“I’d like you to know I’m not angry about the library. However, youhaveupset someone else here at Harbury Hall. In fact, I believe you may have even inadvertently started a minor war.”
“A war?”
“I’ve never seen poor Mrs. Pratt in such a state.”
She worried her lip. “Iamsorry.”
He grinned. “No, you aren’t.”
She chuckled softly, as if only to herself. “You’re right.” She matched his smile. “I’m not.”
“Did Mrs. Pratt say or do something to upset you?”
“Well”—she rearranged the angle of her cup—“when I asked about the hideous chandelier in the entry, she intimated the house must be kept exactly as your father wished.”
“The tent and bag chandelier?”
She nodded. “I took her insistence as disrespectful to you—”
He leaned forward.
“—I—I reacted badly.”
She’d reacted badly because she’d thought his housekeeper disrespectedhim?
After his father died, hehadtold his housekeeper he didn’t expect to make many changes. At the time, however, he had anticipated he’d one day wed Viv, who’d always said she liked the Hall’s old-fashioned feel. He hadn’t planned on bringing home a wife who had never been here. A wife who might want to make changes of her own.
Changes, he realized, he did not oppose. Perhaps it was high time to clear out the proverbial cobwebs.
“So, you felt Mrs. Pratt had disrespected me, so you decided to tear up the library?”
“No! Not unless… Oh,bother!” She glanced up in consternation. “During my conversation with Mrs. Pratt, Ididdecide I would find something at Harbury Hall to change. I just didn’t connect that with my later decision to reorganize the library.”
He couldn’t help another smile. “Have I married a secret iconoclast?”
“I can see why you might think so.” Again, she laughed. “But I’veonly lately been inspired to rebel.”
“How lately?”
She closed one eye and winced sheepishly. “Since yesterday?”
Fascinating. He feared he’d inspired misery. Instead, he’d created a reluctant radical.
She must have noticed the light of understanding in his eyes because she dropped her gaze and took a disproportionately long sip of her tea.
“Since you’ve started a war, you are going to need an ally.” He placed his open palm between them and flashed his most charming smile. “I find myself in need of one as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“I plan to visit a few of our larger tenants. You might… I mean, if you are interested…”
He’d thought making conversation difficult, but asking for help—herhelp—wasfarworse.
“Are you asking me to accompany you?”
“I thought, well… As duchess, you might want to know the estate’s people. But only if you wish.”
Surprise lit her features, followed by something more. Interest, he hoped.Pleasedinterest.
