Put Your Best Duke Forward (Dukes in Danger Book 6) by Emily E K Murdoch

Author:Emily E K Murdoch [Murdoch, Emily E K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, romance, Historical
Publisher: Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2023-09-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

December 23, 1810

Hattie pushed back her curls and wished, not for the first time that afternoon, she had bothered to pin back her hair as she usually did.

That was the trouble with having such luscious, thick dark hair. Her mother said it was a trial, and now that Hattie was older, she couldn’t help but agree. But as she rode so often, pinning the mane back tightly, it was pleasant every now and again to have it loose.

Even if it did keep slipping over her eyes.

Sweeping her hair over her shoulder, Hattie leaned once more over the desk.

“And if that invoice has been paid, that crosses out the final debt to the blacksmith…” Hattie muttered to herself.

She had always talked to herself when doing the accounts.

When she had been younger, she had been talking to her father. He had been insistent she understand precisely where the money was going, and where it was coming from.

“How else,” he had always said, “will you know how to run this place when I’m gone?”

True, they had never expected him to be gone so quickly.

Hattie swallowed. The pain of his loss, and that of her mother’s, rose suddenly and unexpectedly. It was always this way. You think you have acclimated to the lack of someone, and then all of a sudden, you haven’t. You suddenly realize the huge hole they have left in your life, and wonder how you ever managed to go a single minute without thinking of them.

And the months would go on, and suddenly you realize you haven’t thought about them for weeks. And when you do, it hurts.

The pain no longer tinged her every waking moment, for which Hattie was thankful. She had so many pleasant memories with her parents, and they had done their best to ensure she was well provided for.

“The stud farm will pay its own way,” her father had said once he had realized the old farming tenants would be insufficient. “You just need to know how to handle it. Have someone alongside you who knows what they’re doing with horses.”

Hattie’s stomach lurched. A face appeared as she blinked at the pile of invoices. An unwelcome one. Edward.

She pushed the thought away hurriedly, but like the brightness of a candle sparking in the dead of night, the image left its imprint on her mind even minutes later.

“That means the grocer can be paid this week instead of next,” murmured Hattie to herself, inscribing the detail in pencil on the ledger. “And that means…”

She had to stop, go back three pages in the ledger, and tot it all up again. That couldn’t be right. Her sums were usually correct, but that simply did not make sense. It couldn’t be.

It was only after Hattie had recalculated thrice that she allowed herself to believe it.

“Well, well, Hattie Godwin,” she said to herself quietly, leaning back in her chair. “You’ll be solvent in three weeks. In time for the new year.”

It was an astonishing thought.

Why, just a few months ago, she was starting to despair if she could ever catch up on her debts.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.