Page 26 of A Lyon’s Lesson

He sipped his coffee and resumed eating. “I expect after that I’ll be closeted with this steward fellow for most of the day. What plans have you?”

“The first thing is to employ more servants. The house, what I’ve seen of it so far, is very neglected. It is going to take a small army to set it to rights.”

He nodded approvingly. “Yes, I’ll be doing the same with the outdoor servants. The whole place has been let go to rack.” He frowned. “Hendrix seemed to imply this was by your uncle’s orders, but I didn’t get that impression from him. Did he ever say anything to you about it?”

She shook her head. “Uncle Seb didn’t believe that females were equipped to deal with such things. Whenever I enquired about anything to do with the estate, he told me not to bother my head with it.” She compressed her lips. It would be disrespectful to say what she thought of that!

“I shall be asking some probing questions of this Falconbridge fellow when I meet him.” Rick cut into a sausage with determination just as the door opened and Hendrix senior appeared.

“Excuse me my lord, my lady, but I have just received some news that I felt you would wish to be apprised of immediately.”

Rick raised an eyebrow and swallowed his mouthful of sausage. “What is it, Hendrix?”

“I regret to inform you, my lord, that Mr. Falconbridge will not be able to meet with you today. Or any day.” Cecey’s heart skipped a beat at this news, as Rick voiced her own thought.

“Good God, is he dead?”

“I don’t believe so, my lord. I have it on good authority that he took a ship to the Americas last week. We were only apprised of this situation this morning.”

Rick’s deep dismay at these words was palpable. “Did Mr. Falconbridge keep ledgers?”

“I believe so, my lord. He worked from a room in the house referred to as the office. Whatever records there are will be there.” Cecey frowned. None of this was good news. What else remained to be revealed?

“Very well, thank you.”

Hendrix bowed. “Would you care for some more coffee or tea?”

Rick shook his head, and Cecey said, “No, thank you. Please send Mrs. Hendrix up when she is free. I would like a tour of the house and to discuss recruiting additional servants.”

“As you wish, my lady.” He bowed and left the room, and Rick let out a disgruntled sigh.

“Damn! This essentially confirms what I had already suspected. It would seem Falconbridge has been defrauding the estate. The minute he got wind of us coming, he absconded.”

“How can you be certain?” Cecey privately agreed this seemed the most obvious explanation, but could there be another?

“Well, look at the place!” Rick flung up an arm. “I think it is fairly evident that the money that should have been spent on the upkeep of the house itself has been funneled into Falconbridge’s own pockets. And because your uncle never came here to check what was happening, he’s been able to get away with it for years. Damn!” he said again. “I shall have to get another steward, but that will take time, and it is obvious that there is a lot of work to be done to set the place to rights.”

Cecey nodded, an odd sort of elation seizing her. This was an opportunity perhaps? “Indeed, there is. But—” she smiled tentatively, “we can do it together, can we not?” She held her breath waiting for his response.

He smiled ruefully. “Yes, I suppose so. If I weren’t so at outs with Robert I’d write and ask for his advice, but damn it, I don’t want to. We’ll have to figure it out together.”

His words sent a warm flush through her chest, and she smiled more broadly.

Just then, Mrs. Hendrix appeared for the promised tour of the house.

Chapter 14

After a tour of the house with Mrs. Hendrix, Rick left Cecelia in the older woman’s company to repair to the room on the ground floor that Hendrix had designated the office. He had inspected it briefly during the tour. The room was square and dominated by a large desk. Behind it, a bookcase was stuffed with books on agriculture and a row of ledgers. A fire had been lit to offset the morning chill, and the room was clean and smelled of beeswax polish, suggesting that it was one of the rooms that had been in fairly constant use, something that couldn’t be said of many of the unused rooms in the house, which had clearly lain empty for a long time. Cecelia would have quite a task ahead of her to bring the house back to its original state.

He looked about the room and spied a shelf of large leather-bound tomes. Taking a breath and straightening his shoulders he approached the desk, took one of the volumes off the shelf and sat down to read.

He had been staring at meaningless columns of figures for what seemed like an eon when Hendrix appeared in the doorway.

“My lord, Mr. Baines is here to see you.”

“Baines?”

“Mr. Baines is your largest tenant landholder, my lord.”