Page 28 of Drowned in the Pleasure of a Devilish Baron
“Who? There are very few people I would trust with something like this. It would have to be family. There’s no other way to be sure a gentleman will not stab you in the back for profit. Someone with the land for it, and the time to ensure the job is done right. High-standing members of thetonwould not come within ten miles of this sort of dirty work. They would leave it to an overseer and call it done.”
Felix waited for him to realize what he was saying.
“What are you looking at? You have a notion of where I might find such a fellow? Someone who is family, who I can trust, and who would be willing to not leave the work purely to an overseer—” he cut himself off abruptly. “You!”
“Perhaps.”
“Youcould do it. Together, we could double the offerings. Would you consider it? I know you have your pride, but really, it would be helping me greatly and—”
“I’ll do it,” Felix interrupted.
Leonard bolted from his seat, weariness wiped from his face as if with a cloth. “Truly?”
He put a hand up. “If it’s possible. I don’t know much about what the land requirements are for your vines, what it would take to make them grow. I’m willing to learn, but if my land can’t support it then we are back where we began.”
“Your land is only a few miles from here, surely it will be sustainable.” Leonard began to pace the room, hands knotted at his back. “We can have my man take a look. He helped my family set up the vines here, he will know what to do to get you started. He’s known to be the best.”
“When shall we start?”
“Why wait?” Leonard grinned. “I’ll send for my man, we can start now.”
* * *
They had not been able to get started immediately, of course. Leonard had been overly optimistic. The man he had sent for, a genteel farmer who had emigrated from France, had been deep in his cups when Leonard’s footman had found him.
“Monsieur Dubois is indisposed, Lord Cunningham.” Edwards had said, his ruddy cheeks bright with mirth.
“Indisposed?” Felix had asked, eager to get started.
“You might say that he has sampled too much of his wares, sir, as he is wont to do.” Edwards had supplied.
Leonard had cut a hand through the air. “Enough, Edwards, thank you. We will make sure to get to him early enough tomorrow.”
That afternoon, when Felix had seen Sarah, it had been difficult to keep quiet about what he was planning. He did not want to get her hopes up until this was truly arranged, and it would not be even close until his land was appraised by this Dubois fellow.
Today, Edwards had left straight from breakfast to fetch Monsieur Dubois and escort him to Haverford Cottage, where Lord Cunningham would be meeting him as well. Felix was pacing anxiously across the length of his drive, awaiting them.
“Sir Felix, you will catch your death in this rain. Won’t you wait inside, Sir? We will send for you at once when we hear his carriage!” Harriet Clay, Mrs. Clay’s eldest daughter called from the door. She had arrived to fill in while her mother convalesced. They had turned an empty upstairs room into a sickroom for her, where she was resting comfortably and being well-tended to by the household.
“I’m quite all right out here,” he replied, rubbing his hands together as he looked to the road through his curls that had dropped down across his face, already drenched even from the light drizzle.
“Sir—”
“There they are!” The Cunningham carriage was coming down the drive, with Leonard himself following atop his own horse, Beauty.
Leonard was beaming as he rode up, one hand brushing his own damp hair back under his hat. “Beautiful weather, eh?” He dismounted, tossing off Beauty’s reins to Felix’s stable hand.
“For a ride, especially,” Felix laughed, looking from Leonard to the sky.
“In truth, I could not ride in the carriage due to the smell,” Leonard said in a low voice.
“What smell?”
“You will see soon enough.”
The coachman opened up the door to the carriage, where a very purple, very irritated Frenchman appeared. Monsieur Dubois was a short, stout gentleman, with lips stained purple from what Felix assumed to be a large, steady intake of wine. He stared in suspicion at the drizzling world around him, his eyes narrowed, as he unsteadily stepped down from the carriage.
“Monsieur Dubois, this is Sir Felix Andrews, owner of the land here,” Leonard said.
