To Beguile a Beast (7 page)

“I admit it is very distressing, Your Grace, and I do apologize,” Henderson said in his whispery voice. He thumbed through his notebook as if to find the answer for his own incompetence there. “But we must remember that Mrs. Fitzwilliam has no doubt chosen to disguise herself and the children. And, after all, England is a very large place.”

“I’m well aware of how large England is, Henderson. I want results, not excuses.”

“Of course, Your Grace.”

“My resources—my men, money, contacts—should have found her by now.”

Henderson gave several quick birdlike bobs of his head. “Naturally, Your Grace. Of course, we have been able to trace her as far as the road north.”

Lister made one sharp cutting motion with his hand. “That was nearly a week ago. She may’ve laid a false trail, gone west to Wales or Cornwall, or for all we know, caught a ship for the Colonies. No. This is simply unacceptable. If the men we have on her now can’t find her, then hire new ones. Immediately.”

“Quite, Your Grace.” Henderson licked his lips nervously. “I shall see that it is done at once. Now, as to the duchess’s trip to Bath…”

Henderson droned on about Lister’s wife’s travel plans, but the duke hardly listened. He’d been the Duke of Lister since the age of seven; his title was centuries old. He sat in the House of Lords and owned vast estates, mines, and ships. Gentlemen of all ranks respected and feared him. And yet one woman—the daughter of a quack physician, no less!—thought she could simply leave him, and what was more, take his bastard offspring with her.

Unacceptable.
The entire thing was simply unacceptable.

Lister strolled to the tall windows of his study, which were draped in white and black striped silk. He’d have her found, have her and his children brought back, and then he would impress upon her how very, very stupid it was to cross him. No one crossed him and lived to gloat about it.

No one.

The cook was nearly the height of a man, and her face was wide and flat. She was expressionless, but her large reddened hands moved lightly and swiftly as she rolled out pastry on the kitchen table. “Hearth needs sweeping.”

“Ah, yes.” Helen looked nervously at the giant fireplace. She’d been up at the crack of dawn, scrubbing the kitchen as best she could in preparation for the cook, but she hadn’t had time to clean the fireplace. Her back ached terribly now, and her hands were raw from the hot water and harsh lye soap. “I’ll have one of the maids do it, shall I?”

Mrs. McCleod expertly flipped the pastry into a pie plate and began trimming the edges.

Helen swallowed. “Well, I have other matters to attend to. I’ll return in an hour or so to see how you’re getting on, shall I?”

The cook shrugged. She was arranging vegetables and pieces of meat in the pie.

Helen nodded, just to give the appearance that she knew what she was doing, and went into the hallway. There she took out a small notebook and tiny pencil. They’d been the first items she’d bought in Glenlargo yesterday. Opening the notebook, she flipped to the third page and wrote,
clean hearth.
This notation was at the bottom of what was becoming a rather long list that included among other things
air library, clear ivy from windows in sitting room, polish hall floor,
and
find the good silverware.

Helen put away the notebook and pencil, smoothed her hair, and continued on her way to the dining room. This, she’d decided, would be the first room to be completely set to rights in the castle. That way, Sir Beastly could enjoy a properly cooked dinner tonight and, more importantly, realize how very useful it was to have a housekeeper. She hadn’t actually seen the master of the castle all morning. When she’d brought his breakfast to the tower room, he’d yelled through the door to leave it outside. She very much hoped he wasn’t going to sulk in his tower and then throw them all out of the castle in a fit of ill temper tonight. All the more important to have the dining room at least cleaned.

But when Helen rounded the corner into the dining room, the sight that met her eyes was pure chaos. One of the maids was shrieking and covering her head with her apron. The other maid brandished a broom as she chased a bird about the room. Jamie and Abigail were helping the maid with the broom, and the two footmen—young lads from the village—were doubled over with laughter.

For a moment, Helen gaped in horror.
Why?
Why must every single thing be so hard? Then she shook herself. Aching back, difficult servants, filthy castle, it simply didn’t matter.
She
was the one in charge here. If she couldn’t bring order to this scene, no one else would do it. And if she couldn’t bring order, then Sir Alistair would dismiss her and the children in the coming week. It was as simple as that. She hurried to the windows that lined the far wall of the dining room. They were made of ancient diamond-paned glass, and most were immovable, but she found one with a catch and shoved it open.

“Chase it over here,” she called to the maid with the broom.

The girl, a sturdy redhead who obviously had a level head on her shoulders, obediently did so, and several frantic minutes later, the bird found freedom.

Helen slammed the window shut and latched it.

“Now, then.” She turned to her troops and took a breath. “What happened?”

“It came out the chimney!” Jamie exclaimed. He was so excited his hair was on end, and he was quite red in the face. “Nellie was sweeping it”—he pointed to the maid now removing her apron from her face—“and the bird fell down with a heap of soot.”

A large mound of soot and what looked like an ancient bird’s nest lay on the hearth.

“Gave me ever such a turn, mum,” Nellie concurred.

“And then you stood there and yelled like a banshee while it flew about the room.” The red-headed girl had the broom over one shoulder like a musket and her other hand on her hip.

“Oh, will ye now be holdin’ it over me, Meg Campbell, that ye know how to chase a bird with a broom?” Nellie shot back.

The maids started arguing, while the footmen guffawed.

Helen felt a headache begin to pound at her temple. “Enough!”

The cacophony of voices silenced and all eyes turned toward her.

“You”—Helen pointed at the tallest footman—“go to the kitchen and sweep out the fireplace.”

“But that’s a lass’s job,” the boy objected.

“Well, you’re doing it today,” Helen said. “And mind it’s well swept and scrubbed.”

“Aw,” the tall footman groaned, but he went from the room.

Helen turned to the remaining servants. “Meg, come help me polish the dining table. You two”—she gestured to the other maid and the shorter footman—“finish cleaning that chimney. We have to get it clear if we’re to have a fire in here tonight without setting the room ablaze.”

They worked all through the afternoon, cleaning, sweeping, polishing, and even taking the rugs and curtains out to beat them in the wind. By six o’clock, the dining room was as neat as a pin and a fire roared in the fireplace, though it did still smoke a little.

Helen looked about, one hand massaging the ache at the small of her back. What a tremendous chore! She’d never take a housemaid’s work for granted again. At the same time, she couldn’t help a pleased smile spreading over her face. She’d set her mind to it, and she’d done it! Helen thanked the maids and the two rather worn footmen and sent them off to the kitchen for a well-deserved cup of tea.

“What shall we do now, Mama?” Abigail asked. The children had been wonderful workers all afternoon. Even Jamie had helped polish the windows.

Helen smiled at them. “Now we go wash up so that we can properly greet Sir Alistair when he comes down for his supper.”

“And we’ll eat in the dining room with him!” Jamie exclaimed.

Helen felt a pang. “No, dear, we’ll have a lovely supper in the kitchen.”

“But why?” Jamie asked.

“Because Mama’s the housekeeper, and it’s not proper for us to eat with Sir Alistair,” Abigail said. “We’re servants now. We eat in the kitchen.”

Helen nodded. “That’s right. But the meat pie will taste just as good in the kitchen, don’t you think? Now, let’s tidy up, shall we?”

But forty-five minutes later, when Helen and the children again came down the stairs, Sir Alistair was nowhere to be found.

“I think he’s still in his tower,” Abigail said, frowning at the ceiling overhead as if she could see the master of the castle four floors above. “Perhaps he sleeps up there, too.”

Both Helen and Jamie glanced instinctively up at the ceiling. Mrs. McCleod had said that she planned supper for seven o’clock. If Sir Beastly didn’t appear soon, his supper would be cold, and, more importantly, he might offend the only qualified cook for miles and miles.

That decided it. Helen turned to the children. “Darlings, why don’t you go to the kitchen and see if one of the maids can make you tea?”

Abigail looked at her. “But what will you do, Mama?”

Helen straightened her fresh apron. “Fetch Sir Alistair from his den.”

So when the knock interrupted his labors, he was not pleased.

“What?” he growled at the door. It was bolted so a certain female couldn’t just swan in at will.

“Your supper is ready,” she called back.

“Bring it here, then,” he replied absently. Sketching a badger’s nose could be quite difficult.

There was a short silence, and he thought for a moment that she’d gone away.

Then she rattled the doorknob. “Sir Alistair, your supper is laid upon the table downstairs in the dining room.”

“Nonsense,” he shot back. “I’ve seen my dining room. It hasn’t been used in near a decade, and it’s filthy. It’s not fit for man or beast to eat in.”

“I’ve spent all this day cleaning it.”

That gave him pause, and he stared suspiciously at the tower door. Had she really spent the day scrubbing out his dining room? It’d be a Herculean task if so. For a moment, he felt a flicker of guilt.

Then he regained his good sense. “If what you say is true, Mrs. Halifax, and I really have a newly cleaned dining room, I thank you. I’m sure at some point I may even use it. But not tonight. Go away.”

The silence this time stretched for so long that he was convinced she’d gone away. He’d returned to sketching the badger and was working on the difficult bit around the eyes when a great
thump!
shook the door. Alistair’s hand jerked and the pencil tore through the paper.

He scowled at the ruined sketch.

“Sir Alistair.” Mrs. Halifax’s voice came through the door, sounding very much as if she might be gritting her teeth. “Either you come out at once and eat the delicious supper that Mrs. McCleod spent all day cooking in the dining room that I and the other servants spent all day cleaning, or I shall instruct the footmen to break down this door.”

Alistair raised his eyebrows.

“I have scrubbed and polished, beaten and swept all the day long,” Mrs. Halifax continued.

He set his pencil down, rose from his chair, and approached the door.

“And I think it only common courtesy to—” she was saying as he opened the door. She stopped, mouth agape, and looked up at him.

Alistair smiled and leaned a shoulder against the door frame. “Good evening, Mrs. Halifax.”

She started to back up a step but then caught herself, although her wide blue eyes were wary. “Good evening, Sir Alistair.”

He loomed over her to see if she would flee. “I understand you have supper waiting downstairs for me.”

She clutched her hands but stood firm. “Yes.”

“Then I shall be pleased to dine with you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t dine with me. I’m your housekeeper.”

He shrugged and slapped his thigh for Lady Grey. “I dined with you yesterday.”

“But that was in the kitchen!”

“It’s proper for me to eat with you in my kitchen but not in my dining room? Your logic escapes me, Mrs. Halifax.”

“I don’t think—”

Lady Grey passed them and started down the stairs. Alistair gestured for the housekeeper to precede him. “And I expect your children to dine with us as well.”

“Abigail and Jamie?” she asked as if she might have other offspring about the place.

“Yes.”

She was below him on the stairs, but she shot a look over her shoulder that clearly stated that she thought he’d gone mad. And perhaps he had. Children never dined with adults, at least not in his level of society.

His beautiful housekeeper was still protesting when they made the hall outside the dining room, although Alistair was fairly sure she’d given up the idea of dining in the kitchen by then. Her objections were merely stubbornness now.

He nodded to the children when he saw them hovering in the hall. “Shall we go in?”

Jamie readily ran into the dining room, but Abigail frowned and glanced to her mother for guidance.

Mrs. Halifax pursed her lips, looking uncommonly disapproving for such a lovely woman. “We’re to eat with Sir Alistair tonight. But this will be the only time.”

Alistair took her arm firmly, leading her into the dining room. “On the contrary, I expect you and the children to dine with me every night that you stay in Castle Greaves.”

“Huzzah!” yelled the boy. He had already found a place at the table.

“You can’t!” hissed Mrs. Halifax.

“It is my castle, madam. Allow me to remind you that I do here as I please.”

“But the other servants will think… will think…”

He looked down at her. Her harebell-blue eyes were wide and pleading, and perhaps he should’ve taken pity on her.

But he didn’t. “They’ll think what?”

“That I am your mistress.”

Her lips were red and parted, her hair smooth and golden, the skin of her neck and breast so white and pure it might’ve been made from the wings of doves.

The irony was enough to kill him.

His mouth twisted. “Madam, I care not what others think, about me or anyone else. I should’ve thought that was obvious by now. You may either leave my castle this very night, or you may stay and dine with me tonight and every evening henceforth. It’s your choice alone.”

Alistair pulled out her chair with a thump and watched to see if worry for her own reputation would finally drive her away.

She inhaled, her sweet bosom swelling above the square-cut neckline of her dress. She’d left off the fichu tonight, and he damned the loss. Yards of creamy skin seemed to be revealed in the fichu’s absence. He could feel the blood rushing through his veins, pounding to that most earthly part of him.

“I’ll stay.” She lowered herself to the chair he held.

He gently pushed it in for her and bowed over her golden head. “I am filled with joy.”