"Are you lost, what?" Olivia asked.
Sassy shifted her eyes from side to side. "Are you lost…just now?"
Olivia huffed and turned around. "I rang for tea but no one has come. Find Sarah and tell her to hurry up. I die of thirst."
"Aye, Mrs. MacGreagor."
Olivia stopped in her tracks and slowly turned back around. "What did you call me?"
Again, Sassy shifted her eyes from side to side. "Mrs. MacGreagor?"
"I am a duchess and you will address me as, 'My Lady.'"
Sassy didn't like her tone of voice. In fact, Sassy didn't like her and it didn't take long for her indignation to surface. "I will not."
"What?"
"We American's dinna hold with titles."
"You filthy gutter rat!" Olivia grabbed the side of Sassy's hair and began to hit her with the heavy, wooden brush she held in her hand.
Sassy heard herself cry out. She dropped the towels, raised her arms to protect herself and slumped down, but Olivia still had a hand full of hair and the beating continued.
Behind Olivia, Sarah dropped the tea tray, grabbed the duchess around the waist and pulled her away. "Mr. Hannish, come quick!" she screamed loud enough for the whole mansion to hear.
Hannish heard the crash, rushed out of his study and ran across the parlor. He took the stairs two at a time, turned down the hall and saw Sassy on the floor holding her bleeding head. Horrified, he quickly knelt down beside her, put his hand on her back, and then looked at the wooden brush Olivia still held firmly in her hand. "What have you done?"
"She deserved that and more." Olivia wrenched free of Sarah's grasp and disappeared back inside her bedchamber. "I suppose I shall have to ring for more tea." She reached for the cord, jerked it and tossed her brush on the bed.
By the time Hannish carefully helped Sassy get up off the floor, a crowd had gathered in the hallway. "Bring her to my room," McKenna said.
"Can you walk?" Hannish waited for Sassy's nod, put an arm around her just in case and shouted orders as he walked her down the hall. "Keith, clean up the glass. Alistair, do not let my wife out of her room, I shall see to her directly. Prescot, call the doctor and tell him to hurry."
"No doctor, please Mr. Hannish, 'tis just a bruise or two," Sassy begged.
Hannish eased her through McKenna's bedroom door, helped her sit on the bed and then moved out of the way.
"Charlotte, hand me a wet cloth," McKenna said, sitting down on the bed beside Sassy. "Take your hand away and let me have look." Already, the redness on Sassy's temple was turning blue and the blood was coming from a cut just above the red mark.