The Lord and the Frenchman by Neil S. Plakcy

Author:Neil S. Plakcy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay, mm, victorian, romance, historical, espionage, wounded
Publisher: Samwise Books
Published: 2023-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

25: Dancing Master

The following morning dawned bright and warm for February, so while Raoul continued to tutor Lizzie, Vanessa accompanied John on a stroll around the property. At the barn, they ran into Hetherington, a rotund, round-faced man with a shock of red hair. One of the stable boys was shoveling hay out for their feed.

“Good morning, my lord,” Hetherington said. He bowed slightly. “My lady.”

John greeted him. “I saw Mrs. Fields the other day, and a herd of only six cows. We used to have more, did we not?” John asked.

“Back in the days when the house was full,” Hetherington said. “Now we just have enough to provide milk and cheese for the family and the tenants.”

“I complimented her on the cheese when I saw her. There’s a freshness to it, and a bit of the salt air in the taste as well. I know you ship some of it up to my father’s house in London. Have you thought about increasing the herd so Mrs. Fields could make more cheese, which could be sold in London, if Mrs. Fields is willing to up her cheese production?”

“Her two little ones are old enough to help out now,” Hetherington said. “That might be a good idea. I know she and her husband could use the extra income. And the estate, as well.”

“Do you think you could draw up some numbers? I know you have the head for such things—the number of cows we could accommodate on our land, how much milk they would generate, and so on?”

“I can, my lord. I could have something for you tomorrow.”

John thanked him, and he and Vanessa continued their perambulation. “I didn’t realize that our father had cheese shipped to him in London,” she said. “Or that Londoners would ever consider eating cheese from such a remote location as Shorecliff. Don’t they have farms closer to the city?”

“I learned an interesting concept from Raoul,” John said, as they walked through the glen toward the long-disused mill. “A French word called terroir, which represents a concept he learned from his father, who works in a vineyard.”

“Terroir means land,” Vanessa said. “Surely you learned that at Eton.”

“There is a deeper meaning,” John said. “As Raoul explains it, the quality of the soil, the weather, the proximity to a river or a body of salt water, all of those affect what is grown there. So though two vintners might grow the same grapes at two different vineyards, they will have slightly different tastes. Perhaps one set of vines is on a hillside, while the other is in a valley. One set is close to the sea, while the other is farther inland.”

He frowned. “I’m not explaining it as well as he does. But I can taste the difference in the cheese we make here, because of our proximity to the English Channel. The grass the cows eat is different because our soil may have more clay than that of Essex, for example.”

Vanessa nodded. “I understand. And perhaps the breed of cow makes a difference, too.

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