The Duke Wrote Ten Rules for the Wife He Would Choose — She Broke Every One Before the Hunt Ball
Chapter 4
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The fodder book lay open on the high desk:Oats, hay, and beans for 40 hunters at 13 shillings a head per week.Forty."Miss Penrose."She did not jump. She closed the ledger and turned round. The Duke stood on the threshold in his mud-splashed coat."You are in my estate office.""I am, Your Grace.""The sixth rule.""I know which rule it is."She waited for him to send for her aunt. He came in, pulled the only chair in the room nearer the fire, and held it for her. Rosamund looked at the chair for a long moment. Then she sat."You have 28 hunters," she said."I have.""Your bailiff is buying fodder for 40."The Duke went very still. "Explain.""13 shillings a head, Your Grace, for 12 horses that do not exist. £7, 16 shillings every week. £405, 12 shillings a year. The book goes back three years.""You did that in your head?""My father kept the parish accounts. I kept them for him after his eyes failed.""Mr. Godwin has been my bailiff for six years.""Then he has had six years to learn how seldom you read his books."She had meant it as a fact; it came out as an insult. The Duke looked at the ledger and then at her."Can you go through the rest of them? Every book in this room before the hunt ball?""Why would you ask me?""Because you have found more in a quarter of an hour than my man of business has found in three years. I will pay you as I would pay him.""Then we should be clear," said Rosamund. "You have rules; I have terms."Something moved at the corner of his mouth and was gone. "Name them.""I am paid in coin into my own hand, not to my aunt.""Done.""My name is kept out of it. If Mr. Godwin is dismissed, you found him, not I.""Done.""And you will not pretend I am a guest you wished for. I am here to stand behind my cousin. I do not want to be thanked as if I were anything else.""Now mine," said the Duke. "You will tell me the truth about every figure, however it reflects on me.""I have never flattered anything in my life.""I had noticed. And I want this house party over, Miss Penrose. I am not looking for a wife; I would ask you not to think I am.""I assure you, Your Grace, I had not once thought it.""40 guineas for every book in this room."For every book in this room. It was more money than she had held in eight years; she did not let him see that. She held out her hand, as a man would, to close the bargain. After a moment, he took it. She felt only relief: no courtship, no compliments, no dance of fans and glances—only a ledger, a sum, and a man who did not want her for a wife.The second rule, she reflected on the stairs, was that she should not speak of money.She worked in the estate office every morning after that, from 7:00 until the house woke. The Duke never once came in while she was there; he left a fire burning instead, every morning before he rode.