Page 52 of Reforming Lord Ragsdale
Maybe never, she thought as she watched him go.
~
It was well after midnight before the last tenant left the barn, full of enthusiasms and new ideas. A smile on her face, Emma gathered together the sheaf of notes at the table where she had sat for four hours, carefully recording the evening’s events, and watching with delight as Lord Ragsdale mingled so gracefully with his crofters. She looked through the open doors where the tenants still gathered together in little groups, reliving the give and take of the evening and then looking back at the barn with expressions of real respect.
Lord Ragsdale seemed unmindful of what was going on outside the barn. He yawned and stretched, then took off his coat, revealing a shirt and waistcoat drenched in sweat. He tossed his coat on the table and threw himself into the chair provided for him, which he had not sat in once throughout the night.
“Emma, this kind of exertion is difficult, indeed.” He leaned back in his chair and propped his booted feet on the table, his hands behind his head. “I feel as though I havebeen pummeled, wrung out, and hung out to dry.” He looked over at her and took off his eye patch, rubbing the rim of his eye socket gently. “Everything aches.”
She merely smiled at him and continued sorting through the papers. “It’s all here, my lord,” she said, waving the papers at him. “You can look it over in the morning and decide what to do.”
“It is morning,” he corrected, “and I have already decided.” He closed his eye and let out a pleased sigh. “We will build the cottages for the shepherds in that area I suggested this morning, and which they agreed to. The agricultural workers will remain there by the cliff road.” He opened his eye and looked at her. “I thought David Larch was particularly eloquent in arguing the virtues of remaining by the main road, didn’t you?”
She nodded. “And the women certainly knew what they wanted in cottage improvements, didn’t they?”
“Most emphatically,” he agreed and reached over to touch her hand. “A good idea of yours, by the way, Miss Secretary. Give that information to Manwaring in the morning. The construction will be his task.” He sat up then, as if energized all over again. “How does this sound, Emma? I will appoint Larch to be Manwaring’s assistant.”
“Bravo, my lord!” she replied, genuinely impressed. “He’ll never fail you.”
Manwaring rejoined them in the barn after separating himself from one of the groups that had continued the discussion outside. Lord Ragsdale informed him of his idea for David Larch, and the bailiff nodded in agreement. “He’ll do fine, sir,” Manwaring replied, then smiled. “And if you don’t mind me saying so, my lord, you’ll do too.” He leaned closer. “That’s what your tenants are saying, my lord.”
Emma looked at Lord Ragsdale in delight, and he winked at her. “And can I tell you something more, my lord?” Manwaring continued. “They’re saying how nice it is to know that you care about their problems and do more than just nodand smile and clear your throat.” He stood up and nodded to Emma. “Good night, my lord. We’ve a lot to busy us in the morning, now, haven’t we?”
“Indeed we have,” Lord Ragsdale agreed as he got to his feet and pulled Emma up after him. “My dear, I expect you in the book room at seven to begin making order out of this pile of notes. Organize it and have it ready for my perusal. I promised a brief visit to Sir Augustus, and then my nose will be to the grindstone too.”
He draped his coat around his shoulders and waited for her to gather the papers, then nodded to the steward to douse the lamps. They started across the barnyard together, Lord Ragsdale walking slowly enough for her to keep up with him.
“It feels good, Emma,” he said finally as they approached the manor house. “I can return to London with a clear conscience that I have done some good at last.” He paused a moment. “There remains one hurdle.”
She looked at him, a question in her eyes.
“My mother,” he said as he continued to walk. “She will not be happy when I tell her tomorrow that I plan to add a wing onto the manor house.” He sighed. “She would prefer that I left everything as Father had left it, but I want a better bedchamber, one that overlooks the ocean.”
“More room, my lord?” she asked, her voice light.
“I think I will be spending more time here in the future, Emma, and I doubt I’ll be alone. Mama will have to live with change, I suppose.”
He put a hand on her shoulder, and she was again reminded of her brothers. “And now you will recommend that I devote my time to wooing the lovely Clarissa Partridge, especially if I am to add on bedrooms to this ungainly old pile.”
“Most emphatically,” she agreed, enjoying, despite her exhaustion, the comfort of his arm so casually about her shoulder. “Then when you are thoroughly redeemed, we will reconsider my indenture.”
“Ah, yes. It always comes back to that,” he commented, drawing her closer. “Those horses were expensive, Emma,” he reminded her. “Suppose I insist on ten or twenty years more?”
She knew he was teasing, but she realized with a start that a decade in service to Lord Ragsdale would not be an onerous duty.They were expensive horses, she thought and smiled to herself. “You would never do that, Lord Ragsdale,” she said out loud.
He merely shrugged. “How am I to get rational advice and sensible counsel if you leave me? I might revert to my foolish ways. Then how would you feel?”
How would I feel?she considered as they strolled slowly along. She stopped and looked at him. “I would consider it a terrible waste, my lord, a shocking waste, a tragic waste. Don’t you dare throw your life away. I could not deal with it.”
She was silent then, embarrassed that her voice was shaking.
He stood so close and had not released his grip on her shoulder, which tightened as she regarded him, sweaty and tired, but triumphant, there in the moonlight of the barnyard. She started walking again, faster now, and he released his grip.
Besides all that, my lord, I have enough death on my conscience, she thought.Don’t make me responsible for the loss of one more life.
~
I must know more, but how?Lord Ragsdale asked himself several times a day during the next few days.I could just come right out and demand that she tell me, he thought as he watched her at work in the book room, her face a mask of calm again. She had gone from friend to servant again, assuming that unobtrusive manner he was familiar with in his other household servants. Her work was excellent as always, and innovative as usual, as she speeded up with the demands placedon her by the flurry of activity at the manor. She worked long hours with Manwaring, preparing drafts, itemizing invoices, even speaking with the contractors, masons, and sawyers, acquainting them with the task ahead. He knew that he could relax and visit his friends in the vicinity and pay some much-needed attention to Sally Claridge and his mother, because his affairs were in capable hands.
