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“Do not stop now. It is best to get it all out.” I had known it was not going to be good but her frustration told me there was truly cause for concern, for Eleanor was not prone to hysterics.
“The dowager duchess refused to hire anyone young, as she worried they would seduce the former duke. When she left here, Mr. Wallace kept hiring older staff. Now they are even older, and while I do not wish to speak ill of the elderly, it is impractical having them clean and carry throughout this whole house. And they know it, too, spending more time talking in the kitchen than working. As for the kitchen, the cook—you tasted the food last night, so I believe you should judge yourself.”
It was not that the food was bad. It just was not good.
I sighed. “What do you recommend?”
“A culling. Gut the whole house and start again with new, properly trained help.”
“I cannot,” I replied. “It will look cruel of me to dismiss a whole house, especially if they are elderly, upon my first week here.”
Especially not after spending half of it in bed.
“I do believe some of them expect it,” she replied.
“Why?”
“They have heard of you, Your Grace.” She chuckled. “They call you ‘the favorite.’ ”
“The favorite of whom?”
“The queen mostly, and then the duke himself. How that became the talk, I am unsure. But they are under the impression that you might be contemptuous of them.”
“This is even more reason that I cannot dismiss them.”
“If you keep them here, how will you manage the house? Your Grace, forgive me, but I believe it better to be seen as severe in this case. The reputation of Everely among the town and the tenants is not as it should be.”
“Are the tenants unhappy?” That would be even worse than the servants.
“From what I can gather, it seems not an issue of farming or management. I believe the duke’s lands and mills are run accordingly. Normally, that would be the first thing anyone would speak on. But I do not know what their true grievance is.”
“So, to surmise here, the house is in disarray, the servants are ill-suited, and the tenants are displeased with us for unknown reasons?”
She nodded. “Yes, Your Grace.”
“Eleanor, that means everything is wrong.”
She winced and nodded once more. “Yes, Your Grace.”
How was that possible?
Your real work is only just beginning, for the previous holders of this great title left much to be desired, the queen had said to me, and now I understood. There had been a great deal of talk about Everely and about Evander over the years. I had ignored it all, as I could not bear to hear it. The things I did hear were never pleasant, so if I had received word even when I actually sought to avoid it, God only knew how much the queen had heard, for she more than anyone enjoyed observing the lives of the nobility as if it were theater. We were many miles away, but her eyes were upon Everely, indeed. Not just hers, but all society’s.
“I cannot fail, Eleanor,” I said as I stared out the window at the grounds. “I must get everything in order. The only issue is how.”
“These issues are clearly long set in, Your Grace. Do not pressure yourself. I am sure over time you may—”
“No.” I shook my head, rising from the chair and stepping closer to the window as the sun was now high in the sky. “I feel eyes upon Everely and upon me. If people are watching, I must show them I was not released from my cage to be lost and helpless.”
Furthermore, I did not wish for the reputation of Everely, and more importantly Evander, to be further tarnished. It was unfair and unjust what they said about him. They did not know the truth. So, all I could do was show them things were now as they should be. To do that I needed Everely to be the greatest of all estates.
“Your Grace?”
I smiled and turned back to see her standing as well. “Let us focus on the house and servants first. I will meet with all of them to see their ability for myself. Should anyone be lacking, I will keep them in their position but hire a new maid as well.”
“So you will leave them be?”
I nodded. “They are not used to having a mistress to impress or having to compete for their work. Instead of dismissing them outright, I will hire hard workers. The harder they work, the more the others will feel as if their position is in danger of being taken from them, and they will either retire of their own free will or work harder themselves.”
