Page 7 of A Duke Changes Everything
She’d not planned some master deception. But when the time had come to tell the truth, she’d kept mum.
“You wish to know when the duke will come, gentlemen? He arrives in three days.” The words escaped. She’d been holding them in all morning. The plan had been to tell the household staff first. But the village leadership trio had arrived too early.
“Well, that’s excellent news!” Vicar Pribble found a reason to smile.
Mina’s stomach lurched.
What would Nicholas Lyon do at Enderley? A man who had a life and a business to attend to in London? Eustace, the previous duke, had preferred London too. But he’d spent his days there in drunken revelry while his brother built his own wealth.
Hardbrook leaned forward, planting a fist on Mina’s desktop. “I have a bone or twenty to pick with the next Tremayne.”
“The queue is a long one.” He’d need to get in line behind tenants, creditors, and villagers who’d waited years for a reasonable man to take the helm of the dukedom. Mina had patched and problem-solved where she could, but nothing compared to a competent lord and master to do his duty by his tenants.
“What willyoudo, Miss Thorne?” Pribble’s voice softened.
“I will assist the new duke.”
“And if he sacks you?” Hardbrook’s forehead buckled, as if he might actually care about her fate, despite his gruff demeanor.
“There are other posts.” Not that she could truly imagine herself anywhere else, doing anything else. But she’d tried. Her gaze lit on a square of newsprint at the corner of her desk.
“A position as governess?” Pribble tipped his head to examine the advert she’d cut from a newspaper.
The doubt written in a dozen creased lines across his face matched Mina’s own. She’d never had lessons in decorum or music or painting pretty watercolors. Her only hope was to find a family who wished for their offspring to learn household management, animal husbandry, and how to balance sums.
“What about marriage?” Hardbrook asked, latching his beefy hands around the lapels of his frock coat.
Mina tried to conceal a shiver. Young women married old men all the time, but she couldn’t fathom such a fate.
A low rumble, like approaching thunder, echoed in the room as Hardbrook shook with the power of his own guffaw. “Have no fear, girl. I did not mean for you to wed me. I’m offering you my son. He’s a good lad. Not too daft. Not too daring. He’ll be a steady sort you can rely on.”
“Your boy is sixteen, Mr. Hardbrook. Friendly, to be sure, but not a marital prospect, even if I were seeking one.”
“Give him a few years, and he’ll be a fine young man.”
“In a few years, I’ll be older too, Mr. Hardbrook, and even more of a spinster.”
The three men shifted in their chairs, as if the old worn cushions were as uncomfortable as their attempts to talk sense into an unnatural woman.
When Emma rushed into the room, she saved them all from further misery.
The young maid bobbed a curtsy before turning her panicked gaze on Mina. “You’re needed, miss. Tobias says you’re to come to the stable as soon as you’re able.”
Mina stood and instantly breathed easier. Work. Problems. That was what she knew. Much simpler than juggling the expectations of grumpy old men.
“Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me.”
Hardbrook, Thurston, and Vicar Pribble stood too.
“When the duke arrives, I’ll inform him of your visit.” Hardbrook opened his mouth as if he’d add another grumble, so Mina added, “And let him know you wish to speak to him.”
Mina understood the villagers’ concerns all too well. In her desk, she kept a running list of what needed to be done and for whom, and all of it required funds that the estate had long stopped producing.
“Thank you, Em,” Mina told the maid after the men had gone. “I thought they’d never leave.”
The girl grinned. “If I’d known I would have come in sooner. But I meant what I said. You must come quick. Tobias needs you.”
Fear chased goose pebbles across Mina’s skin. “What is it? Is someone injured?”
