Page 104 of The Ladies Least Likely
Amaranthe tried to grasp the situation. These three children had been hiding in their home for days, only a footman for protection, knowing nothing of the world or how to shift for themselves. Derwa, though no older than Camilla, would have lasted for weeks in the same situation, but Derwa knew how to cook, clean, shop, and do laundry. The old duke’s children had been raised to know nothing but social etiquette and pride of place.
“Mr. Joseph will be troubled right enough when his wages aren’t paid,” Ned said glumly. “Leastwise, that’s what Nurse said.”
Camilla sniffled. “Huey said we couldn’t impose upon him, seeing as he’s only the tutor, but we didn’t know where else to go. Ned asked his address once, when they were studying the history of London.”
Ned turned on her with indignation. “How did you know about that?”
Camilla lifted her chin in a gesture much like her brother’s. “He said he wasn’t supposed to give me lessons, but he never said I couldn’tlisten.”
Amaranthe twined her hands together, noticing a stain of gold along her thumb. The three children fell to arguing among themselves about who exactly had proposed they appeal to Mr. Illingworth for aid.
The man they called Grey cleared his throat. “I wonder,” he said, “that no one proposed sending forme.”
Silence fell. Amaranthe glanced at his face and saw that, while he kept his tone neutral with great effort, his towering ragehad returned in force. At the children? A hot, protective instinct filled her chest.
She was forever leaping in and taking up unfortunates, and Joseph was forever scolding her for it. He’d get an earful from her, when he returned, about what had been going on at Hunsdon House beneath his very nose. He was very likely to get an earful from this Grey person as well, and lose the position that had finally given him some hope for a future.
For the moment, her greater ire was directed at the man before her. What kind of guardian had no notion that his charges had been left without supervision? Without food, however that happened in a duke’s house of all places? No doubt he was too busy sporting around town in pursuit of his own pleasures to take any notice of those who depended upon him. His poor wife must be utterly neglected, were any woman fool enough to fall for that handsome face and the complete lack of soul it concealed.
Eyde slipped into the room, her wool cloak snug around her shoulders, and bobbed a quick curtsey to Grey. “No sign of Mr. Joseph at the Smyrna today, mum,” she whispered to Amaranthe. “A man at the Orange said he’d talked of going to a meeting.”
Amaranthe hadn’t known that. Her ire deflated. She was hardly in a position to chide Grey for neglect when she couldn’t attest to the comings and goings of her own brother. Still, at least no one within her household was going hungry. She hoped.
“Thank you for checking, Eyde. It’s all right if Joseph can’t be located at present. Mr. Grey is here to take the children in hand.”
The expression on Grey’s face as he turned to her almost made Amaranthe laugh out loud. The man was as helpless as Joseph, who would forget his hat if Amaranthe were not there to hand it to him on his way out the door. But while Joseph was often abstracted due to weighty matters on his mind, he wasn’tnegligent or cruel. Amaranthe wasn’t prepared to make the same allowance for Mr. Grey.
“I cannot take the children to my rooms,” the man exclaimed. “I have no accommodations for them.”
“I expect you shall return them home, Mr. Grey, and install a staff capable of proper supervision and care,” she said, exasperated.
“But there isn’t anyone!” Camilla cried. “Unless you’ll come with us?”
“Me?” Amaranthe exclaimed.
“And perhaps your cook?” Ned added hopefully.
Young Hunsdon did not immediately deny this request, the surest sign that he shared his siblings’ feelings but was too proud to say so.
Ralph the footman poked his head in the door. “I can get the coach ready in a trice, mum,” he said to Amaranthe. “I just sent it ’round to the Blue Posts and set a boy to watch the horses.”
Grey, too, looked at her with an expression of distrust, suspicion, and pride warring with helpless appeal. He also was too proud to ask for help, and if it had simply been on his own behalf, Amaranthe would have denied him in an instant. But the children, with crumbs over their smart suits and Lady Camilla’s neat apron, gazed at her with desperate longing.
“For heaven’s sake,” she said. “There must be a housekeeper.” A duke’s household had to run to a staff of dozens. “Underbutler? Kitchen staff?”
Ralph shrugged. “The housekeeper skipped off right after Cook, and when the rest of the staff learned they weren’t to get their wages, they all went back to the agency.”
“The agency?” Amaranthe said.
“Aye, mum,” Ralph answered. “The duchess turned off all the old duke’s staff when his lordship died, so’s she could hire her own people. But she has a hard time keeping ’em, you see, andis always sending to the agency for new. The butler came last quarter, and the housekeeper brought on right before him.”
“Have you seen Popplewell?” Grey asked, his voice grim.
“Him shot off last month with everything he could carry, and no one’s seen the tip of his nose since,” Ralph said.
“Or Sybil,” said Grey.
Ralph nodded. “No sign of Her Grace in nigh a month, sir, but she took quite a bit with her when she left. Said she needed furnishings for her house in France.”
