he not think properly.

Scarlet tucked the letter back into the envelope she took it out from and made her way toward the stairs to go up to her office. Before Scarlet could reach the stairs, she heard a loud noise coming from the direction of the kitchen.

"I called him Mr. Kingsley and in return, he is going to destroy my estate," Scarlet muttered.

Why was making tea causing so much noise?

Scarlet changed her course to the kitchen to see what might now be ruined. She was met by Florence hurrying out of the kitchen. "What happened?"

"My apologies. One of the cooks accidentally spilt food onto Ian’s shirt and a little on his pants. It was a mistake. I must find something for him to change into quickly," Florence said, panicking inside since they had ruined the clothes of Scarlet’s guest.

"I will take care of it. If it was an accident, just have the cook exchange apologies to Ian and clean up any mess before someone falls. They must be more careful there. Come with me," Scarlet said to Ian when he exited the kitchen.

His white shirt was now stained with what looked like some kind of red soup.

"At least you smell lovely. Was it hot?" Scarlet questioned, touching the mess on his shirt. "It is warm," she said, relieved that they didn’t burn Ian. "I might have a change of clothes for you."

"It is as though your servants knew that I challenged you and showed how you could win. They are in luck that I happen to like the colour red," Ian said, not angered by his state. "Whose clothes are you offering to me? I hope it doesn’t belong to that old husband of yours."

Ian would rather wear the stain than anything that belonged to Jake.

"Don’t be ridiculous. Everything belonging to him was packed up and sent away. There are clothes left behind from when some of my relatives came to visit. There should be something to fit you and if you need to, you can wash up in the room," said Scarlet.

Scarlet led Ian to a guest room on the first floor. She opened the door and went straight to the closet to pick out a shirt that would not be missed.

Ian closed the door after he entered and began to unbutton his shirt. While the red looked good on him, the warm feeling from the food was not pleasant. He watched as Scarlet searched for something to fit him and then turned around to face him.

"Oh. I didn’t know you started," Scarlet said, averting her gaze from looking at Ian. "You can use this shirt."

Ian smiled, loving the shy side of Scarlet. "You can look, Scarlet. I am not shy." ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

"I will not be rude. Take how long you need to get dressed," Scarlet said, placing the shirt on the bed. "Excuse me."

Ian held his right arm out to block Scarlet from leaving. "Will you not look at the wound? It is better to see if I am hurt with the shirt out of the way."

Scarlet did a quick glance at Ian’s abdomen then looked away. She had to look once more as she had noticed a redness the first time. "It was warm enough to hurt you. I’m sorry," she apologised, carefully touching the small red mark. "I apologise on their behalf. Florence said it wasn’t on purpose."

All of whatever was poured on him had not been warm to not injure him like she thought.

"I have a cream which should help with it," Scarlet offered.

"I feel better just from your touch. Oh," Ian winced at Scarlet smacking him where he felt a small sting already. She made no effort to be gentle with it. "It will hurt if you do that."

Ian took Scarlet’s hand and pressed it to his body. "See, it is much better. Be careful how you stare at me, Scarlet. You might start something that I would gladly finish."

Scarlet bit her lip. Now that they were this close, it was hard to ignore his body. What had Ian been up to that he was as fit as her guards?

"Scarlet," Ian said, using his right hand to make her look up at him. "Don’t do that."