Watson by Kathi Barton (ebook reader txt) 📕

“Do me a favor, Barkly. Can you go to the desk in my office and bring me the ring in the top drawer? I was going to give it to her—” Barkly hugged him. Tightly too. “I take it you’re happy with the news?”

“Yes, I am, sir. Miss Rayne is a wonderful woman, and I’m glad to see you’re not nearly as dumb as we’ve heard you are.” Laughing again, he said he’d heard it from the other butlers from the larger home. “She is a good match for you. As well as someone that will not sit back on her butt when there needs to be something said. Yes, she will make a great addition to this family.”

Entering the room, Barkly right behind him, Wats walked up to Rayne and pulled her into his arms for a kiss. Much, he could see, to the displeasure of the aunts. Turning to Barkly, he asked if he’d get them some refreshments, as well as something to nibble on until dinner, as he and Rayne were headed out soon.

“Now, as I’m not caught up on things going on here, why don’t you two have a seat, shut up, and let my wife to be here explain to me what’s going on.” He looked at Rayne before speaking again. “I planned on proposing soon, but we keep getting sidetracked.” The first woman—he was going to call her mustache, as she had one better than his—told him she wasn’t going to shut up or have a seat. “I’m not sure where you thought I was asking you to have a seat, but I’m not going to tolerate you talking to Rayne like you are. Nor, as I said, did I ask you what was going on. Rayne, honey, why are these loud-mouthed women here?”

“They’re my father’s sisters. The one that is wearing pink is my Aunt Rebecca Oliver. The other, in green, is my Aunt Selma Woolen. This is my fiancé, Doctor Watson Wilkerson.” Rayne huffed as she sat down on the couch. “Wats, these are the women I was telling you about when I moved in here.”

She’d not said much more than that they were around, and he pretended he knew all about them. To him, they were bullies. Whatever they were there for, he wasn’t going to be run over by them, nor was Rayne.

“Rayne is claiming that she is going to be living here, with you, for the rest of her life. I will decide who she lives with and for how long.” Barkly brought in the tea trolley and asked Rayne if she wanted to pour. Saying that she did, he could have burst out laughing when she did just that, like a prim and proper lady. “At least you’ve learned a thing or two from staying here as a servant.”

“I’m not his servant, as I have told you several times already. If you call me that again, Aunt Rebecca, I’m going to smash this lovely teapot upside of your head and be done with you.” She smiled at the other aunt. “Would you like lemon or sugar, Aunt Selma?”

“Two, my dear. Just so you’re aware, I didn’t want to come here. When she saw it in the newspaper about all the students at your college being promoted to RNs, she just had to come.” Wats leaned back on the couch as Rayne told her other aunt that she hadn’t realized it was in the paper. “Oh my, yes. It was talking about how you and the others were taking your boards today and were going to help out with this lovely town.”

“Do you mind not prattling on and on about things you do not know about?” Aunt Becky, he decided to call her, pinned him with a pointed stare. “You. What do you do for a living that makes it so you can afford this extravagant home? She said, doctor. Are you some sort of doctor that sells drugs made right here on the grounds? I wouldn’t put it past my niece to do something just that way.”

“What do you mean?” He turned down the cup of tea and glanced at Aunt Selma, and noticed that she was trying very hard not to laugh. Wats had had enough of women bullying him around. “I’m a doctor of medicine. My cousin, Mars, he’s a chemist. He is opening a compound drug store right here in—”

She cut him off. “Why do you think I’m going to care what your cousin does, young man? I asked you what you did for a living. And I don’t believe for one second that a doctor, as you’re claiming to be, would attach themselves to someone like my niece. She’s not what people would call refined.” Wats looked at the aunts, then at Rayne. She was pissed, and he wasn’t helping, he didn’t think. “I demand that you call this off, whatever you call this travesty that you’re pulling.”

“Aunt Selma, do you think I’m lying about my love for Rayne?” She shook her head and sipped her tea. When she put it down on the table in front of her, she picked up the scone that was handed to her and nibbled on it. “Good to know.”

Before he could toss the older lady out of the house, which he wanted to do badly, Mr. Oliver came into the room and looked hopping mad. The first thing he did was look at Becky and ask her what the Sam hill she was doing there.

“I’ve come to make sure you’re being taken care of.” Selma huffed this time.

“Shut your mouth, Selma. You know as well as I do that this is just a ruse to get all his money.”

“What money? Last I looked in my account I had less than enough to buy me a newspaper. Rayne here would have to lend me some money before she’d be able to rob me blind. Now, tell me what you’re doing here. And you’d better