A Rake to the Rescue by Elizabeth Beacon

Author:Elizabeth Beacon
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-10-04T15:07:39+00:00

Chapter Twelve

‘I am not complaining, you understand, but I still don’t quite know how this happened,’ Hetta said to Lady Aline Haile two days later as their comfortable travelling carriage pulled away from the latest stop to change horses and Peg was already nodding in her corner of the carriage.

‘I am not quite sure either, but at least Master Tobias here is an improvement on the pampered darlings Lady Warner thought I could make into young ladies without any effort on their part. He is objectionable in his own right, of course, but he doesn’t want to paint fans or cover the land in whitework,’ her new friend said and at least the reason for her brief stay at Carrowe House to meet a potential employer was out in the open now and Aline seemed happy with Toby as an alternative pupil to Lady Warner and her fluffy-minded daughters.

‘I don’t suppose the Misses Warner do either,’ Hetta pointed out even so.

‘Maybe not, but I never did have any patience with useless so-called accomplishments, so I do not know how to do any of them, even if I wanted to teach them to anyone else.’

‘Then I cannot imagine why you wanted to be a governess in the first place! You are far better off with us. I can safely promise my son isn’t the least bit interested in ladylike skills and preoccupations. Toby, get your head back in here and out of the way this instant, before it gets chopped clean off by one of those shop signs,’ she ordered her son, who was busy gawping at the narrow streets and perilously overhanging buildings of the ancient city they were passing through.

‘The builders would have to know how much load and counterweight was safe for those floors to carry them that far out into the streets, Mama. One inch further and the whole lot would have ended up falling down on top of passers-by. I wish I could meet one of them and find out how they did it and if they planned it that way or just learned how from trial and error.’

‘Considering the carpenters and masons have been several hundred years in their graves by now, I can’t say I share that wish, my son.’

‘I expect there are apprenticeship records and guild standards, so we could look them up when we are in London next time,’ Aline offered as if she was every bit as interested in such details as Toby. ‘Of course, they might not have survived the Great Fire since the Guilds suffered so badly. A good many of them lost everything and had to begin again as best they could,’ she added, and the two of them discussed air currents and wind directions and flashovers and who saw what when during that terrible time and invented all sorts of intriguing details of a huge blaze that had, thankfully, been over for nearly a hundred and sixty years.

Hetta sat back to watch the town thin out into

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