A Dash of Scot by Eliza Knight

Author:Eliza Knight
Language: eng
Format: epub

11

One week later

The countryside was lovely. That wasn’t a lie.

Nor was it a lie to say that the village of Skerray was quaint.

The house was also quaint.

But when Poppy told herself that she could be happy living in the country in the quaint village in the quaint cottage, she was lying. And it wasn’t because any of those things in particular, or even put together, made her unhappy. It was merely the circumstances that had brought her here and the uncertainty of a future none of them had planned.

And the fact that it did not appear anyone had kept up with the cottage since she’d visited as a child.

Several shutters were hanging off the hinges, and the door looked as old as William the Conqueror. Creeping vines had rooted their way up the sides of the house, which could be pretty, but so many of the vines’ leaves had browned and grown tangled that it looked messy rather than magical.

The yard was overgrown, too, and while it looked as if someone had attempted to hack at the overgrowth to create a path, they had given up.

“Oh, my,” Mama said. “Perhaps inside will look better.”

Poppy and Anise exchanged a look. The servants had been sent ahead of them to prepare, but they might have had only a day or two in advance, given the time of their departure, and from the looks of it, they needed a whole month to get it into working order.

As the carriage came to a stop, several people rushed from the house to make a line. Their clothes were dust-covered as they’d already been working hard to prepare the place.

“This will be an adventure,” Poppy said. “We just have to remember that, and who doesn’t love an adventure?”

Anise and her mother gave her skeptical looks, and then the three of them bustled out of the carriage.

They were introduced to their small staff—a housekeeper/cook, a scullion/maid, and a lady’s maid for the three women to share. A man would also work as a groomsman, butler and gardener, calling himself a Jack of all trades.

And that was it.

The servants themselves were a family. Mother and father and their two children, who all lived in a small house a little bit away from the property, meaning that at night, when the lights were doused and all were abed, the house would be empty, except for Poppy, Anise and their mother. She’d never slept in a house without servants. And the idea of doing so was rather unnerving.

Who would protect them should something go awry?

What if they needed something? Were hungry?

The realization had not hit her before. How very spoiled she was, not even used to making her tea.

This was an awakening for certain. Did she even know how to make tea?

They moved into the cottage, where their new housekeeper, Mrs. Bromley, gave them a nice tour, showing them their rooms, and at Poppy’s request, instructed her on how to make tea.

Though the outside had looked less than promising, the truth was that the staff had done an excellent job of cleaning up the inside.

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