Chapter 6
“You want me to do what?”
Ethan could hardly believe what Priscilla was asking of him.
“No.”
It was entirely too much. “No,” he repeated, turning toward West, imploring him for support. “Tell her, West. You just told me it’s time to hire a steward because I need to get out of the muck and into the office.”
“Priscilla thinks this is important. Just work with Alice for a few days. What harm can it do?”
So much for West being on his side. The man was completely in love with his wife and willing to defer to her on the matter, which meant he’d have to come up with a way out of this on his own.
“I know I’m asking a lot of you,” Priscilla said sweetly, turning her charm up to its full volume, “but it really would mean so much to me.”
“I understand the role you want me to play in this, but why on earth are you putting your inexperienced cousin in charge of a project that clearly means so much to you?” Ethan was beyond puzzled by Priscilla’s motivations.
He knew she was invested in restoring the gardens, which is why he had spent time on them these past few weeks and was happy to do so—temporarily.
But now she intended to place Miss Pembroke in charge of the design?
While Priscilla was asking him to oversee the project, of course, he was almost certain her cousin knew nothing about such an endeavor.
“Alice needs a project. I think having this responsibility and being able to use her full creativity in the garden will do wonders for her. But you are correct, she will need supervision as an undertaking like this will be new to her. Please do this for the both of us, Ethan.”
Letting out a prolonged exhalation, he shook his head in defeat. “Fine—but she needs to do exactly what I say. I don’t have time to add chasing her around to my responsibilities. I’ll follow her plan if she will follow my orders.”
There was nothing Ethan loathed more than a change to his plans.
He liked knowing how the day, or even the week, was going to unfold.
This was a decidedly large wrench in how he’d envisioned the next fortnight playing out.
He would have to curb himself from letting his frustration out on Miss Pembroke, though she might prove to be deserving his ire.
And he hoped her arresting appearance wouldn’t prove distracting to the men.
Ethan, for his part, knew he was strong enough to resist such a diversion, even if her pretty face had intruded into his thoughts multiple times since her arrival, but he wasn’t sure everyone working for him possessed the same fortitude.
“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I just wrote to Johanssen and offered him the steward position. I’ll need extra hands if I’m adding supervision to my schedule.”
“Thank you!” Priscilla flung her arms around him in gratitude and Ethan was glad his cousin felt secure enough in his wife’s affections to no longer show the possessive streak he’d once exhibited when her attention was shared with another man.
“It means more to me than you know. And I’m sure Alice will follow your direction without question,” Priscilla said, releasing Ethan and beaming at her husband, whose lips twitched in amusement.
But her face slowly changed, looking almost apprehensive when she added, “I was thinking about asking Nathalie to come for a visit as well.” Interpreting his incredulity as his mouth fell slightly open, she hastened to add, “Alice needs friends her own age around here, and you know as well as I that your sister would be a wonderful example of how to be principled amidst the objectionable morals of polite society. You must admit it’s a brilliant idea. ”
“For Miss Pembroke—yes. But what do you expect poor Nathalie to do? Should she cater to your cousin’s whims as well?”
“Of course not.” Priscilla smacked his upper arm.
“She may sit around and read all day if she so desires. But you know she cares nothing about the ton or having a season, and I’d like Alice to see that perspective.
” Priscilla’s eyes grew large and her tone beseeching.
“Though I know you consider her to be too imperious, could this not serve as an education? For her to reevaluate and see there are other things to value?”
Well, Ethan couldn’t argue with that. He didn’t like being handled by the lady, but she outmaneuvered him.
Pinching the bridge of his nose to stave off the impending pain of a megrim, he sighed in defeat.
“Very well, but if Nathalie doesn’t wish to come, you’ll not force the issue.
And when and if she wants to leave, you will let her. I’ll not have my sister coerced.”
“Of course not, it will be entirely up to Nathalie.” Both Hamptons were looking at him eagerly, waiting for his blessing of the plan.
“Do what you will—I am at your mercy. When should I expect to begin working with Miss Pembroke?”
“I believe she is looking at plans with Matthias now,” Priscilla offered.
Yes, Ethan could most definitely feel a headache forming.
“No, I think we need to make this plot larger,” said a distinctly feminine voice, conveyed as it floated on the breeze toward Ethan.
Rounding the corner of the hedge, he found a clearly befuddled Matthias looking at Miss Pembroke as she considered the garden plans, gesturing toward the right side of the space the men had been clearing.
“There should be room for a path to wind around the perimeter,” she added.
This was entirely too much. “Why are you changing my plans?” Ethan growled, striding across the remaining distance to join the pair.
“Oh, Mr. Beaumont,” Matthias exhaled, frame softening and relief palpable. The gardener raised his eyebrows in question, wide eyes begging for assistance. “Miss Pembroke was sharing some of her ideas for the garden, but I wasn’t quite sure where to begin.”
It was a diplomatic way for the head gardener to imply he had no idea if he should be heeding the young woman’s instructions.
“Yes, I’ll figure out the new plan and get back to you as soon as possible,” Ethan said, hoping he sounded apologetic. “I appreciate all the hard work you and your men have put into this. Miss Pembroke, if I might have a word?”
Matthias gave a small bow of his head before turning away, most likely relieved Ethan would be the one to deal with the demanding interloper.
Meanwhile, Miss Pembroke was giving him a frosty glare as she rolled up the plans and turned more fully towards him.
She opened her mouth to share what undoubtedly would be a tart remark, but Ethan preempted her.
“I understand that your cousin has placed you in charge of plans for the gardens, but that doesn’t mean you can order my men about or make changes on a whim. All plans must run through me first so the work may be divided in a sensible manner. Are we clear?”
Wisely, she gave a quick nod and pinched her lips together. Yet not even the space of ten seconds had passed before she opened her mouth once again.
“I feel compelled to say, though, that you must treat me with respect in front of the men. How else will they follow my lead?”
“They won’t,” Ethan ground out. “They’ll follow my lead, which is why you will run everything by me.”
“That’s hardly efficient, especially since Priscilla has placed me in charge. I’m only thinking of your time.”
“She placed you in charge of the plan, not my men,” Ethan said, ignoring the mention of his time as it was a blatant attempt to butter him up.
“And do you even have a plan? You can’t simply look at the existing drawings and decide it doesn’t suit.
I won’t have my men wasting time clearing more land when you don’t even yet know what you intend to do with the space.
” He gestured to the right where she had indicated wishing for a pathway.
It wasn’t a bad suggestion, but he was hardly going to let the harridan know that.
“I do have ideas of my own, Mr. Beaumont,” she said, her cheeks colored from the admonishment.
“I’m sure you do, but ideas don’t exist until they are written down. Come back to me with a fully revised plan and then we can discuss how to proceed. In the meantime, I suggest you leave the men to their already prescribed work.”
“Well, I best get to work on that plan then,” she said pertly before turning back toward the house.
Watching her retreat, Ethan breathed in a sigh of relief. But he couldn’t help thinking how becoming she looked with her cheeks flushed from heightened emotions.
Ethan found himself to be much calmer that evening as he sat at his desk adding up numbers for the January reports he owed West.
He hadn’t meant to lose his temper with Miss Pembroke earlier, but he was concerned that her new position involved with the garden was going to be a constant challenge to his sense of control.
He craved things to be in order, and she posed a threat that could upend everything he had only recently put into place on the estate.
Leaning back in his chair, Ethan rested his head on the back edge and rubbed his eyes.
He’d been working by candlelight for hours, and it was well past time to call it a night and rest for tomorrow.
Standing and stretching, he picked up a plate with remnants of the dinner that the butler had kindly delivered earlier, as he’d opted out of dinner for solitude to both finish his work and avoid Miss Pembroke.
Now he would return the kindness by delivering the dishes and cutlery back to the kitchen.
No need to make the maids deal with his mess in the morning.
After leaving the dishes with the cook’s assistant, Ethan made his way upstairs, intending to head to bed and paused upon seeing a light on in the library. He peeked inside expecting to find West. What he saw instead astounded him entirely.
Miss Pembroke was sitting at a table in the corner surrounded by open texts.
The light from the lamp beside her cast a glow on her cheek and exaggerated the graceful curve of her neck by the shadow her chin left in the angle of the beam.
Threads of gold and copper glinted within her upswept red hair, making it look like her entire head dripped with the finest jewelry.
But what captivated Ethan the most was her posture of sheer concentration.
Head bent over one of the books, she was studiously making notes on the paper before her.
Silently drawing closer, he saw there were sketches scattered about with demarcations often used to denote different types of plants.
He realized she was devising the plans that he had accused her of not having, and she seemed to have been at the task for quite some time.
Not wishing to startle her, he deepened his tread to make his footsteps audible behind her. Miss Pembroke lifted her head, turning to see who was disturbing her.
“I don’t mean to interrupt, I just wondered who was in the library so late.”
“What time . . . i-i-is it?” she asked, stifling a yawn within her inquiry.
“Just past midnight. I was heading to bed myself, and you probably should as well.”
Standing, she braced her hands behind her back and arched forward, throwing her head back in the stretch.
Arms down, she rolled her head from side to side to loosen the muscles of her neck.
He was amazed how indifferent she seemed to be in regard to propriety in this moment—unconscious of her movements—when she had been so formal in their previous interactions.
She must feel a certain level of comfort in her cousin’s home, and he was oddly glad that she did not feel the need to remain constantly in check around him either.
“I’ll be done soon, but it seems I need to finish a plan in order to be taken seriously,” she said pointedly.
“Are all these books about gardening?” he asked, ignoring the jab and gesturing at the pile on the desk.
“Yes, thankfully the library contained quite a few. I’ve been renewing my familiarity with some of the history regarding trends in landscape architecture and studying popular forms and styles from the last century.
” Running her hand over the spine of a book near her, she looked back down at her own plan.
“I was inspired by some of the gardens at Althorp House the other day when we attended Lady Spencer’s soiree.
Her gardens were designed by none other than Capability Brown. ”
She gestured at another book, presumably about the designs of Brown, the famed landscape architect of the last century. Ethan walked over to the book and observed the clean lines in a drawing depicting one of the layouts.
“Is this the kind of garden you want to create?” Ethan asked, flipping through the plans in the book.
“No, I don’t think so.”
He looked up at Alice in surprise. “You don’t admire his work?”
“Oh, of course I do. How could one not? It’s beautiful.”
“But . . .”
“But I’d imagined something a bit less traditional, less proper. It’s so . . . contained.”
She pursed her lips at the last word, her body now rigid as she spoke of the restraint in the design. Yet a second later, Ethan watched as Alice transformed before his eyes. Her shoulders sloped away from her ears and her eyes became unfocused as she stared at a spot on the bookshelf opposite her.
“I want a design that’s allowed movement, that is freer, more . . . oh, what’s the word?”
“Wild?” he supplied.
“No, not wild.” Shaking her head, Alice returned her eyes to focus and met Ethan’s. “Just less controlled by strict boundaries.”
Closing the book, she picked it up and exited the library with a quiet determination, leaving Ethan with the feeling that Miss Pembroke may not have been discussing her ideas for the garden at all.