Page 48 of Reforming Lord Ragsdale
“And that’s why your daughter here has such a fine complexion,” Emma said, entering into the spirit of the joke as she touched the cheek of the oldest daughter next to her.
“Almost as nice as yours,” chimed in another daughter.
“Almost,” Lord Ragsdale said as he touched Emma’s cheek.
He winked at her and then looked at the host. “And now, sir, if our clothes are dry, I think it’s time we gave you back your privacy.”
“Dry enough?” he asked her after they had dressed and made their good-byes to the Larches. The family lined up outside the door and waved and curtsied them off.
“I think so, my lord,” she replied, still embarrassed by the way he had buttoned up the back of her dress, as though it were something he did every day. “I think you are a thorough-going scoundrel, my lord, and I cannot fathom why I did not see this sooner. I thought you were merely a drunkard.”
He thought about her words for a moment as they picked their way carefully along the road, guided by moonlight. “Maybe you just weren’t looking deep enough, Emma,” he teased. He touched her arm. “Or maybe I wasn’t much fun, either.” He cleared his throat then. “And, Emma, I owe you an apology.”
“Let’s see now, which of the myriad wrongs are you going to make amends for?” she teased, eager to lighten his tone.
“The one where I insisted that my father would never have neglected these people,” he said, his voice so quiet that she had to lean closer to hear him. “You were so right, Emma, so right. David Larch told me all that over the milking.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for, my lord,” she said softly. “You’d have discovered this same as I did, when your bailiff showed you the books. What matters is that you’re going to do something about it.”
“I certainly am, Emma,” he replied. “Wouldn’t you say it was time I spent some of my money on new homesandseparate barns for these people who work my land?”
“I would,” she agreed. “And I don’t think it will reduce you to patching your shirts or blacking your own boots to economize.”
He smiled at her and then tightened his grip on the reins. “What a relief! I don’t know that my indolence could stand that much strain. Race you to the house, Emma.”
~
Sir Augustus Barney was there when they arrived, pacing up and down in the sitting room, impatient for his dinner. Lord Ragsdale greeted him with a broad grin, striding across the room and grasping his hand and then clapping him on the back.
“I believe we are still a little damp, Gus,” he said. “Emma, drop a curtsy to Sir Gus like a good girl. He was my father’s best friend, and he can tell you any number of horror stories about my youth. I think he knows me better than I know myself—now there is a frightening thought.”
Emma curtsied to Sir Augustus, wondering how soon she could excuse herself from the room. Lady Ragsdale and Sally Claridge were seated by the window, looking refreshed after a long afternoon nap. Emma wondered briefly what they would think if they knew about her afternoon with Lord Ragsdale, wrapped in blankets in a crofter’s cottage. With any luck, she could retreat belowstairs to change clothes, and then to the book room to look over the estate figures.
“Emma, you’ll join us at the table,” Lord Ragsdale said as she made her curtsy and started to edge toward the door. “Mrs. Larch’s bread and milk was good enough, but I’d likesomething more substantial.” He winked at Emma. “Especially after a tough afternoon of stripping down and drying off by a crofter’s fire. Got you, Emma.”
Emma blushed and glared at him, carefully avoiding a glance in Lady Ragsdale’s direction. “Very well, my lord,” she said, “but then I must catch up on my work in the book room.”
Sir Augustus stared at her and then at Lord Ragsdale. “’Pon my word, John, I thought your bailiff was quizzing me. She really is your secretary?”
“She really is,” he agreed, taking the older man by the arm. “She knows my business better than I do, which, of course, has not been difficult.” He steered his guest toward the door. “Emma, pay attention during dinner and let us both hang on such pearls of wisdom that Sir Gus chooses to drop about duties of landlords to tenants.”
Emma escaped to the book room after the last course when Lord Ragsdale called for port and the ladies retired to the sitting room for cards. She sat down at the desk and ruffled through the pages of the estate ledgers, thinking to herself how fortunate Lord Ragsdale was to have such a useful bailiff. She thought again about what he had said yesterday. “But for all that, what a pity things are in such order, my lord,” she murmured as she ran her finger down the neat columns of debits and assets. “You won’t find employment here to occupy your mind and heart.”
She thought suddenly of her brothers then, remembering their constant activity about the estate and their good-natured exhaustion at the end of each day. She thought of her own household duties and the work she was learning from her mother.I always knew what I would do in life, she considered, resting her chin on her palm.I would marry someone like myself and take care of his estate and our children. It would have kept me busy all my life.
“My dear, do you have a moment?”
She looked up in surprise, startled out of her daydream,to see Sir Augustus standing in front of the desk. He smiled down at her.
“I knocked, but I don’t think you heard me,” he said. “May I sit?” he asked.
She stood up in confusion, and he waved her back to her chair.
“I want to talk to you a moment, my dear. That is all. John has gone to the sitting room to set up the whist table.”
She sat down again, folding her hands in front of her on the desk. “Say on, sir,” she said.
He seated himself across from her and regarded her in silence for so long that she began to get that uneasy feeling in her stomach. She swallowed, praying that her fear of Englishmen was not beginning to creep into her eyes as she sat and returned his gaze.
