“Helt, inform the coachman to prepare my carriage. We are going to The Blossom Court,” Donald said with a sense of resignation.
“Shall I tell the coachman that you will be stopping at Lord Thetmont’s Estate as well?” Helt asked while moving to set out dinner night clothes for his Lord.
“No, I am visiting for wedding-related reasons. No planned socializing, so you should still have the cook prepare dinner.”
“Very good, My Lord,” Helt said as he made his way to inform the staff.
* * *
Donald was nothing short of startled when he saw none other than the Duke of Castron sitting at Donald’s table as he made his way through the dining area.
Donald stopped short, “Your Grace,” he said with a deep bow, “You honor our humble club with your presence.”
“Lord Stapleton,” the Duke rose with surprising litheness considering he was in his early fifties. “I must thank you for your recommendation to The Blossom Court, it is certainly one of the most beautifully bedecked clubs I have seen.”
“Your ball was so splendidly accented by some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. I knew only a true fan of the well-accomplished garden could commit as much to such beauty. Each one of your bouquets told a different story.”
The Duke smiled in satisfaction. “I am so glad you noticed. Someone has to appreciate all of my hard work. Tell me, are you a veteran member of this establishment?”
“Just hit my three-year mark a few months ago,” Donald said proudly. “I was actually on my way to the council room to discuss floral arrangements.”
“Floral arrangements? I dare say I can’t imagine your club house doing much better than they are already,” the Duke said while looking all around.
“No, I don’t have a say in the club’s look, sadly. I was hoping one of the members who is an expert florist would be able to help me come up with some proper arrangements for my wedding,” Donald clarified.
“Oh, you are engaged? Congratulations, My Lord. I am sure I will hear about it in the paper.” The Duke of Castron was thoughtful for a moment. “I have a proposition for you, Lord Stapleton.”
“A proposition?”
“Yes. If you would be willing to sponsor my membership into this prestigious organization, then I would be willing to work with my top-tier supplier and floral coordinator to provide you with more than sufficient arrangements.”
Donald was floored. “Your Grace, I am not inclined to reject your proposal, and I mean no offense by this, but I am surprised.”
“What surprises you so, My Lord?” the Duke asked.
“Well, that you would be so inclined to join The Blossom Court. As a Duke there are many more influential and powerful clubs you could join. As a Marquess, my membership here is controversial enough. You are going to astound the membership with your desire to join,” Donald explained.
“The bigger clubs have enough political power. It’s boring when it’s all in one place. Nothing changes. Most of their members are too young to be afraid to shake things up. You are young and exciting aren’t you, My Lord?” the Duke asked while looking him over.
“I assure you, Your Grace, you will never meet a less exciting person.”
“Well,” the Duke of Castron clucked, “even if that is true, I will still honor my previous proposal. Your nomination for my expertise? Do we have a deal?”
“Of course, I apologize, Your Grace. Of course I would be more than happy to suggest you for nomination without a need for any reciprocation. Your desire for membership alone is enough,” Donald protested.
“Do you take me for a fool, Lord Stapleton? If you agree to do me a favor for nothing then I am in your debt,” the Duke scoffed. “I put myself in debt to no one, be they gentleman, tradesman, or urchin. You will accept my aid for your wedding, I insist.”
“Thank you, Your Grace. I am truly grateful,” Donald bowed deeply. And Donald was. To have the flower arrangements made by the same gentleman who had done them on the night they realized they were in love. It was simply too fortuitous.
“Now when is this wedding of yours?” The Duke inquired. “I need to know what sort of timeline I am working with.”
“We are leaving for the wedding in one month’s time.”
“A month. I thought it be much sooner than that. Perhaps I am getting too old. The Duchess and I were married a week after I proposed. Damn it all, now you have me waxing into daydream.” The Duke needlessly straightened his coat. “I am going to ask your leave so that I may get in touch with the proper channels and start working on the arrangements for you.”
Donald bowed again. “Of course, Your Grace. And again thank you.”
“Think nothing of it, Lord Stapleton,” he said as he took his leave.
Donald was overjoyed as he made his way to the council room. His needs may have changed but he still had business in there. If the Duke thought the common and dining areas of the The Blossom Court impressive, Donald couldn’t wait until he got the chance to see the council room. The members saved some of the most impressive specimens of beautiful blooming flowers for there.
“Lord Havorn, just the person who I was looking for!” Donald exclaimed as soon as he saw the veteran member of the club.
Lord Havorn was one of the founding members of The Blossom Court, as it wasn’t an extremely old organization, and thus was the one required to consult for club business. He was the owner of the largest flower fields in all of England and arguably beyond.
“Eh,” the Lord asked, notoriously hard of hearing. “Oh, Lord Stapleton! So good to see you,” he said while peering at him through a thick monocle he wore around his neck. Lord Havorn was easily the oldest man Donald knew personally.
“I have a nomination for membership,” Donald exclaimed.
“You do? Mind you, we don’t usually have our newer members make nominations, but I suppose there is no rule against it,” the older lord sputtered.
“I believe the other members will be happy to hear of this, though. The Duke of Castron seeks to be a member of The Blossom Court.”
Lord Havorn looked at Donald sourly. “We don’t take kindly to joke nominations, Lord Stapleton. I know you and Lord Thetmont are some of our younger members, but I assure you this is an institution with a serious reputation.”
“I assure you, My Lord, this is no joke. I was just speaking with the Duke personally and he expressed an interest in joining, so I told him that I would put him forward to become a member.” A small, uncharacteristic hint of smugness shined through as he spoke. Donald thought jovially that he must have picked up some bad habits from Matthew.
“Is this for real? Oh my, what an excellent addition he will make to the club. We might even have a little bit of notoriety circling by next season. Interesting indeed! I’ll make sure to put his name on the next meeting docket and send him a message to invite him.” Lord Havorn spoke excitedly, his mind seeming to have caught up with the possibilities.
“I am sure he will be glad to know that his membership is highly anticipated.”
“Of course we will still have to vote,” Lord Havorn caught himself.
“I would think he might take offense if we proposed to treat him in any other fashion than a typical member,” Donald continued. “If you will be busy with that, then I will take my leave.”
He had no sooner turned around before he was intercepted by one of Matthew’s footmen.
“A moment, Lord Stapleton, I have a message that Lord Thetmont left with me to give to you.”
“A message?”
“Yes, My Lord. Lord Thetmont did express that it was a business emergency that he needed to make you aware of.” The footman said as he removed the finely folded note from his person and handed it to Donald.
Donald unfolded the note and found a single message, hastily scrawled.
Donald,
Shipment of furs we could get from America has come into port today. Apparent issues with quality. I am going to spea
k with Captain Todd. I expect you will come as soon as you are able.
Matthew
Before the footman could excuse himself, Donald had raced out of the club to have his coachman take him to the dock as fast as possible.
* * *
Captain Todd stood on the dock next to his ship, The Bright Side, and appeared to be finishing up some work with a small handful of crewmen. The full crew of the mighty trading ship was not present, the majority of work having been finished for the day and gone to spend their leave as sailors do.
“Ah, M’Lord,” Captain Todd said with his customary nod, “Lord Thetmont said you would be stopping by soon. He is already down in the hold. You two made it just in time, as I was just about to return to my home, as it has surely gone neglected without me these last few months.” The Captain’s tired tone indicated to Donald that he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, but Donald planned on taking as long as he would need to inspect the cargo, as was his duty as the owner of the business.
“Matthew mentioned some sort of issue with the shipment?” Donald asked.
“Issue? I suppose so. Technically the shipment is exactly what you would expect from furs in America now.” The Captain remarked, “I suppose you’d be wanting to see it all the same?”
“I would, yes,” Donald insisted.
“Right this way then, M’Lord.” And with that, Captain Todd turned and led him through the ship into its storage areas.
It took Donald a good while for his eyes to adjust to the dark interior of the ship, but when he finally did, what he saw made his heart drop. The crates hadn’t even been opened yet and already Donald was desperately concerned by their pitiful number. If the crates they had were of concerning quality, then they certainly were in quite a bit of trouble.
The Captain had his first mate, a rather short but stockily built man, pry open one of the boxes. Inside, even in the dim light, Donald could already see the issues. What furs had come from America were thin and discolored as if the animal they had come from had been ill. And those were the highest quality ones Donald could see. He even glimpsed a few that were patchy and barely passable as furs that would sell.
“Bloody hell.” Donald whispered to himself and turned away from the furs, rubbing his chin as the Captain and the first mate hammered the box shut again. He could hear Matthew muttering even more coarse curses as he paced the hold.
“Yes, as I said, the fur trade in America seems to be hitting an all time low, there’s no doubt about that,” Matthew pointed out needlessly.
“That is barely enough quality furs to cover the contracts we’ve manage to hold on to. And nowhere near the standard of quality that we normally provide.” Donald said to no one in particular, but it seemed that the Captain was going to respond to it all the same.
“Aye, M’Lord that is what they had for us waiting at the dock. I told the dock hands that this was nowhere near the amount of the ledger and he shrugged and said that was all they had to give me. I recall his exact words precisely, as a matter of fact. ‘Take it or leave it,’ that is what he told me.”
“And you didn’t think to protest this? Did you think to find a resolution to this issue? Isn’t that your job as the Captain?” Donald’s anger caught Captain Todd off guard, the Captain stepped away from him and Matthew stepped in to put a hand on his shoulder. All the frustration Donald had about the situation was compounded as a whole by the Captain’s flippant attitude. So he lost his patience.
“M’Lord,” the Captain began meekly but soon gained steam as he remembered himself. “If I had waited around until the businessmen could bring me the proper goods that were due, we would have been waiting a whole season. Then you definitely wouldn’t have gotten your shipments, if I might say so, M’Lord.”
“It’s true,” Matthew said. “The same thing would have happened if I waited to secure more lucrative trade deals. I would have been in America well into next year.”
Breathing heavily, Donald composed himself. He might not like Captain Todd, but that didn’t make him any less right about the matter. This was no one’s fault but bad luck. No one had deprived his company of promised goods they could deliver or mishandled the shipment. This was a by-the-book act of God.
I just hope my customers come to terms with it better than I did.
“Yes, Captain, you are right. You and your crew did your best and did your duty and I will not fault you for that. You have my sincerest apologies for losing my temper,” Donald said while breathing and smoothing out his hair.
“I accept, M’Lord. I don’t blame you for having to deal with the stress. I will say the fur traders in America aren’t fairing much better, if that brings any comfort to your mind.”
“Surprisingly little,” Donald admitted as he headed back to shore
“We need to talk, Donald. About what can be done about the business,” Matthew said with a dire tone in his voice.
No, that’s not a good idea. I need to calm down first.
Donald shook his head. He needed to see Emma. To talk of their wedding and their future life together. To talk about the love and happiness they shared. To relish in the things that brought him joy that he had in his life.
“We will talk in due time. I have other matters to attend to today. I am sorry, my friend, but I am in no mood to deal with this right now,” Donald said honestly.
He instructed his coachman to take him to the Westfolk Estate, a location they were becoming more familiar with, and to make haste.
At this moment Donald wanted nothing more than to feel the weight of Emma in his arms. To hold her against him. To let her rest against his shoulder, to pull her into his lap and kiss her forehead, her cheeks, her lips. To dote on her and make her blush and feel her grow warm.
It hurt just a little to know that with that comfort came the bitter reminder of the ticking clock that was his business. That he was forced to hide from the one person he trusted most in the whole world. But he knew it was for the greater good, no matter how bitter it was.
To touch his lady love, that was what Donald wanted more than anything else in that moment.
Chapter 19
Emma was busy brushing up on her calligraphy at one of the unclaimed desks of the estate. She had been discussing with her mother earlier about the duties of the married lady of the house and this had come up.
“I was woefully out of practice from my days of education and developed some rather uncomfortable wrist cramps during the first year of marriage. I would suggest practicing a little each day, just to get back in the habit. Not to mention the more you practice now, the less rewrites you will have to do later.”
Emma had taken her mother’s advice to heart and had been practicing daily. She was proud, too, since she was pretty sure she had gotten to the point that she was writing better than she had been during her days of study. Wouldn’t Donald be proud of the lady and wife she could be for him?
Before her thoughts of Donald could distract her, as they often did, Josephine cleared her throat behind her. Emma sat up and turned her head. “Your betrothed has arrived to visit you, My Lady, and awaits you in the drawing room, if you are so inclined. Shall I tell him you will be joining him?”
“No need,” Emma stood up, with that special smile she reserved for Donald. “I shall not make him wait. I will go to see him now.”
She went to meet him and let out a stifled shout of delight upon seeing him. Donald’s hands held out to her a paper and ribbon wrapped package. “A gift,” he said, “for the most beautiful lady I have ever laid eyes on.”
“Well that certainly couldn’t be me?” Emma protested.
“Dear, as much as I love your humble protests, I picked this out especially for you. And it would absolutely break my heart to wait any longer for you to open it,” Donald confessed.
Emma excitedly slipped the ribbon off and neatly tore away the paper to reveal a beautiful wooden box. “It’s gorgeous,” she exclaimed at the red velvet covered bo
x. It was rectangular, long and thin and just short of her forearm in length.
“Believe it or not, Emma my love, the box is just holding the gift.”
Her cheeks flushed and she felt foolish, but was quickly overcome again with excitement as she found the latch for the box and gently pulled it open with a soft creak.
Inside the box was the most elaborate and beautiful fan she had ever seen. It was magnificently made from stained wood and painted cloth, but what captivated her most was the scene it depicted. Two canaries chased each other in front of a sunset composed of cascading hues of gold, red, purple, and yellow. This was easily the most beautiful thing she had ever owned.
Unleashed Desires 0f A Noble Lady (Steamy Historical Regency) Page 13