Chapter 2

Chapter 2

There wasn't enough ‘creative' accounting in the world to fix the red numbers quickly growing in the ledger before Josephine.

The longer Josephine sat, the more numbers she added and tried to move around, the worse the situation became. Her stomach twisted in knots, the beginning vestiges of a megrim building in her temples as the incessant scratching of her pen against the ledger finally ceased.

The budget wasn't enough to cover the payments they needed to make and the amount to cover the necessities for the month. If she completely negated their grocery budget, perhaps they could cover the majority of their bills, but that was a very large perhaps. The rising price of poultry over the last few months, while noticeably marked, wasn't quite enough even to account for taxes.

She tapped the pen against the edge of her father's desk, her brows forming a deep ‘v' on her forehead as she struggled to see if there weren't some ‘patches' that she had used before that might work. She'd spent years robbing Peter to pay Paul when it came to the family's accounts. Her father's estate, though comfortable, was modest at best. And the income that came from it was even more so.

Maybe if their crops had yielded more in the last quarter …

Oh, it was a silly thing even to consider. The past couldn't be changed. She needed to find something tangible to latch onto for her to –

"You'll never believe what I just heard!"

The study's tense silence was interrupted by the banging open of the door and exclamation as a furious flurry of lace and satin burst through.

The blonde woman behind it all looked positively flush, excitement making her eyes glassy and her already energetic disposition just that much more apparent. She was a pretty girl, though slightly plumper than was considered in fashion. With blonde curls, a peaches and cream complexion, and large blue eyes, she almost resembled a porcelain doll.

It didn't hurt that she almost always smelled of confectioners' sugar and freshly baked bread. A bonus of having a father for a baker, Josephine had long teased her.

"Josie, you'll never believe it!" Caroline repeated as if she had forgotten she had already spoken as she all but slammed the door closed behind her.

"You've said that already," Josephine teased, setting her pen down and trying to force a smile as she greeted her old friend. "But you've yet to tell me what is supposed to be surprising me."

"The duke," Caroline hissed, rushing over to the desk. She sat daintily on the edge of the chair in front of it, her grin stretching from one side of her face to the other. "The Duke of Wallburshare!"

Josephine frowned, rubbing her nose absently as she tried to recall anything about the man being mentioned. He was so rarely seen in their community, more of a shut-in than anything else. She thought she remembered him being tall. Or maybe he had just seemed tall. He hadn't been around much, even before he'd retired fully to his estate after his wife's death. So much of his time had been spent in London and among the society of the ton.

"Did he die?"

Caroline inhaled sharply, looking both offended and scandalized at the same time as she drew back. "Josie, that's positively horrid! Died! How does your mind always go to the most morbid possibility?"

Josephine's eyes cut towards the ledgers she had just been reviewing, the irony not lost on her. But she didn't say anything. She just sighed, giving her friend a half-hearted shrug as she tried to focus on what they were discussing.

"It's so much more exciting than that! He's looking for a wife!"

Josephine blinked. "But she died."

"Oh, Josie. You really are impossible. He's looking to remarry. To find a new wife. Here! In the country. Oh, he must've written to every nobleman, no matter how minor. Miss Cecilia Brekkenbough and Miss Irene Haversham were both in the store earlier talking about it." Caroline sat forward further, the pink colour in her cheeks increasing even further. "They said he is asking after every eligible daughter, Josie."

Josephine didn't see how that affected either one of them in the least. Caroline was hardly in the running, and she very much doubted that the St Vincent name carried enough weight to have been considered either.

"Aren't you at least a little bit interested?" Caroline demanded huffily.

Josephine laughed, the tension easing just that slightest bit within her. Leave it to Caroline to be offended that Josephine wasn't buzzing with such titillating news.

"No, I'm not. I don't see why anyone else should be, either. He's looking for a wife? You make it sound like he has put an ad in the paper requesting a new sow!" She could envision it as she said it, the mental imagery almost too much to bear.

Caroline groaned, throwing herself back more fully into the chair she had been perching on the edge of dramatically. "A sow! Really!" She threw her hands up, exasperation filling her features. "He's done nothing so gauche; he only wrote to the lords."

"That's gauche enough," Josephine snorted. "You don't find that at all unsightly? He's barely been seen since his wife passed three years ago. He doesn't attend anything in the community or go to any of the parties or balls, and by all accounts, he spends all of his time wandering the great halls of his estate mourning the loss of his wife."

"That's romantic!" Caroline argued hotly. "Imagine the depth of such love!"

"Romantic for him, maybe," Josephine muttered. "I'd hate to be tied to such a fate. Can you even imagine?"

Caroline shot her an arch look, and the two of them dissolved instantly into chuckles, though Josephine's were admittedly a good deal more short-lived.

"Clearly, something else is weighing on you, Josie," Caroline chastised. "You're so set against the romanticism of it all. What has got you so trapped in your own head?"

Josephine very much doubted that she would view the situation any differently, no matter the circumstance, but again, that ledger between them with all the red lettering caught her eye, and her chest tightened all over again.

"Money," she admitted baldly, not bothering with any sugar-coating. It wasn't the first time she'd divulged such truth to her oldest friend.

Caroline's cheeks paled somewhat as understanding filled her gaze, her excited grin turning into a worried frown. "Again?" At Josephine's nod, her frown deepened. "So you're going to have to make adjustments again for the month?"

Josephine laughed without any mirth. "I wish. I don't see how there are any that I could make. Not this time. I can't think of any way to stretch our budget even in the slightest. I've already moved around everything that I can."

Caroline hesitated, glancing away guiltily before she sighed. "Maybe you should write to your siblings again to ask for some help. Just for a little while."

Her siblings.

Josephine tried hard not to wince. As the children of viscounts, there should have been no question about them marrying well – and they had, even with the debts her family had fallen into due to a title only carrying them so far. Caroline looking away before suggesting it made so much more sense than she wanted to think about. It was the one thing that she had been avoiding doing this whole time. They were all comfortable, but that didn't mean they were so comfortable as to be able to afford to help. Not without risking problems for themselves.

Not to mention the shame.

"Mavis is doing well, is she not? Didn't her husband just inherit his father's estate?" Caroline pushed gently, her support unwavering.

Josephine nodded, guilt twisting in the pit of her stomach. He had. And they were also expecting their third child any day now. She couldn't imagine that his father's estate had been so grand to make any real impact.

"Caroline," she cut off as a bell tinkled through the house, stopping her mid-argument.

Dinner time. Saved by the bell.

"That'll be Magda putting dinner on the table," Josephine sighed. "Did you want to join us?"

‘Caroline was already standing, her blue eyes jerking over to the clock in the room's far corner. "Oh! No! I didn't even look at the time. I stopped by here after deliveries. Father will be expecting me home in time to help set the table!"

Josephine nodded, smiling at her friend's ever-mercurial changes in mood, and walked with her to the door. "I'll think about what you said," she offered softly as they exited the study. "And maybe tomorrow you can tell me all about that dreadful situation with the Duke of Wallburshare."

"That romantic situation," Caroline corrected with a giggle, rolling her eyes as she broke away from Josephine to head for the front door. "You'll want to hear all about it, Josie, just you wait and see."

Josephine laughed, waving her friend off as she did. She doubted it. But she knew that come the next day, when they met up again, she'd at least pretend to hold some level of interest, if only for Caroline's sake.

The heavy oak door closed behind Caroline just as Mr Tuttle appeared from around the corner, his severe white brow creased with confusion as he looked between Josephine and the door.

"Lady Josephine," Mr Tuttle murmured in his gravel-ridden voice. "I was just sent to fetch you for dinner."

"I'm coming, Mr Tuttle," Josephine sighed, casting one last lingering look at the door before heading towards the dining room.

It was a short walk that did nothing to ease Josephine's preoccupation. Even with Caroline's short visit, her head was still chock-full of numbers and due dates. Mr Tuttle followed her silently, opening the door to a modest dining room with a pleasantly spread table. Only her mother and father were within, both already seated and talking quietly as she hurried to her spot.

Dinners were a much quieter affair in the years since she and her siblings had grown, even more since they had all moved out. But for once, Josephine found herself looking forward to that quiet.

"You look tired, dear," Lady St Vincent murmured as Josephine took her spot at the table.

"Just thinking," Josephine lied with a smile.

Her father cleared his throat, his lips thinning as he fussed about his plate without so much as taking a bite. A normally stoic, confident man, the fidgeting had Josephine pausing as she folded her napkin into her lap.

"Yes, well. I hope that isn't because you are coming down with something," Lord St Vincent groused. "I'd hate to think that you were, with the timing of everything."

Josephine's eyebrows rose before she could control the expression, her eyes shooting to her mother in question. Lady St Vincent only looked down at her plate, though, her cheeks colouring slightly.

"The timing of everything?"

Lord St Vincent's greying mustache twitched, his nod short and jerky. "Quite. You'll never believe who we received a letter from today."

Oh, no. Josephine's heart sank as she stared at her father, the scent of the roast duck and potatoes in front of her forgotten as she willed him to say anything other than what she feared most.

"You know of the Duke of Wallburshare, no doubt," Lord St Vincent carried on as if Josephine had done anything but stare in silence. "It's the oddest thing, Josie, but he wrote asking after the eligibility of my daughters. You see, it seems that he is searching for a wife." He paused again, clearing his throat as he fiddled with his silverware. "I have only the one now, of course, which I'll hasten to tell him. But I had thought, you see, with how difficult it can be for one to meet someone suitable this far out in the country, that it posed a rather unique opportunity."

He was saying so many words, but none meant anything to Josephine.

She could feel her heart sinking with each new pause in his speech. Unique opportunity, he said, but she knew he didn't mean just for her. He meant for their family.

Those red numbers flashed in her head again, all the months of her ‘creative book keeping' and the bills she had shuffled to afford to keep paying in the forefront of her mind as she stared at her father silently.

"You must write to him then," Josephine offered, her voice placid despite her suddenly racing heart.

A duchess could ensure that her parents' estate didn't fall into disrepair. A duchess could afford to help her father fix those books so there was never any red in the ledger when it came time for accounting. A duchess could ensure that the parents who had raised her lived comfortably for the rest of their lives.

None of her other siblings had married advantageously. They'd married well, to be sure, just not well enough to do anything other than advance their own means.

"You are in agreement with my offering you up for consideration then?" her father asked several beats later than normal conversation would flow. The surprise in his voice was expected, as was her mother's shaky inhale, but Josephine forced a bright smile in response.

"Why wouldn't I be?" she responded airily, drawing on every happy memory she could to look anywhere near as excited as she knew she should be. "It is a rare opportunity. I hear Wallburshare is exquisite as well. And their gardens are legendary."

As was their owner. But his legend was one that she didn't wish to bring up at that moment.

"Oh, this is wonderful!" Lady St Vincent exclaimed, her face lighting up as she clapped happily.

"Indeed," her father chuckled. "I was expecting far more of a conversation before you agreed, you know. But … married. I don't know what we'll do with such an empty house."

Josephine bit down hard on the edge of her tongue, the tangy taste of copper filling her mouth as she pushed her trepidation even further down. "You're getting ahead of yourselves," she chided teasingly, trying to keep the atmosphere light. "You'll only be offering me for consideration. I've no doubt there will be a line of other ladies as well; there's no guarantee that he will choose me."

God willing, he wouldn't. She had to choke on those words, though.

God willing, he would choose anyone else, any other of the eligible ladies from the area, and this would all just be something to laugh about later with Caroline and all of her romantic musings.