Mr. Hunt, I Presume (Playful Brides, #10.5)(6)
Her heart thumping in her chest, Erienne forced herself to sit again. She bit the inside of her cheek and prayed for the dignity to remain calm. How had the Duchess of Claringdon heard of her? How had the grand lady learned of her past with Collin? None of it made any sense. Surely she was in a dream and would wake any moment, back at her small bedchamber at Baron Hilltop’s estate, the birds chirping in the tree outside her window.
The duchess set her teacup aside and pulled a sheet of vellum from the table in front of her. She eyed it up and down and then turned back to Erienne. “You come highly recommended. According to Mrs. Griggs, your previous employment was with a boy and a girl in Shropsbury.”
Erienne expelled a sigh of relief. She could breathe again now that the interview was more customary. “Yes, Timothy and Evelyn. They were lovely children. I adored them.”
“I have a boy and a girl myself,” the duchess said. “Mary can be a handful at times. But I daresay even at barely two years old, Ralph is nearly as charming as his father.”
Erienne smiled at that. “Mary and Ralph. Those are lovely names.”
A smile lit the duchess’s unusually colored eyes. “Yes, we named them after my beloved aunt, and my brother who died in childhood.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Erienne replied, glancing down at her slippers. She knew what it was like to grieve for a sibling. Peter might still be alive, but his injuries had taken his speech and movement.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Miss Stone?”
Erienne lifted her head again to meet the duchess’s watchful gaze. “I have one brother. He was gravely injured in the war.”
“Oh no. I’m quite sorry,” the duchess replied, her voice softening. “So many fine men were hurt or killed in the wars. Derek knew so many of them.”
Erienne nodded solemnly. She picked up her teacup again and dared to take a sip. She should keep the conversation on topic. The duchess didn’t want to hear about Peter’s war injuries. “I’ve never worked in so fine a household as this, your grace. I’m not entirely certain I’d be qualified to—”
“That doesn’t matter to me in the least,” the duchess replied. “I quite liked what you said in your letter about being kind but also strict. Mary needs that.”
Erienne nodded. “Yes, well, I’m certain you’ve received many, many letters from far more qualified ladies than me.”
“The stack of letters was nearly a foot high,” the duchess admitted with a half-smile.
The teacup nearly toppled out of Erienne’s hand. “Are you quite serious?”
“Entirely.” The duchess sighed. “I still haven’t gone through all of them.”
Erienne settled her shoulders. “I hope this doesn’t seem ill-mannered of me, your grace, but why in heaven’s name did you pick me to interview if you have that many applicants for the position?”
The duchess pushed a dark curl behind one ear and took another sip of her heavily sugared tea, failing utterly to hide her sly smile behind the dainty cup. “Because you, Miss Stone, were the only applicant who my brother-in-law apparently used to be in love with.”
Chapter Four
The traveling chaise had barely left Collin near the front steps of Huntingdon, his brother’s country estate, when two footmen rushed out to gather his trunk. Derek came striding out of the house behind them. He stopped next to Collin and clapped him on the back. “I thought you wouldn’t be here until tomorrow, Coll.”
“Yes, my apologies for the early arrival. I’d intended to spend one more day in London, finishing some paperwork, but Treadway found me in my office and took the bloody paperwork away. I had to sneak around like a bloody spy.”
Derek threw back his head and laughed. “You are a spy, and apparently not a very good one any longer if you couldn’t elude Treadway.”
“I’d no idea he would hunt me down like a criminal,” Collin grumbled.
Derek laughed again. “That sounds like Treadway. Not to worry about coming early, though. We’ve only just arrived this morning ourselves. Come into the study and have a drink.”
The footmen scurried off with Collin’s trunk, and Derek led the way into the house. They walked through the fine foyer and down a marble corridor to the dark wooden doors of the study. The grand house smelled of lemon and turpentine. Obviously the servants had been hard at work preparing it for their master’s arrival.
As soon as they entered the study, Derek immediately went to the sideboard and poured two glasses of brandy. He handed one to Collin before he took a seat behind the large mahogany desk that graced the center of the room. Collin accepted the glass and wandered to the window. He braced a shoulder against the wall, crossed his booted feet at the ankles, and stared off across the meadow toward the lake at the back of the property. God, it felt good to be in the country. Some of his resentment toward Treadway eased a little, try as Collin might to cling to it.
“Come for some relaxation, did you?” Derek asked, settling back into his large, leather chair.
Collin sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair. “I had no choice.” He took a sip of brandy.
“What precisely did Treadway say to you?”
A grim smile played across Collin’s face as he glanced at his brother. “He told me I could do anything I wanted for the next fortnight, as long as it’s not work.”