Chapter 16
Melting eagerly into her hot bath, Verity closed her eyes while she felt the stress of the evening washing free of her skin. She’d needed a moment like this after the garden party. And definitely after the storm’s ruination of their sunroom.
Her shoulders finally began to relax. Running over her memory of the evening, she pondered Dominic’s command of the room. His care to save everything about the space.
Most dukes would simply replace everything since restoring it will take just as much effort and expense. But he cares. Not simply because its his, but because everything in that room means something to him.
There were so many questions to ask.
A knock at the door disturbed Verity’s mental list of questions she would someday surely ask the duke. She shifted, sinking lower. “Come in.”
“Hello, Your Grace,” said her maid with a cheerful smile as she came in. “I’ve a missive from Lady Isabel and your linens if you’re ready to dry off. The duke mentioned having a quiet supper to follow if you would like to join His Grace. He asked for a reply?”
It was everything she needed. “Very good, thank you. I’ll take the missive if you can say we’ll be there in a quarter hour.”
A doubtful look crossed Lucy’s brow. “That soon?”
She rethought it with a small chuckle. “Very well. We do need to dry my hair. An hour, please.”
“Very good. Here you are.” Lucy waited until Verity had dried her hands on the linen before handing over the paper. “I don’t think Elspeth will be available this evening.”
Verity didn’t like to think about ever losing her maid.
They knew each other too well. Her maid could read her mind and helped her constantly with the gossip journal.
Having a cousin working in the Hemphill house as a scullery maid left Lucy, and thus Verity, with very good access to learning the loud gossip and the quiet.
Elspeth earned some extra coin at least twice a month sharing whatever she might overhear in that house.
“I understand. The garden party would have ended early, along with a few other affairs,” Verity said aloud after already thinking it through. “It’ll be understandable to have a short journal to post.”
“Very good, Your Grace. I’ll return in a trounce.”
While her maid left to alert the household and the duke when Verity would be available for a late supper, she read through the missive.
Isabel was one of three friends who shared with her such gossip. Not that they necessarily knew what she was up to. Since Isabel had married a prince abroad, it was necessary for Verity to have made more connections.
It had taken time to establish such an opportunity. First in learning these ladies and second in deciding how far they could be trusted. Others had not passed the test.
Over her few years in being out, Verity had made casual comment prior about being offered to share what she learned to have a voice in society and a little extra coin.
The other ladies were bound to pin money from tight pockets in their families.
An extra pound could go a long way for some of them.
When they asked for more information, she’d agreed to look into it––and then to direct them as the middle party if they should deliver what they knew, she’d pass it along accordingly with an exchange of the promised payment.
No one actually knew it didn’t go past Verity. She’d done well in presenting her proper image amongst the Ton, knowing she didn’t trust or care or read any gossip.
We all win, really. I keep my secrets and I still make a pretty penny while helping these young ladies keep a little more money close to the chest.
Verity read the short letter and barely finished by the time Lucy had returned to her side.
“Was it anything interesting?”
“Indeed.” She handed it over before accepting the linen towel.
“She attended quite the musicale last night. I cannot believe it wasn’t mentioned at the garden party today.
It’ll be useful, but only if I can deliver it this week.
I shouldn’t like to miss out on the chance again. Missing a week is unreasonable.”
“You just married, so there should be some allowance,” Lucy murmured.
“But no one knows that,” she pointed out. “They don’t know it is my journal. If they did… that in itself would be a dreadful scandal. I’d never survive out in society again, I should fear.”
Lucy nodded. “Then we shall ensure it never happens.”
After dressing, Verity sat at her vanity while her maid carefully tended her hair. It allowed her some time to take notes, busy scribing her thoughts and ideas for the paper based on what she had learned. By the time Lucy was done, Verity too had filled out the entire page.
“I should hope we won’t attempt to leave the house tonight,” Lucy said.
A glance at the window had Verity shaking her head.
“We shall not chance it, I think.” While the lightning had distanced itself from London, it could still be seen in the distance.
She didn’t like the thought of anyone out there at this hour and wouldn’t dream of risking her life or another’s. “It will have to be tomorrow.”
“I for one think it’s remarkably clever not to post the same time every week,” her maid commented in a hushed whisper. “Surely it must keep all of London on their toes!”
“I hope so,” Verity murmured with a sigh.
Soon, the two of them had finished up to make it as though Verity had never been in the cold and wet. She’d stopped shivering after her bath, and could have dropped right into bed if it weren’t for her rumbling stomach. Besides, she wished to see how Dominic fared after the matter.
He rose in the dining room upon her arrival, nodding before pulling out her chair himself. “I wasn’t certain if you would join me. I’ve sent most of the household to bed.”
“That is wise. They did very well tonight,” she said and sat. “Thank you.”
“Indeed. Those that are still working have been permitted a late start tomorrow, I should add. Will this be enough?” He asked with a nod toward the table. “It’s all I asked to be prepared.”
Eyeing the five plates, she nodded. “This is perfect. Warm food should put us right to sleep after all of that hard work in the sunroom.”
“Yes.” He pulled the warmed bread over and offered her the bowl. There would be no servants to wait on them for once. Verity was impressed a duke would deign to serve himself. Nodding her thanks, she took a slice. “I shall have a carpenter brought over tomorrow to see what can be done.”
“Perhaps an ironworker, too?” She suggested.
His lips curled upward. “He will be next on the list.”
“I apologize if I am overstepping,” Verity muttered, realizing he knew what he was doing.
There were few incidents in her household growing up that she knew about, let alone worried about fixing.
A room had never fallen apart before her very eyes.
But Dominic seemed to know what to do. This was his estate, after all.
“You’re not. I can simply assure you that we will be doing all we can to mend the room and ensure the damage doesn’t last or spread.”
Verity chewed quietly for a minute before noting, “The sunroom is very important to you. Have you spent a lot of time there?”
Pausing, he seemed to think about it for a moment with his eyes gazing into the distance. The duke didn’t notice her. She watched him carefully, curiously, wondering about him. She was disappointed by the time he said, “Not as much as I should like to.”
A tenderness swept over her when she heard a note of disappointment. “Perhaps we could add a table there next. Something to enjoy small meals, or a few books for reading. We could take afternoon tea in there together.”
His gaze shifted over to her. “You have an answer for everything.”
“Shouldn’t I?”
Something about her reactive question made his eyes spark. Whether in amusement or annoyance, she couldn’t be certain. “It causes me to wonder where your answers come from.”
Feeling her shoulders draw tightly together, she forced back the urge to roll her eyes at him.
“Do you mean you wonder if I’m pulling words out of the air or if I have actual credence to what I say?
Simply because I was raised a lady doesn’t mean I don’t have thoughts and capabilities.
No matter what is often written, women are just as capable of intelligent thinking and strategizing as men. ”
“Sometimes too much,” she could have sworn him mutter.
Verity couldn’t let this slide. “I beg your pardon?”
“I did not mean it in the way that it sounds,” Dominic retorted hastily. He paused to rub a hand over his face, muffling a partial sigh. “Only that you are always prepared with your quick tongue.”
“And you think it is wrong? Rude?”
“I said neither of those words,” he commented before dropping his hand and glancing at his bowl of soup. “If there is anything to learn from this, it is that I must learn you are always prepared and at the ready for trouble whether it comes from me or the storm.”
Leaning back in her seat, she studied him for a spell as she couldn’t decide whether he was teasing her or worse. Or was it really a compliment? She bided her time by taking a sip of the weak wine, tart and light.
She didn’t want to argue. Not after all they’d accomplished this evening. Swallowing her pride, she forced a light smile. “Perhaps I should learn not to make assumptions in the meantime.”
“It is difficult to enter into a marriage as partners and not make assumptions,” Dominic said after a long moment, bridging the distance between them.
When she looked up, he was offering a slight smile. Open eyes and an honest expression. He meant what he said. He meant what he meant, acknowledging the growth they would need in order for this union to work.
Verity found herself nodding.
As she sought another way to restart the conversation in a safe manner, she asked him, “Will you seek to rebuild the sunroom as it stood, or would you make any improvements?”