Beth did as he suggested and approached the heavily laden sideboard. She felt bad to see so much food that would obviously go to waste since she could feel her belly starting to tighten up with nerves again due to the earl’s presence. Despite his outward display of congeniality, she was unsure how best to behave in his presence. She was torn between truly being herself and behaving the way her father had always insisted upon. He expected such subservient behaviour from his wife and daughter and had reacted violently whenever they had breached his many varied rules. Beth had yet to witness the earl in anything but a steady mood, but she was convinced it was only a matter of time before she did something to bring his ire upon herself.
Her indecision and returning uneasiness obviously showed as she hovered over the serving dishes. Justin sighed quietly, realizing his presence was disturbing his new countess. What an odd predicament, he thought to himself, if he could not even spend time in his new wife’s presence. But the poor girl needed to eat; she was already as thin as a waif. So, he didn’t bother resuming his seat since he had stood upon her arrival.
“My lady, I shall leave you to your repast. I have some urgent matters I must attend to this morning. I have asked Mrs. Potts to show you around when you are ready. That will give you an opportunity to get to know the housekeeper and the layout of the house. The two of you can best work out how you should proceed together.” He paused for a moment to await her reaction. When all she did was nod, he assumed it was in agreement and he continued. “If you would be comfortable with the idea, we could go out for a ride around the park this afternoon and make a start on our own plans for the future.”
He almost despaired when he saw her pale when he suggested a ride, thinking she was dreading his presence. But then he remembered her obvious lack of equestrian experience and hurried to elaborate on the plan. He didn’t want to embarrass her so did his best to put her at ease.
“I don’t know about you, but two full days in the saddle is quite enough for me. If you agree to an excursion in the park, we shall be sure to take a carriage,” he concluded with a pleasant smile, hoping to share an inside joke with her.
He was gratified to be rewarded by colour returning to her pale cheeks. She still looked a bit wary at the idea of spending time with him, but she shyly agreed to his plans. “Thank you, my lord, that should be pleasant,” she stated politely before inquiring, “At what time should I be ready?”
“Would three o’clock be good for you?” he asked.
“That would be fine.”
Justin was still a bit saddened by how polite and proper it all was. They were husband and wife now! He wished there were some way they could be at ease. Seeing that she had still not taken a bite of her food, he stifled the heavy sigh he wanted to utter and forced himself to leave her for a time. Reminding himself that she didn’t know him at all and obviously, time would be needed for her to warm up to him helped him see that he shouldn’t rush things. He couldn’t force her to like him. Justin bade her good day and left the room with a promise of seeing her later. Refusing to dwell on his worries, he had things to accomplish before he met up with her again later.
Chapter Five
Once he was gone, with a guilty sigh of relief, Beth felt the knots of her nerves loosen marginally and she was finally able to enjoy the excellent meal before her. She looked around the room with interest. Realizing she had yet to take much notice of any aspect of the house, she decided to hurry and finish so she could get on with the tour Mrs. Potts was going to give her.
The housekeeper must have read her mind because she bustled into the quiet room just as Beth was finishing. “Good morning, my lady. I’m happy to see you looking none the worse for wear this morning. We didn’t get properly acquainted last night. I’m Mrs. Potts, in case you don’t remember. I have to say, I don’t rightly know what the master was thinking to bring you all the way home bouncing around on the back of a horse. Wearing you out for no good reason, that’s what I say. But then men rarely make any sense, now do they, dearie? I’m right glad that the master has finally seen fit to bring home a wife, though, that I am. We are going to get along just fine you and me. Are you finished with your eating? His lordship said as how you didn’t get to see the place last night, I could show you around this morning and we could get ourselves acquainted in the process. I told him it was the first sense he was making in days, as far as I could tell.” As she chattered away in such friendly tones, she went around the room straightening things up in the tidy chamber, then she pulled out Beth’s chair for her and ushered her from the room.
Beth felt a bit as though she were in a whirlwind but found herself relaxing in the older woman’s friendly presence. Mrs. Potts was of an age with Beth’s own dear Molly and their manner was similar, so it put the new, young countess at her ease as she was bustled toward the front of the house with the housekeeper barely stopping for breath as she continued to chatter. Beth knew there was much she would need to learn and her best option would be to take in all she could from the experienced older woman, who had been with the family for decades, as she was now telling her new mistress.
“I was pretty much born into the service of the Earl of Westfield, milady. I grew up on a tenant farm on his lordship’s country estate. His lordship’s grandfather was the earl then. Quite a nice gent he was. The master takes after him the most, I should say. Pretty much raised his grandchildren when they were really little before he passed on and the master’s father became the earl.”
Beth found it a bit hard to follow, which earl was which as Mrs. Potts reminisced, but she was pretty sure when the housekeeper was referring to the master she was speaking of Justin, the current earl. She continued listening in fascination.
“He was a real piece of work, that earl was. Hard man to work for, that’s for sure. But he almost never came down to Westfield, choosing to spend nearly all his time here in the City, so it wasn’t too bad for me, as I was a new maid in the house out there. My mama’s sister was the housekeeper there then, and she made sure I got trained up proper. When the master became the earl at such a young age, he brought me with him when he came up to London to take over things here.”
Mrs. Potts sailed through the house as she continued to talk. “Here we are, my dear. You’ll see this is a well-appointed house. While much smaller than Westfield, or his lordship’s other estates, or even the houses of some of the other earls in Town, this house is so wonderfully laid out and set up that you can be quite proud of it. The Countess of Greystoke might try to tell you otherwise, my cousin Bertha is the housekeeper over there, but she’s just jealous if you ask me. Their house is drafty according to Bertha and some of their fireplaces smoke!” she declared, quite aghast at the thought. “And really, she chose puce as the colour for her receiving rooms. I ask you! Puce! Who could even imagine? Now look here, my lady, you’ll have to agree that you’ve never seen such a lovely room as this. And with your colouring, you will look absolutely charming as you receive your guests here on your at-home days. It is just so exciting for us to have a lady in residence, my lady. Now, I think you’ll agree that everything in here is in quite good repair. We just replaced the draperies last year, and we try to keep it all as fresh as possible. But his lordship said if there was anything you wanted to change you was to just say the word, and we were to see to it.”
Beth was surprised by this generous offer, although the earl hadn’t said it to her personally, but she felt inadequately prepared to tackle a decoration project and was deeply relieved to see it was not required. As she went around the room gently fingering the different fabrics and examining the finer details, she knew, despite her inexperience, that no expense had been spared and it was no doubt in the first stare of fashion. She loved the beautiful shade of green that had been chosen and felt everything had been well coordinated. Despite her lack of knowledge, she had an eye for colour and knew she would be proud to call this room her own. The strikingly attractive fireplace was a particular feature of t
he room. Beth wanted to stare all day at it to take in the wonderful contrast where the white marble had been carved out and in filled with decorative, coloured marble. The varying hues had been continued throughout the room in the fabrics and other decorative items to a breath-taking effect. She smiled, too, at seeing that nothing was worn. She had forgotten what that looked like since everything at home was in desperate need of being replaced.
Mrs. Potts beamed with pleasure as Beth turned to her and said, “You are quite correct, Mrs. Potts, this room is absolutely charming. I will enjoy the use of this room, should I ever have callers to entertain.”
“Should you ever?” Mrs. Potts queried, incredulous. “Dearie, you are going to be so popular you won’t know where to look. Imagine! The Earl of Westfield has finally taken a bride, and such a pretty young thing as you. You can be sure the knocker will hardly rest over the next while with everyone wanting to get a look at you. And I’m sure, once they get to know you, they’ll be back to enjoy your sweet company.”
Beth didn’t know what to make of this statement and blushed prettily, but she need not have worried about how to reply since Mrs. Potts just kept right on chattering.
“Now, dearie, if you’ve looked your fill of this room let’s be moving on. There’s plenty of house to see and we’ll be running out of day before his lordship is back and ready to take you for a nice ride in the Park.”
With that, they continued on their tour. Through the next couple of hours they poked around every nook and cranny of the entire house. The new, young countess tried to hide her surprise over how vast the house was despite Mrs. Potts’ assurances that this was far from one of the grandest houses in the neighbourhood. It seemed there was a never-ending variety of rooms. She supposed she had never given it much thought since she had really never expected to see London, but she would have imagined that space would be at a premium here in the big city and there wouldn’t be room for such elaborate houses. But she would have been wrong to suppose such. Clearly there was space enough, and she was beginning to see that her new husband must be a very wealthy man to have such a big, beautiful home, which had been obviously kept up to date.
She could hardly keep from staring at all the beauty of the house. The wide entrance with the grand staircase and its beautifully turned wooden balusters and carved handrails curving around the newel posts must have taken days, maybe even weeks to install. And even the ceiling was decorated in this area with a wonderful coloured pattern that complemented the few small paintings artfully hanging on the walls. Beth appreciated that it was the pleasant older housekeeper giving her this tour and not her unbearably sophisticated and handsome husband. She couldn’t abide him seeing her chin drop as the door was opened to each subsequent room. She was grateful when they were finally in simpler quarters when they even looked into the servants’ rooms and the attics.
Mrs. Potts was very thorough in showing her new mistress everything that would now be her domain. Beth was impressed with how clean and well maintained everything was and freely praised the housekeeper for her hand in making it so.
Mrs. Potts was impressed in turn with the detailed questions the new countess had asked and some of the suggestions she had made with regards to more efficiently running the household, but she was taken aback at her various ideas to cut back on costs. She wasn’t sure what to make of some of the lady’s suggestions. When they had gotten to the vast closet that held all the various linens required for an establishment of this size, Beth couldn’t prevent her eyes from widening into saucers at the seemingly decadent display. The housekeeper had been hoping to get many of the sheets and towels replaced as they were beginning to show some wear. Beth had exclaimed in dismay.
“Oh no, Mrs. Potts, why would we replace them? All they need is a slight repair and they shall be as good as new. You just pull out which things you think should be repaired, and I will be quite happy to fix them up. I am quite skilled at such things,” she concluded with a small note of pride in her soft voice.
“You, milady?” Mrs. Potts was shocked. Never had she known of a countess that could or would do the household mending.
“Why, of course, Mrs. Potts, who else?” Beth thought it quite the thing for her to be doing since she and her mother had always seen to such things, and in their house nothing was in such good shape as it was here, so there had always been lots of repairs of that sort to be done. The new countess had an abundance of experience in this regard and felt no trepidation at the task she offered to take on, especially seeing as there was barely anything in need of repair.
Mrs. Potts felt some bewilderment and couldn’t help her disappointment over her hopes of updating the linens, but figured it would be time enough later if her ladyship found the task too great. If worse came to worst, she could always bring it to the earl’s attention if need be, she reasoned. When all was considered, she was quite pleased with her new mistress and decided to overlook the oddity of the lady’s strange frugality. They went off to enjoy a quick cup of tea together quite in harmony with one another before the countess had to run off to prepare for her excursion in the park with her husband.
“Doesn’t she realize his lordship is as rich as Croesus?” Mrs. Potts was asking Mr. Potts, the butler, later that afternoon as they discussed things together over another cup of tea. “I didn’t know where to look when she was sitting there as pleased as punch saying it might be better to have fewer candles burning in the dining room. I ask you, Mr. Potts, what would his lordship think if we were to light fewer candles? He’d think we’d lost our minds, that’s what he’d think,” she answered herself. She paused before offering her conclusion. “Well, she is a sweet little thing, that I can tell you for all her funny ways, and I’m sure she’ll make his lordship a fine wife. And no doubt she’ll soon grow quite accustomed to spending his lordship’s money and won’t have such odd ideas. It’s obvious she doesn’t come from a moneyed background, despite her nice manners. Sally was telling me that all her gowns show signs of alterations. She says they are excellently done, but still, it’s hard to believe our master’s wife having gowns that have been turned!” She gave a sigh over the strangeness of it all. “We’ll just have to keep an eye out for her, you and I, husband, to help her know how to go on. His lordship might not think of some of these things, you know.”
Mr. Potts wasn’t too sure how they could help the countess know how to go on, but he agreed pleasantly and allowed the housekeeper’s chatter to continue to wash over him.
Chapter Six
Meanwhile, Beth was once again in her dressing room faced with the dilemma of what to wear. After only one day spent in the earl’s beautiful home, she had realized just how dreadfully shabby the old manor house she grew up in really was. And she thought the word shabby also extended well to her own appearance, unfortunately. Some of the drapes in this house are nicer than most of my gowns, she thought glumly as she gazed at the various frocks Sally had hung up for her.
Just then Sally strolled into the room with her hands full. “Oh, m’lady, it’s right glad I am to see you. Look what I got from Sue next door,” Sally exclaimed as she held out to her mistress stacks of paper.
“Who is Sue?” was Beth’s first question as her eyes widened to discover Sally held an array of fashion plates — and they appeared to be up to the minute, the first stare of fashionable style, unlike the ones she and her mother used to pour over, which were sometimes ten to fifteen years out of date. “How did you get these, Sally? This is wonderful!” And she impulsively gave the young maid a quick hug.
Sally was gratified at the display of affection but shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Sue is the lady’s maid next door. She’s a great gal, not at all hoity-toity like some that think being a servant above stairs make them better than most. Her lady is forever shopping, getting new clothes and discarding old ones, sometimes even before she ever wears it, if you can even imagine such a thing.”
Beth marvelled at all she was learning that day. No
t only had Lord Fulton been correct when he said her maid would be elevated in status, look what she had just said about other servants being ‘hoity-toity.’ But Beth’s head was also whirling at the amount of waste she was finding out about amongst High Society. It made her heart constrict to think of such senselessness. But she pushed those thoughts from her mind for the moment and snatched up the fashion papers.
“Sally, we shall have to figure out how to make me fashionable very quickly. Lord Fulton is taking me for a ride in the park this afternoon, and I have no idea what I should wear. I was thinking the riding habit I wore here might be fine since some will be on horseback, but we shall be in a carriage, so maybe that isn’t right. What do you think?”
Sally was delighted to be thus applied to by her beautiful young mistress. Thankfully the kind Sue from next door had been generous in her information, and Sally felt quite prepared to guide her ladyship through the perils of how to prepare for the afternoon in her husband’s exalted company, despite their limited resources.
“You’ll have to speak to his lordship about getting in to see a dress maker, milady,” concluded Sally as she was finishing up tidying the countess’ hair. It had been set in a simple but elegant style earlier that morning and merely needed a couple pins to secure what was trying to escape its confines.
“Oh, no, I do not think I could.” Beth trembled at the mere thought. She was quite sure her father had somehow managed to extort quite a large sum of money from the earl in order to arrange the marriage, and she was determined not to be an additional financial burden on her new husband after this. Remembering how her father had always reacted whenever she or her mother had needed new clothes made her grow pale, and she was sure the earl would feel similarly. But then she remembered that her father also expected them to be turned out to his credit and realized it would likely shame the earl for his wife to be such a dowd. It tied her stomach in knots at the contradiction of it all, and she really didn’t know what to do. But one more problem presented itself.
The Debutante Bride: A Sweet Regency Romance (Ladies of Mayfair) Page 5