Page 22 of The Bastard's Iberian Bride
“I had a thought,” Bakeley said. “Kincaid needs a situation. You need a valet.”
Bing groaned loudly. First a wife, then a valet. Both Earls of Shaldon—the old and the new—were pains in the arse. “Stewards don’t have valets.”
“Every explorer has his faithful manservant. Every sahib his—”
“Pension the man off, for God’s sake. And did not your father leave him a settlement?”
“Our father.”
“Which art in heaven?”
They both chuckled. Zebediah would have beaten him for such irreverence, but he had a feeling the old earl was laughing along with them from wherever he’d gone after leaving this earthly plane.
“He did leave him a small amount, but Kincaid only looks old. He’s much too young for a pension. What’s to be done with him?” Bakeley mused.
“What’s to be done with Miss Heardwyn? Perhapstheyshould marry.”
Bakeley tossed back a drink and sighed. “Cummings is probably inventorying the house goods at Ferndale Cottage now. Can I not prevail upon you to partake of wedded bliss? All of my problems solved: Miss Heardwyn will be your wife, Kincaid will be your valet, and you’ll finally be the gentleman you were born to be. Ah, and Mrs. Everly.”
Bink opened his mouth to say a very firmno, when the lady in question interrupted them.
She planted her hands on her ample hips. “She’s not here yet? Forever late, that one, though I’ve told her over and over again she must be mindful of punctuality. And if she’s not late, then she’s too early, and sometimes leaving without me. Shall I send a servant up to knock on her door?”
“I’ll do it,” Bink said. Anything to get away from this harpy.
“You know where her room is?” Mrs. Everly’s eyebrows spiked into points.
Behind her back, Bakeley grinned.
“I escorted her back to her chamber the night Shaldon died.” He heard her sharp intake of breath as he closed the door.
If Bakeley threw Miss Heardwyn out, Bink would somehow find her and her maid a home. But Mrs. Everly was not coming with them.
He metthe housekeeper in the corridor and asked her to check on Miss Heardwyn.
“But Mr. Gibson, she’s left already. I thought you did know, as you breakfasted with her. She’s gone this morning, and her maid with her. When the staff went to bring fresh linens, her room had been cleared, and I sent a man to check at the stables. One of the boys said they’d hitched the cart up themselves and left much too early for to be going to the funeral. Did she not say anything to his Lordship?”
“I believe not. Did she tell anyone where she was going?”
“I don’t know. Her home, I’d imagine. Where else?”
Where else indeed? Her home that was no longer her home. What had Bakeley said? The buyer would be taking an inventory already.
