The Autumn Duchess by Jillian Eaton

Author:Jillian Eaton [Eaton, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-19T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Hannah spent the rest of the day making lists. An organized person by nature, she had relied on lists from a very young age, first to catalog her doll collection and then to keep a running tally on all of her sister’s extravagant purchases. Needless to say those lists had been quite long, but they were nothing compared to the one she was currently working on.

Remove and replace drapes in every room, it began in her neat, tidy handwriting.

Wash windows, repair cracked panes

New shutters – iron or wood?

Wash and polish floors

Beeswax!!

Dust all sconces and chandeliers everything

Replace candles

New furniture

New rugs

New paintings

And so the list went. On and on and on until it began to feel less like a list and more like a small novel.

Exhausted from climbing up and down countless flights of stairs (not to mention the sheer enormity of the tasks that laid ahead), she collapsed onto her bed and started to close her eyes, but no sooner had she drifted off to sleep than she was jolted awake by Elsbeth.

“You’re not wearing that to dinner, are you? It’s filthy.” Charging into the room with all the discretion of a small but determined rhinoceros, the maid took one look at Hannah’s dirt-streaked dress before she promptly went to the closet and pulled out a blue gown overlaid with sheer white muslin. “Quickly,” she said when Hannah groaned and dragged a pillow over her head. “It wouldn’t due to be late. You’re a duchess now, you know.”

Hannah did know, mostly because Elsbeth wouldn’t let her forget. Being the personal maid of a gentlewoman was one thing, but being the maid of a duchess…well, that was something else entirely and Elsbeth was taking her elevated position very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that Hannah was tempted to offer Elsbeth the title if only to give herself a moment’s peace and quiet.

“I believe I’ll take supper in my room. I’m very tired.”

Elsbeth clucked her tongue. “Don’t be ridiculous. You have a guest!”

“A guest?” The pillow tumbled to the floor as Hannah sat up and frowned. “What sort of guest?”

“A duke,” her maid said importantly. Carefully draping the blue gown over the back of a chair so as not to wrinkle it, she motioned for Hannah to stand with an impatient flick of her wrist and whisked the soiled dress off her head. “The Duke of Colebrook, to be precise. He owns the neighboring estate.”

Colebrook…Colebrook…the name sounded familiar, although she couldn’t quite place it.

“Do you know what he’s doing here?” she asked, recalling that her husband did not get many visitors. Which was not surprising, given the state of the manor. Who in their right mind would want to sleep amidst scurrying mice and sticky cobwebs? Three times she’d been woken by the sound of tiny claws scratching away in her closet which was why she now slept with a fire poker by her bed. Although hopefully as long as the mice kept to their end of the treaty she’d struck with

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