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Letty crossed her arms over her chest. “Then you could choose something else that suits you better.”
“It’s not fair that my father provided for us for so long, only for us to be cast aside now.” Robert laughed, the sound low and bitter. “But maybe I should thank him for passing when he did. At least I am still young enough to join the clerks without much notice. It should have been more difficult indeed to have continued to be brought up in some fashion as a gentleman’s by-blow, without enough education to ape my betters and without any training to earn my own bread.”
Letty frowned. “That wasn’t the plan.”
It had been a shock when her stipend was cut off two years ago upon John’s death, with no bequest to last through Robert’s own lifetime. Had she failed to prepare Robert for the realities of working life? Had she led him to believe he would have a life of leisure forever? Her chest tightened. Of course she had. That’s what she had believed herself.
“Why didn’t you ask my father for the funds for me to go to university?” he asked.
“I had no control over what John provided.”
“Surely an education would have been a natural enough provision, had you but reminded him of his duty! If I had been to university, at least I could train to be a barrister and I would still be considered a gentleman, instead of a lowly solicitor. This may be the best paying career I can think of,” he said, “but I shall never now be a gentleman.” There was a sneer on his face that she didn’trecognize. She hadn’t realized that he harbored social ambition like that.
“There are worse things, Robert. After all, I am no lady, and I am happy with my lot in life.”
“How can you compare us!” he cried. “My grandfather was an army captain, and you were born into the gentry, to wedded parents. You chose to fall from grace with my father, yet it is I who has to reap whatyouhave sown!”
She felt as if she had been struck. “I gave you the best life I could under the circumstances in which I found myself,” she said, struggling to keep her temper reined in. “Many are born into less. You still have plenty more than most, Robert Barrow. Your father was generous enough to provide what he did. We should be grateful for that.” It was what she always reminded him. “After his death, the Wilsons had every right to make the decision that they did.”
Robert didn’t reply.
Letty went to her bedchamber. From the deepest corner of the last drawer of her dresser, she drew out a sack of coins that she kept on hand. Over the last year, the pile had dwindled at an alarming rate. Thank the Lord that she had been given this opportunity with the Hawthornes, she thought. All she had to do was wait until the end of the month to start being paid.
Robert brightened as she came back to his room and pressed the coins into his palm. “Thanks, Mum. You won’t regret this. Someday I will find my fortune as a solicitor and I will have our futures secured. You understand, don’t you? I don’t ever wish either of us to worry about money again.”
Letty wanted to reassure him that she could provide for him. The job with the duchess should secure her fortune and her reputation, and she would be able to give him what he needed. But deep down, she wasn’t sure. She had learned long ago not to trust the sweet words of the nobility.
“Your worries are better spent about looking your best for dinner tonight. Maybe fuss with your hair again before you go,” Letty added with a laugh, hoping to move past their quarrel.
Robert scowled as he buttoned his cuff. “Nothing wrong with wanting to look proper anyhow,” he grumbled. “The fellows at the office prefer a neat appearance.”
A rap on the door revealed a smartly dressed footman. “Miss Barrow? A carriage is here to take you to Hawthorne House, ma’am, if you would.”
“Now?”
“The duchess appreciates efficiency and expediency, ma’am. A word to the wise—if you have taken employment with the duchess, you should expect to be available whenever she has need of you.”
“Thank you for your advice. I shall be down in a moment.”
Robert stared at her. “Now who is worried about appearances? Hobnobbing with the fancy folk? Why has a duchess asked you to call?”
“I have a new job, far away from the streets of Holborn and deep into Mayfair,” she said coolly. “I am renovating for the Duchess of Hawthorne.”
The tips of his ears reddened. “You had the gall to reproach me for my ambition? All I want is to secure a livelihood, but I suppose it’s all well and fine for you to reach to the very top of the upper crust.”
Could nothing she do ever be right in his eyes these days? “Robert, you asked me to stay away from your offices on my next job or two. I’ve done exactly that. What right do you have to complain about where I earn my coin, when I’ve done my best to accommodate you?”
He grumbled as he shoved his hat on his head and banged his way out the door.
Letty re-braided her hair and straightened her skirts before she went in search of the carriage. It wasn’t hard to miss on their quiet street, bereft as it was of any other crested conveyances. The inside was much nicer than any other she’d been in. The seats were lined with buttery soft leather, and the padding was marvelously thick. The novelty of the experience made her forget her annoyance that she had been summoned without more than a by-your-leave.
She willed herself to forget the argument with Robert, but he was right in one regard. She may have told him that he had morethan most, but as she passed larger houses and greener pastures in the streets of Mayfair, she had to admit that there were many who had more than they did. Where was the fairness of it all? She counted herself lucky enough to work for the Duchess of Hawthorne, but how much luckier was the duchess to have been born into wealth and leisure?
The itch of her ambition turned into a howling ache. She wanted this power and prestige for herself, but she wanted to earn it through her work and reputation.
When the duchess swept into the drawing room, her lips were curved down and her chin was high, and Letty was struck again by her beauty. No doubt she bathed in milk every night or some such frivolous nonsense. Her navy wool gown was buttoned up to the throat, and Letty didn’t need the measuring tape from her toolbox to notice that the dress followed her sleek frame within an eighth of an inch.
“Thank you for being available on such short notice, Miss Barrow. I am most anxious to begin.”
