A Fiery Dalliance

II

"You have the maturity of a 14-year-old boy!" Kennedy hisses.
"And you have the chest of one." Emma Chase, Appealed

---- 

II.

Both Adam and Joe stood for Perrie, despite her entering the study as though she were an escapee from a madhouse.

Perrie couldn't believe her eyes. She could not believe that Alice was right. She truly believed that she never was going to see Joe Parish ever again when he left Ashwood two years earlier. She never cared to learn where he had gone. One theory was that Beelzebub had recalled his loyal servant. But Joe had left, and he had not returned. His schooling had finished, as had hers, and he had probably gone on to work like other young men did.

Not only had he returned to Ashwood, but he had darkened the doorways of her own sanctuary. What on earth was Papa thinking? Had he gone mad himself? Papa knew every bit of what Joe had done to her over the last decade.

Yes, Perrie had certainly not let Joe get away with anything without retaliation, but Papa knew it all! Why would he ever allow such vermin to permeate the halls of their home?

"Get out of my house. Papa, make him leave immediately!" Perrie demanded.

"Enough of that, Perrie," Adam replied dismissively, pinching the bridge of his nose as though he had a headache. He seemed to have done that rather a lot whenever Reverend Thomas would report to him about Perrie's harmless pranks and Joe's evil doings.

"I do beg your pardon, Your Grace," Joe apologised to Adam formally, his voice deeper than Perrie remembered it being.

He looked taller, too. How irritating. Perrie could not have shrunk. Was that possible? Now that he was standing, he appeared to be several inches taller than she remembered. She dared not stand near him, lest she be called an imp again, or in case she caught some annoying disease that would make her as insufferable as he was.

"I don't take offence to Lady Perrie's behaviour. She must be a little grumpy from her long journey." His tone was meant to be cordial, but Perrie knew it was entirely condescending. Her theory was proved right when Joe turned back to her, and he smiled, winking at her.

However, that might have been the first time ever that Joe had referred to Perrie by name. She wasn't fooled. Perrie ignored his remarks and marched past him, cringing at the stark difference of over a foot in their height, so that she could stand before her father's desk. "Papa, have you gone mad? Don't you know who this is?" Perrie threw her hand behind her to point in Joe's general direction and had not realised that he had come to stand behind her. Her fist landing in the centre of his chest and he coughed at the impact.

Served him right.

"Perrie, I know exactly who this is, and I also know that you are both adults. Well, you will be an adult when I say you are an adult, but Mr Parish, here, is certainly a grown young man, and is here at my behest."

"Cannot we let bygones be bygones, my lady?" Joe asked from behind her in a tone that was meant to sound sincere.

"Why is he here? When will your business be finished? When will you make him leave?" Perrie's questions came in quick succession.

"I had planned to invite Mr Parish for dinner this evening so that we could discuss this addition to our family party in a civilised manner. Though I did not care for Mrs Liscombe's report, I can certainly see that a little tact would not go astray at times, Perrie."

When it came to Joe Parish, Perrie did not care. "You will not make me dine with him. His face will make me lose my appetite."

Adam rolled his eyes, but he tried to conceal an amused smile. "You can and you will. Now, be off with you. We have business to attend to. Go and find your grandmamma. I am sure she had returned from Mrs Denham's by now, and she has missed you."