Lady March winked at her.“My husband says that they’re already taking bets at Whites if you’ll accept the Duke of Sunderland.He says that half the gentlemen of thetonhave wagered on it.”
Finding it hard to breathe and even harder to be civil, Mantheria bowed her head.“I am rather thirsty, if you’ll excuse me, ladies.”
She turned abruptly and walked away so that she didn’t have to hear them speak once again or ask any more embarrassing questions.Mantheria walked to the punch table and accepted a glass from one of the footmen.She drained it in one gulp.There was a strange tingling in her chest, and she found it difficult to get enough air when she breathed.
“I am nearly as thirsty as you,” Becca said, coming to her side and taking a glass of punch.She sipped it daintily.Her cheeks were rosy, and her blue eyes sparkled with happiness.Her gown was celestial blue and flattered her fuller figure.Mantheria felt another pang of regret, for she had tried to steal this moment from her sister—or rather, tried to push a different suitor than whom Becca wanted.
Mantheria handed the empty cup back to the servant and turned to look at her happy little sister.“You are truly the belle of the ball, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen you happier or more beautiful.You are perfect just as you are.”
Her little sister set down her own glass and surprised Mantheria by pulling her into a tight hug.“So are you.Maybe it’s time for you to leave the chrysalis and fly, sister.You weren’t meant to crawl on the ground, but to be a butterfly.The entire sky is waiting for you.”
Mantheria could only be relieved that at least Becca hadn’t mentioned Sunny by name.She returned the embrace and then stepped back.“You’re right.”
Becca winked at her.“It’s a family failing.”
* * *
Mantheria leftthe ball early that morning without bothering to say goodbye to any of the members of her family.She didn’t wish to hear any more lectures about Sunny.She would send them all a note explaining that she and Andrew were off to Avalon Palace.Mantheria would see her family soon enough at Hampford Castle for her sister’s wedding.
It was not quite six o’clock in the morning, but Mantheria asked for her newly repaired traveling carriage to be ready within an hour with the two outriders and a second carriage for the servants.
Then, still in her black silk ball gown, she went up the stairs to the nursery and woke up Andrew.
Sitting up in his bed, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.“Is something wrong, Mama?”
“Roman soldiers do not sleep in,” Mantheria said, trying hard not to smile and failing miserably.“We must begin our training at once.”
He wrapped his arms around her neck.“Does this mean we are going home today?”
Mantheria’s heart filled with rare joy.“It does.As soon as we both change our clothes and eat our breakfast.”
Andrew hopped out of bed and moved toward his wardrobe, then stopped abruptly.“I liked visiting Cressy yesterday.I’ve missed her a lot.Can we ask her to come visit us at Avalon Palace?”
This time, Mantheria did not hesitate.“Of course.You can write her a letter, and I will formally issue the invitation.Hopefully, by the time she arrives, we will have improved our fencing skills.”
Her son grinned up at her.The top of his head was already at her shoulders, and soon, he would be taller than her.Perhaps too old to play anymore.She would not waste another day being proper.
22
Sunny had never before done physical labor.His back hurt, and sweat covered his face.He couldn’t say that he enjoyed it, but he had learned a great deal from helping his tenant farmers sow their fields.And for the first time in his lifetime, Sunny had planted wheat, barley, and corn on the home farm of his estate.The fields had been left fallow for decades, and it had taken a lot of hard work and sweat to make them ready for seeding.It had taken weeks to prepare the ground.He’d hired local hands, but he’d toiled along with them by digging, pulling weeds, throwing stones, and tilling.He’d even taken orders and directions from farmers and laborers.
Rubbing his calloused fingers, Sunny felt inordinately proud of himself and his dirty hands.They were not a gentleman’s or a duke’s hands; they were the hands of a man who had worked hard.
His tenants were no longer figures in his bank ledger, but rather names and faces.Sunny would never admit it to Wick, but his friend had been right.An absent landlord was a bad one.After visiting each tenant, Sunny realized that all their cottages were in disrepair and needed new roofs.Something that his steward, who was interested only in making money, had not mentioned.
Nor had Sunny realized how higgledy-piggledy the tenant farms were laid out and had been since the land enclosures from two centuries before.The farms were oddly shaped, and sometimes a tenant had one field in a separate area from another field, passing by other tenants’ farms.There was no reason or sense to the arrangement.Sunny had called for a meeting with all his tenants, and together, they had realigned the rented fields based on proximity to tenant cottages and straighter lines for plows.He was careful to make certain that no one lost land or value based on the changes.Every tenant approved and signed the new estate maps and closer fields.Sunny didn’t know that the improvements would necessarily mean more money for himself or the estate, but they would make the lives of his tenant farmers much easier.
Lifting off his hat, Sunny wiped the sweat from his brow.He’d rested on his laurels long enough.The new roof on the Boon cottage was not going to build itself.He picked up a stack of slate tiles and carried them up the ladder to where the workers were on the roof.
“We thought ye’d gone and fallen asleep, Yer Grace,” one of them said with a cheeky smile.
“I nearly did, John, but I knew that if I started snoring, you would, too.”
All the workers laughed as Sunny set down another stack of tiles on the edge of the roof.Then he climbed back down the ladder and went for another stack.
Working all day until he was too exhausted to move had helped Sunny adjust to his new, hardworking lifestyle in his austere home.He’d hoped removing all the black curtains would make Sunderland House feel more like a home.Unfortunately, the additional light merely highlighted how shabby the furnishings and floor coverings were.Sunny had no idea how to make his dilapidated, ancient house into a modern residence.Nor did he have a great deal of funds to refurnish it.Again, he felt the disparity between his fortunes and Mantheria’s.He wished that he were as wealthy as her first husband had been.
Picking up the next stack of roof tiles, Sunny mused that at least now he had done something about it.He was working to improve his estate rather than being content to let it remain as it always had been.Like Wick had told him to do, Sunny was putting his blood, sweat, and tears into the land and making it his.Slowly, he climbed the ladder again and took the roof tiles off his shoulder, placing them on the edge.