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“I will find a means of sorting my debts before such drastic consequences become necessary.”
She dropped her eyes to their clasped hands. “I told you my family’s finances were in a desperate state for a number of years before I came to live here. I know how exhausting it can be to constantly stretch an insufficient budget.”
“If you have any ingenious methods to share,” he said, “I’m more than eager to hear them.”
“I assume you have already minimized your staff,” she said.
He nodded. “As much as I could in such a large place as Sarvol House. The coming quarter day will still be a tremendous strain on the estate coffers.”
“We closed up most of our house in the last year we lived there. Only two bedchambers, the smallest of the sitting rooms, and the breakfast room remained in use. We required only minimal staff after that. It was sad to see room after room of draped furniture, but it bought us a bit of time. I sometimes wonderif our situation would have turned around if we’d taken that approach sooner.”
“Would my housekeeper know how to properly close up a room or an entire wing of Sarvol House?”
Gillian nodded. “And if it is done properly, when things improve, you can open them again with minimal work.”
He’d not thought of that. “Another area where Sarvol House is exceeding my income is in the upkeep of the grounds. The decorative aspects of the landscape have been sorely neglected as a means of economizing. Some sections of the farmable land have already been left fallow, which might very well complicate the eventual return to use. I don’t know the wisest way to scrimp on the grounds without ruining them.”
“Ask your groundskeeper for advice,” she said. “He likely knows areas that could be allowed to grow a little wild without undermining the estate or creating too much future work. He might even have ideas for other uses of some of the land, uses that would prove less of a drain. And if you’ve already had to let your own groundskeeper go, one at a nearby estate might be willing to offer consultation for a small fee.”
He rose to his feet, the spinning of his thoughts making it all but impossible to sit still any longer. For the first time in two years, he was feeling the tiniest surge of hope. “And the expenses of the stable might be reined in—if you’ll excuse the pun—if I sought input from the stablemaster.”
“There is a reason these people have charge of what they do: they have expertise in those areas.”
He did have some hesitation though. “Won’t they think less of me if I admit I don’t know how to fix any of this?” Wanting to maintain their confidence—and, subsequently, more of his own—had made him very hesitant to admit to the extent of the trouble.
She stood and moved to him, setting her hand on his arm. “They worked for your uncle before you inherited. They will know precisely why the estate and your coffers are in the state they are. Your willingness to lean on their knowledge and experience will bolster their confidence in you, not diminish it.”
He took hold of her hand and pressed it to his heart. “And hearing how ill-suited I am to this role I’ve inherited, does that undermineyouropinion of me?”
She shrugged. “You are heeding my excellent advice, aren’t you? That is an argument decidedly in favor of your intelligence.”
“Perhaps with enough economizing,” he said, “I could one day go to London for the Season.”
She blushed a little. “Would you call on me while you were there?”
“Of course I would.” Odd that she thought she had to request that.
“Few gentlemen do, you know. I had to beg you to invent interest on the part of an entire house party so that a lady who knows me quite well would no longer cling to the evidence-based assumption that no gentleman was likely to take even a slight notice of me.”
He kept their hands pressed to his heart but set his other arm around her. “I noticed you.”
“You noticed I was suspicious of you,” she corrected.
“I noticed you had beautiful gray eyes. That your hair has a soft wave to it. I noticed you were intelligent and cared deeply about your friends.” He pulled her a little closer. “I have since noticed that you are funny and clever. That you are compassionate. That I”—heavens, his heart was pounding—“like dancing with you.”
“You do?”
“Enough that I would very much like to dance with you again.”
Her free hand brushed along his collar. “I should warn you that ending a dance with a lingering embrace, as we did in the gazebo, is frowned on in Society.”
He bent his head closer to hers. “We’re not among Society right now.”
Her eyes met his. “No, we’re not.”
“We’re also not dancing.” He leaned closer still.
“Youarelingering though.” Her voice had dropped low, taking on a warmth that tingled through him.
