The Duke She Married by Clever Jessie

Author:Clever, Jessie
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798985201857
Publisher: Someday Lady Publishing LLC
Published: 2022-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

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Her excuse was this: he had never heard her plan and therefore had not said no to it specifically. It would be far easier to ask for his forgiveness anyway.

It had taken much longer than she had hoped to arrange the exchange but as she stood in the castle yard, overseeing the setup of tables and carts, she couldn’t have been more pleased. She tried not to think of Lucas’s cold tone or abrupt manner that night at dinner when she’d first mentioned the tenants’ needs. She knew his brusqueness with her was not because of his lack of concern for the tenants, and she wondered what had made him so defensive.

For a time, she worried she wouldn’t make the exchange happen though.

First there was the matter of finding what she sought in the packed rooms of the upper floors of the castle. She was certain if everything that could have been salvaged from Lagameer Hall had been brought to the castle and stored in those rooms, somewhere there should have been the household items. The tea kettles, the irons, and the bellows. And if the castle already contained its own such items, there would have been extras.

Mrs. Fairfax had been hesitant at first when Amelia approached her with her request, but she soon made the housekeeper realize the simple prudence of such an endeavor.

“I suppose those things aren’t doing much good sitting in crates, are they?” she had said, wiggling her way out from behind her desk, her ring of keys jangling as she did so.

Amelia had stopped her, unable to refrain from asking about the desk that so clearly did not fit in the room. Surely there was another desk somewhere on the estate that could meet the housekeeper’s needs. But Mrs. Fairfax had only shrugged and said it had been her desk at Lagameer Hall, and she didn’t see the point in changing it.

It had taken them three days to find the first of the crates. They had unearthed a pair of irons, a dented but serviceable tea kettle, three tea sets, all of which Mrs. Fairfax could not remember the origin of, and even a mangle.

It was on the fourth day that they had struck gold. Tucked away in a dressing room was a trunk filled with kitchen gadgets. Pastry cutters, sifters, grinders, and even a cake maker. Mrs. Fairfax had squealed when they’d uncovered that.

“I’ve been looking for this,” she’d exclaimed, holding the tin up for inspection. “Tis a pity I’ve already replaced it.” She shrugged, passing off the cake maker to one of the maids enlisted to help them unpack the crates and move the items to the spacious vestibule, readying them for the exchange.

Stephen had stumbled upon their preparations and had immediately gone out to the stables to see what could be added to the pile from there.

She could admit she’d felt a lick of trepidation when Stephen had discovered them. Although it wasn’t as though Amelia were attempting to hide

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