Page 61 of Once Bitten, Twice Mine

What she wanted to know was when he would come home. If this trip was successful enough for him to be made a partner at the firm. If he would ever have to go on a business trip like this again. As unromantic as it was, she didn’t care if he “only saw the sky when he thought of her blue eyes.”

“Is the letter that bad?”

“What?” She asked, looking up at Lucy, who looked down at her with sympathy.

“You’re glaring at the letter awfully hard. Does Mr. Andrews have bad news for you then?”

“Oh.” She unclenched her hand and smoothed out the stark white stationery she had crumpled. “It’s nothing bad; I only wished to hear when he will return, but he hasn’t included that in his letter.”

Lucy shook her head. “All this after he promised he would only be gone a few weeks at most. Really, what more can he expect from you?”

Mrs. Thomas entered her room, which meant she was saved from responding to Lucy. The housekeeper wore her usual stern expression, but her eyes were pulled a bit tighter than usual.

“Miss Blythe, I’m sorry to interrupt your breakfast, but more bricks have fallen through the hearth.”

Caroline swallowed. “Was anyone hurt?”

“No, luckily Cook had finished baking bread for the day, but he isn’t sure the hearth will be of much use for cooking.”

“Why not? Does falling bricks mean you can’t build a fire in there anymore?” Lucy asked.

“The smoke will get trapped in the house, and we could asphyxiate,” Caroline said, scrubbing her face in her hands. This was what she feared. It’s why she had contacted Mr. Hall in her desperation even though she knew he wasn’t the most honest businessman. “Besides, the fire won’t heat correctly with too much outside air. We were already taking chances before.”

“Oh,” Lucy said. “I could ask my brother to come take a look at it. I’m sure he could fix it.”

“He’s a stonemason; he can’t fix our chimney.”

“I’m sure that’s not terribly different than working with brick,” Mrs. Thomas said.

Caroline sighed. If she said yes to Lucy, she would drag him away from work that paid well. Undoubtedly better than she could pay. He was a nice man who had done work for her family before and would likely say yes to this job even if Lucy didn’t browbeat him into it. He likely knew how dire her family’s finances were and would undercharge her, both because he knew what she was good for and because she was Lucy’s employer and he would think she expected such a discount. He would have to buy tools and supplies he would never have to use on another job, all while wasting so many other days where he could be getting paid his full rate. Not only did he have a young family to support, but he also helped with Lucy and her mother so they didn’t lose their home.

She couldn’t let him sacrifice for her.

“No, we’ll find someone else.”

“Really, I’m sure⁠—”

“I said no, Lucy.”

Her voice was hard enough that her maid flinched and she felt bad, but didn’t back down. She would find a way out of this mess. She always did.

* * *

“You wouldn’t know how to fix this, would you?”

Cook raised an eyebrow at Caroline, and she snorted. It had been a silly question, but she always found desperation incited the best creativity.

“I don’t care for him, but you could call Mr. Hall back. Between all of us, we could scrounge up enough money to pay him,” Cook rumbled.

“Mr. Hall is dead.”

She had never once wanted anyone dead, but she was grateful she didn’t have to live through her servants helping her to pay for house repairs.

Cook huffed before turning his attention back to the hearth. Mrs. Thomas had undersold the situation. So many bricks were strewn about she suspected the entire chimney crumbled. The bread that had been cooling on the lip of the hearth was covered in soot and rubble. There would be no more bread for the foreseeable future.

“We can use the range for cooking. It will be inconvenient, and we won’t be able to have bread, but it will be fine until we find another bricklayer.”

“We’re out of coal.”