Reborn to Dodge the Bad Marriage novel Chapter 83

Chapter 83 A Maid’s Work

Finished

ra called across the hall, “Hattie, get Julian a different pair. The new ones I bought, the matching set!”

Hattie answered right away, went to the front closet for the new slippers, carried them over, and crouched to set them at Julian’s feet.

“Your slippers, Mr. Weston.”

Julian shot Nora a look with one brow raised, then changed into the new pair.

Once he had them on, Hattie collected the ones he had taken off and carried them back to the closet.

Olivia watched the whole performance, and her face ran through every shade a face could manage.

Fetching slippers and putting his shoes away was exactly what she had done for him two minutes earlier.

In her own head, that was a wifely thing to do, the sort of small service a woman performed for her husband.

But Nora had ordered Hattie to do the whole thing over again, and it landed like a slap. In this house, that was the staff’s job!

As the wife, Nora only had to open her mouth and say the word.

When it came down to it, Nora still saw her as hired help!

Nora watched the weather change on Olivia’s face. “Better get that stew on, Olivia, or it’ll be too late for the needles tonight.”

That was an order, plain as day, the kind anyone would give a servant!

Olivia’s teeth clenched. She had offered to cook in the first place, so she could hardly take it back now.

She forced the words out. “Fine. Same as always. Julian, shower first, then come to my room.”

She didn’t wait around for whatever Nora might say next, and she hurried off to the kitchen.

“What happened to your hair?” Julian asked.

“Huh?” Nora blanked for a second before she caught up. “Nothing happened to it.”

Julian reached over and caught a lock of it between his fingers, frowning. “Why did you cut a piece off?”

Nora looked down at the strands lying across his palm. The ends still lay even, and she had taken off so little that even she couldn’t find the spot.

Still, Julian had caught it in a single glance.

“Something disgusting got on it,” Nora said. “It made my skin crawl, so I cut it off.”

There was something pleased in her voice, because he had noticed. She could still remember a girl at school hacking her long hair into a ragged mess when she was little.

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Chapter 83 A Maid’s Work

She had gone home like that, and not one person in the Sinclair house asked what had happened, as though

bedy had noticed at all.

Julian assumed Trevor had put his hands near her hair and she had wanted it gone. “Wash it next time,” he said. “If something disgusts you, get rid of it. Don’t take it out on yourself.”

Nora blinked at him. One little piece of hair counts as hurting myself?

She thought he was blowing it wildly out of proportion, and for some reason it made her happy anyway. “Okay.”

“How was work today?” Julian asked, wanting the ordinary details of her day.

Nora didn’t keep any of it from him, and she walked him through the whole thing.

That was what sharing a life looked like.

Julian watched her while she talked.

Nora met his eyes and read the offer in them before he could make it, so she got in first. “I don’t need help. can handle it. How am I supposed to help you protect this family later if I can’t handle this?”

Julian nodded slowly. “All right.”

Nora grinned at him. “Why do you always want to step in? We agreed I’d do this on my own. Don’t you think I can?”

“It isn’t that.” Julian searched for a better way to put it and gave up. “I just want to help you.”

He had promised to stay out of it. But the moment anything got hard for her, he wanted to fix it, because he couldn’t stand the thought of her taking a hit.

Money was never going to be the problem, after all.

And even if he died, he would leave everything arranged so that she never had to worry about anything again.

Nora, though, was capable and had a mind of her own, and she would never be content to live off a man.

Olivia finished the stew and came out to send Hattie in with it, but there wasn’t a single member of staff in sight.

What she found instead was Julian and Nora talking about something she couldn’t hear.

Julian’s mouth was curved in a faint smile, and that hard face of his had gone soft and indulgent without his noticing.

Nora was smiling too, wide and easy, happy in a way she couldn’t hide.

Olivia bit down on her lip and called over to them. “Julian, Nora, the stew is ready.”

She had always called him Jules before.

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Chapter 83 A Maid’s Work

Calling him Julian instead opened a distance between them that she could feel.

an glanced over. “Bring it out.”

mo

Firushed

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