Chapter 10
“Isn’t cake the best thing in the whole world on a day off in the park?
” said Miss Eileen Riley, her Irish accent lilting, as she contemplated her chocolate-laced pastry.
The young ladies, Miss Riley, Miss Pansy Croke, and Miss Victoria Basilton all but frolicked along with Nancy on the path close to the duke’s home, eating cake and taking joy in the small wonders of existence.
After all, when one lived on the edge of fiscal doom, what else could one do?
Yes, Nancy wholeheartedly agreed with her! Her own cake of strawberries and sponge were doing her spirits a world of good.
On a fine summer day in Hyde Park, there was nothing better than cake with new friends while out enjoying oneself, and she did need the enjoyment.
As much as she loved what she was doing, and as much as she penny-pinched for her mother, she also knew that if she did not get out and get fresh air, she would become ill.
Frankly, she was quite surprised that the duke had not insisted she take exercise like a horse or a dog. He seemed so concerned with her health.
It was hard not to admire him for it. Most employers didn’t give two whits for their employees’ health. They were happy to drive them into the ground.
Daily, her admiration grew for the duke.
It was most difficult! For she found herself wound ever closer to him as they discussed the world, people, and what to do with his father’s things.
With each day, she could see that he was unlike most of the most powerful men in the world.
And with each day, it grew harder and harder to maintain a distance with him.
A distance she secretly wished to charge across.
Eileen, Pansy, and Victoria were all striding beside her in their walking costumes, simple as they were, with their small containers of cake, making the most of their day off.
They were nibbling at the delightful confectionary, enjoying the sun, and basking in the fact that soon it would be winter.
It was growing towards the end of the season, and it was essential to soak up every bit of sun that one could.
Winter in England was a dreary affair, and one had to store up these moments so that when it was bleak, rainy, and dark, one had a well to draw from.
Eileen with her blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and merry face pivoted towards Rotten Row. “Come on then,” she said, “let’s go gawk at the wealthy people.”
Pansy rolled her eyes. “Eileen,” she said, “You can’t stand English people. Why would you want to gawk at them?”
“I like you,” Eileen countered grandly, her accent making her sound playful.
“And what better way to make fun of the arrogant lot, I ask you?” Eileen pointed out as her rather staid gray bonnet ribbons flapped about her.
“And I don’t loathe English people at all, poor things.
They’re highly misguided. They’d be a lot happier if they weren’t English. ”
Nancy laughed. Eileen couldn’t help teasing everyone around her and there wasn’t a malicious bone in her body. “Eileen, you’re terrible. You work for a duke.”
“I do,” Eileen said with a grand sigh. “It’s shocking, isn’t it? But why not work for a duke? If one has to work for an English person, one might as well work for the best.”
“Do your parents know that you’re working for a duke?” asked Victoria, taking a large bite of cake, her eyes closing for a moment with bliss as they strode down the pathway.
“Oh, indeed they do,” Eileen jested. “They actually encouraged me to take the position. Why not get as much money as I can whilst I can?” Eileen contemplated her cake and frowned.
“And frankly, I can’t disagree with them.
The future looks uncertain in my country.
Here too. Best collect as much coin as possible.
” Eileen forced a smile. “Look, the English aren’t so very terrible.
Anyone who’s capable of creating Dryden and Shakespeare can’t be all bad. ”
Eileen and the girls loved to make jokes, but the truth was there was a great deal of difficulty and tension between the English and Irish.
Decisions were being made daily that left the Irish in a bad state.
And frankly, Nancy couldn’t understand why anybody would do such a foolish thing to another group of people.
But there it was.
The English seemed determined to drag all independence away from Ireland. And it felt as if the land was going to crackle up in flames at any time. The whole world seemed a tinderbox.
But at least she and Eileen were friends. Eileen made every day better, quoting poetry, making quips, suggesting books, and reading aloud at night to them when they sat by the fire in the servants’ quarters, trying to keep warm before they all went off to bed.
“You could be one of those fine ladies,” Eileen said with a quick smile to Nancy. “And you were one once, weren’t you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Not fine like that,” she said, as they all looked at a barouche carriage going by with exceptionally well-dressed young women in it.
They were so well-dressed that they almost appeared to be caricatures. Their hair was piled high atop their heads, which were dancing with flowers and plumes. The gowns were shining silk, studded with jewels and laced with gilded embroidery.
“If I had a duke look at me the way the Duke of Windbourne looks at you,” said Pansy, nearly swooning, “I wouldn’t be here eating cake.”
“No,” Eileen said with a grin. “I’d be at home making a meal of him.”
“Eileen,” Nancy gasped, nearly dropping her cake. “You can’t say such things.”
“Oh, I can, and I will,” Eileen replied as another set of ladies rode by in their fine riding habits. “Too many people are too puritanical, even where I’m from. I don’t see why. I think that we should all have a good time. After all, look at how short life is.”
“That seems to be a constant sentiment,” Nancy replied.
Eileen narrowed her eyes, a haunted look overtaking her usual joy.
“That’s because it’s true. Constant sentiments are constant because they are true.
Children die every day in the East End. Children die every day in Ireland.
Adults too. So why wouldn’t you make the most of it?
Like this cake here. I’m going to eat every bit of it without a moment’s guilt.
Shall I take yours from you? After all, you wouldn’t want to have the sin of gluttony, would you?
I shall alleviate it from you.” And playfully, Eileen tried to take the little container of cake away from her.
Nancy rolled her eyes and waved away Eileen’s hands. “I take your point!”
Eileen winked. “Good. Don’t be so terrible to yourself. A little gluttony, a little liking of a duke. How terrible could it be?”
“Terrible enough to end up in a house full of fallen ladies if one’s not careful,” Nancy returned.
All of them were silent for a moment. Truly wealthy women, aristocrats, did not have to worry about workhouses, or the places where young women had no choice but to go when all their resources ran out because they gave into the affection of a man who promised love.
Eileen frowned. “The duke is not like that. I can see that he’s a good person.”
“Agreed,” Victoria declared. “I couldn’t imagine him hurting a mouse. Let alone a person. Have you seen the way he coos at his horses? And he is so kind to Everett and all the other servants.”
Pansy waggled her brows. “How could you not wish to make merry with a duke, Nancy? My goodness, if a duke wanted me to make merry, I’d have rooms set up tomorrow. And I’d acquire the best bonnets around, and horses too. Horses all day long, and also parasols and fans.”
“And jewels,” piped Victoria as she waved a piece of cake about before popping it into her mouth. “I would have heaps and heaps of jewels, and then I would retire to the countryside where no man could ever bother me again.”
“Bother?” Eileen teased. “I don’t think the duke bothers anyone. If anything, I think the ladies are standing in a line to bother him. And there he is, clearly interested in our dear, darling leader here. And she won’t give him the time of day!”
“That’s not true,” Nancy returned, though she couldn’t stop thinking of the kiss they had shared. “My work keeps me very busy, and I must maintain a professional demeanor. I can’t swoon about!”
The three friends gazed at her as if she was in complete denial.
“Look,” Nancy said, “I know that he finds me to be interesting, and I find him to be interesting too, but I don’t have time for that sort of thing. I need to take care of my mother. I need to work.”
“Well, I should like to do a bit of work too,” Eileen said, waggling her brows.
“Besides,” Pansy said, “a little bit of work with him would see your mother taken care of forever.”
Nancy groaned. “But can you hear yourselves? You wish me to be what? A fallen woman?”
“Oh, the tumble sounds like it would be delightfully fun,” put in Victoria. “And I think you deserve a bit of fun. You work too hard.”
“The three of you,” Nancy exclaimed. “I offer him up to you.”
Eillen’s lips twitched. “Sure you do.”
Pansy laughed. “You’d be jealous.”
“He’s already yours.”
“Cease!” Nancy returned, her cheeks burning at thoughts of the way they had kissed. Every word they spoke urged her to throw in all her defenses. How she wished that there could be more kisses! But surely, she couldn’t allow it. “You lot are a scandal.”
The three other girls exchanged quick glances.
“I’m just teasing,” she said. “I would never in a month of Sundays condemn you for speaking far less scandalously than a penny novelette.”
Eileen beamed. “You didn’t seem like a stick in the mud. I’m glad to know you’re not,” she said. “It’s just… You’re so devoted to doing a good job, you seem to be forgetting that you have a life beyond organizing his house. Don’t you want to have any fun?”
“I am having fun,” she replied. “I’m eating cake, walking with you, and as you say, Eileen, gawking at the ladies on Rotten Row.”
And as if there had been far too many ladies, suddenly a man came riding down the Row. But not just any man.
Oh no, of course it was the Duke of Windbourne atop the most staggeringly beautiful horse she had ever seen. And she had seen many.
She had grown up in the country. Her father had owned horses, and the neighbors had owned horses, and they’d often ridden to hunt. She was actually quite good atop a horse, having mastered bareback and sidesaddle. But this was not the sort of animal that was ridden to hunt.
No, this was the sort of animal that was designed to fly across the country as if it was the wind.
It was sleek and fierce and playful, tossing its head, its mane flickering in the late summer breeze.
And the duke sat atop it as if it was the easiest thing in the entire world.
He was holding the reins lightly in his gloved hand.
His riding hat was perched jauntily over his eye, and his riding clothes hugged him as if they were a second skin.
“He is positively a dream,” gushed Pansy.
“Oh, how I wish I was asleep right now,” Victoria said.
“Not me,” Eileen said. “I’m happy to look at him completely awake and wonder exactly what he wants to do with our Miss Stillbrooke here.”
“Stop it, the three of you,” she gasped, feeling like a governess with her naughty charges, but the truth was she adored having them as friends. She had not allowed herself to have friends in so very long.
The duke thundered towards them. And rather than some Teutonic knight, he looked like grace in motion, combined with sheer power, as he tore down the Row.
Everyone watched him. All the ladies turned and gaped, desperate to be noticed by him. The men watched, envying his horse and the way he sat upon it.
Nancy thrust a bite of cake into her mouth, but it suddenly seemed a pale comparison to the man upon the horse. She had no idea how she was going to survive this. He rode up towards them and paused, his great powerful thigh not far above their eyeline.
“Ladies,” he said, tilting his head down, “are you enjoying your afternoon off?”
“Very much so, Your Grace,” said Eileen.
“Oh yes,” Pansy tittered.
“Quite,” said Victoria. “And you?”
“Oh, I always enjoy myself,” he returned.
“That’s what life is for. All of you look quite well out in the sunshine,” he added.
“I’m glad to see that you’re not walled away in my house for hours upon end.
You have all been working very, very hard.
As a matter of fact, working so hard that I do think that I’m going to establish credit at a dressmaker I know and make certain that each one of you has a new gown made for this month.
I don’t wish to see how you will wear your own gowns to tatters, working as diligently as you do all day long. ”
Victoria, Pansy, and Eileen let out a cry of delight.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” crowed Eileen.
“Very thoughtful of you,” said Pansy.
“A delight,” Victoria said.
“I am not in need of a new gown,” Nancy replied.
“Of course you’re not,” he said merrily. “You don’t need anything except for work, your aspirations, and dedication.”
“That makes me sound like a Puritan,” she replied.
“You’re acting like a Puritan,” he teased. “Take the gift,” he said, “and enjoy it. What am I supposed to do with my money if I don’t spend it?”
She scowled at him, for if she did not scowl, she would swoon! “Spend it on better things than gowns.”
Eileen rammed her in the rib with her elbow. “Gowns are very nice. And besides, he’s giving employment to the seamstresses.”
“There you go,” the duke declared. “She sees the way of it. I like employing all sorts of people, and if I spread my money about, lots of people get to have it.”
She nodded, realizing she was being tart and rather foolish.
But she was afraid at the way her heart was being stolen by every good deed he did, and the kiss they had shared, for she knew that there was nothing manipulative in his deeds.
She’d seen in his soul now. He longed for the world to be better than it was.
So she gave him a curtsy and replied, “I will never stop a good heart, Your Grace.”
His eyes locked with hers. And as their eyes met, her friends fought gaggles of giggles.
Because no matter what she might say or how hard she might resist, she admired him more than any man in the world, and she wished that she could be his. All his.