Page 21 of The Remarkable Myth of a Nameless Lady
“I would know why my brother is so loath to let go of the estate. I would know which men are loyal to him and not to me.”
She blinked. “You suspect him of treason?”
“Nothing so grand as that. I suspect him of using the estate to his own ends. There is a hesitation there and a reaction that seems more than idle jealousy. How can I take command of this particular vessel without first understanding the underlying principles that sail her? But he gives me nonsense…ledgers without true information. A crew that listens only to him. A captain in such a situation should expect mutiny, should he not?”
“You treat your estate as a ship, forgetting it’s a vessel that by all rights should never have been your own. To follow your analogy, to the Irish you are nothing but a pirate that has seized what you had no right to,” she said, and she heard the clear bitterness in her voice.
“Be that as it may, it was a ship destined to wreck upon the rocks otherwise. What say you? Will you become my eyes and ears within this house? Become my confidante and ally?”
“You are a fool!” she muttered and paced again, her hands restless, bunching against her skirts. “More the fool I to even consider it. They would have the guest list for the ball. That is what I am sent to find!”
He stared at her in surprise. “So small a thing? It is hardly information that is not already public knowledge if one knew where to ask. If your compatriots are intent upon causing mischief for my guests, they will find they have another thing coming. You realize I will protect those who come under my roof.”
“Will you give it to me then?” she asked, and he saw the flare of hope within her eyes.
“And what will you give me in return?” he asked quietly, watching the girl carefully.
She met his gaze without fear. “You would have me tell you who is loyal to you and who to him? You fail to see the obvious. It would not surprise me to find that most within this house are loyal to neither. Would you have me reveal to you those who feel the British best be removed? I fail to see where I benefit from your arrangement. As you said, the guest list is a small thing with little actual importance.”
“You are a thoughtful creature, with an agile mind. Perhaps I need only this—Iwillwrest control of this estate from my brother, mark my words.” He spoke fiercely, with no small frustration. The alliance he had proposed was a poor one. They were too much at odds for this to work.
But she surprised him by nodding suddenly. “I am new here myself, and understand little of how things work. But if your interest is solely in the production of wool and cheese, I see little enough harm in it. After all, when we take the estate from you someday, it would be better to take back what is already successful than what is not.”
“You are truly a witch,” Jacob muttered but smiled all the same. “This is an evil bargain, to be sure.”
“On both our parts,” she agreed and smiled as well. “A bargain then to the good of Ravencliff.”
“With the British going to perdition?” he asked, and laughed at her expression. “You might well have said it, I heard it clear as day.”
“So be it. May the Irish rot as well,” she replied and stuck out her tongue at him. “As I well imagine you would say.”
“I am not entirely sure of that,” he said, smirking at her audacity. “You will find that I hold the Irish in greater esteem than you think. Now!” He clapped his hands together, feeling enthusiastic now that he had a solid plan in place. “Let us find that guest list. I will guess my mother has a copy in her desk. I expect ‘tis high time I find out just who is invited to this ball of hers.”
Chapter 15
The next morning, the Duke rose early and was out in the courtyard as the sun came up. Already the staff of the manor was hard at work. He could smell the scent of bread baking from the kitchens as he passed, and outside he could see several laborers hard at work with the milking of the cows and feeding of the various livestock kept close to the house.
He dodged a sleepy-eyed girl with a basket of eggs over her arm and looked with satisfaction at the life that teemed around him. There was no denying that Owen had been a skillful overseer, for all of Ravencliff gave off an air of being prosperous and well-run.
Jacob found the foreman with little difficulty. The man was laying out tasks for the day, sending a team of men to bring up a flock of goats to a different field, and arranging for the shearing to be finished that morning.
It was here that Jacob ran into his first snag of the day. He listened for a moment, trying to get a feel for the rhythm of the place, and knowing that there were several duties that he had little awareness of. He asked questions, to the annoyance of all concerned, and found himself interjecting with advice that brought forth a quiet deference accompanied by a rolling of eyes that he saw once and knew he was not supposed to.
It was not an auspicious beginning to things.
The trouble began when he put forth that he rather thought a certain fence needed repair.
“We will not be troubling with that field today, Your Grace,” the man said, quite flustered when Jacob brought it up. “I would suggest that were Your Grace to consult with your brother—”
That the words were there, out in the open, shocked Jacob to his very core. There had been a sullen resentfulness all morning that he had not quite been able to put his finger on, but worded thus, there was no doubt as to where the man’s loyalty lay. He had suspected as much last night when he had talked to the girl, but now he was sure.
Jacob bit back the reply that would have involved a fair share of language better left unspoken on land, only saying rather tersely, “I expect that wall to be seen to today. There will be no insubordination as to my command. My brother is not the master of this house any longer. You would do well to remember that.”
He spun on his heel and returned to the house, no longer finding the setting charming or delightful as he had when he’d set out only an hour ago. Even the kitchen maid carrying scraps for the midden heap seemed suspicious now, her eyes dark and unfriendly as he passed.
Faugh on the lot of them!
Eschewing breakfast completely, Jacob returned to his study, giving only a terse good morning to the handful of guests he stumbled across who were planning a ride out onto the moors later in the day. He declined their invitation to join them, too out of sorts to be in any mood for the pleasant pastime.
