My Lord Tremaine by Oliver Marina

Author:Oliver, Marina
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, seduction, amnesia, families, regency, waterloo, devon, regrets
Publisher: Marina Oliver

CHAPTER 8

On the first fine day Edmund rode round the estate with Jonah. His bailiff had, he concluded, served him well during his absence. At last, as they made their way back to the house, they stopped at the lodge. The coachman's wife emerged, looking flustered, and dropped a curtsey.

'Oh, my lord, it's good to see you home,' she said. 'An' this is such a fine house, it is.'

Edmund raised his brows. Jonah had told him how they had six children, and he could not imagine how they contrived.

'The two littlest sleep with us,' she explained when he questioned her. 'The others share a bed, top and tail, yer know.'

He didn't, but let it pass.

'An' the range and bread oven are such a blessing,' she went on, despite Jonah's attempt to stem her garrulity. 'I can bake me own bread, an' that's a big saving, an' pies an' the like we never 'ad at our other place.'

At last they escaped from her and rode on.

'Miss Elinor used to bake bread and sell it in the village,' Jonah commented.

'Miss Elinor? But why did she need to?'

Jonah didn't speak for a moment, then he sighed.

'Her father gave all his money away, they had almost nothing when he died. Which is why I let them have the house for free. Miss Jane did some sewing, I believe, but it was Miss Elinor who provided for them with her baking. And very good it was,' he added. 'Her pies were better than Cook's. She walked to the village most days to take what she'd baked.'

'All that way?' He was appalled, both by the news the girls had been forced into such expediencies to provide for themselves, and at the thought of Elinor, who looked so dainty and delicate, tied to a kitchen and walking half a dozen miles every day. 'You say Miss Jane sewed?'

'She made nightcaps,' Jonah said. 'I understand they were much in demand by the village ladies. And Mattie took in washing.'

'Mattie? Their old nurse? But surely she wasn't strong enough for that? From what I have seen she is very old and not entirely well.'

'She was ill, but I believe Miss Elinor did much of that too, to save her.'

Edmund shook his head in disbelief.

'She could hardly have had time to sleep!'

Jonah laughed. 'She's a rare lass!'

'She is indeed. Well, they may all enjoy their rest now.'

They rode on in silence. Edmund was thinking of Jane. She was not the bright, pretty girl he had asked to marry him little more than a year since. She always looked apprehensive now, avoiding him, which he had decided was due to some embarrassment that she had so soon replaced him when she thought he had been killed at Waterloo. He had a suspicion, too, that all was not well between her and William. Perhaps her sallow looks and shrinking from any contact with her husband were due to her pregnancy. He had never before been close to a woman when she was increasing, so could not judge if this were normal.

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