Page 59 of The Love Potion
She heard voices coming up the walk. Women’s voices, laughing as they carried food toward the kitchen. The housekeeper and the cook, perhaps, back from shopping. She smiled at them, trying to be friendly and because she desperately needed a friend right then.
They saw her, of course. They had to walk right by her. But once they realized who it was, they gave her their back. One whispered comment between the two of them, and they turned in unison, walking steadily to the servant’s entrance.
That was a shock. She’d never been given the cut direct by the haut ton. At least not yet. She knew that servants had their own, even stricter codes of acceptance. It was no surprise that the staff at a ducal residence would be stiffly correct. But to be cut by a servant when she was a guest in the duke’s home?
Good God, she’d fallen far. And she feared that she hadn’t hit bottom yet.
She swallowed, her gaze falling back on the sunlit weed. She wondered how many servants had trampled it, and yet it still grew. How many souls cast it ugly looks, and yet it still absorbed sunlight and proudly displayed its leaves.
If she were in charge of this household, she would end such uncharitable attitudes. She would, of course, teach Zoe how to handle such things, but the girl was sixteen. She was in no way prepared to handle a ducal household.
Oh, the things she could do if only she were given the chance. But that was not to be. And yet somehow, some way, she would survive.
First things first, she needed money. After all, she hadn’t forgotten that her brother was due back in a few months. She had learned from Madame Ille that virginity was highly prized. So highly, in fact, that it might cover her expenses for as much as a year.
She could do that, right? She could sell her virginity. Indeed, what other choice did she have? The question was…to whom?
Only one man came to mind. It was, of course, the one man she’d been thinking of since this whole debacle had begun. He wasn’t opposed to the idea, she was sure of that. She just needed to make him pay for it.
And she needed to be sure her heart did not get broken in the process. Or more broken.
Chapter Nineteen
Zoe looked upin shock as the duke declared from the fence that it was time for tea. Tea? That wasn’t until…oh my. The sun was already waning in the sky, the stable hands looked like they’d worked a hard day, and Mr. Barnes… Well, he’d been scowling at her all day. But since the duke himself had told the man to hear her out, he’d had no choice but to listen as she demonstrated her skills.
Of course, there had been many arguments, but she had prevailed in most cases, and she was well satisfied with her day’s work. Except, of course, her work was supposed to be getting the duke to propose to her. Instead, she’d spent the day working his horses.
Oops.
He joined her in the center of the paddock and smiled warmly into her face. “I can see you’ve lost your sense of time.”
She wiped her forehead, appalled by the amount of sweat that accumulated there. “You and Mr. Barnes were most kind in indulging me.”
“It was my genuine pleasure,” he said as he looked back at his stablemaster. “Well, Mr. Barnes? What do you think of her ideas?”
The man grunted and pulled off his cap. Then he looked away as he shuffled his feet. “I don’t like ladies pretending to be stable lads.”
The duke chuckled. “Duly noted. What else?”
“Well, the girl has some ideas.”
“Good ones?”
“Some.”
“Interesting ones?”
“Mebbe. If that’s where you want to take your stable.”
“Do you know the horses that are in her dowry?”
Excitement tightened Zoe’s belly. He knew details about her dowry. Surely, he wouldn’t know that if he weren’t considering her hand in marriage. Meanwhile, Mr. Barnes nodded slowly.
“I know them,” he said. “She mentioned them.”
Yes, she’d made sure to let Mr. Barnes know what she’d be bringing to this marriage. That she wasn’t just a title or a pretty face. She came with equine assets that could greatly benefit His Grace’s consequence in the racing community. Not to mention what breeding mares of their quality could do for the future of the stable.
“Well? What do you think?”
