Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

H er husband could be unpredictable, but Samantha was starting to enjoy that about him.

What she did not enjoy, however, was the monotony of the household. Everything was dark and drab and not at all pleasing to the eye. She was tired of it before she had even made it halfway through the house and gave up soon after. She would only have to see it once more with the housekeeper, and if she had to see everything twice over, it would simply be too much.

Fortunately, the grounds had to at least be green. There were flowers, meaning she could learn about them in time and at least fill her days with something whilst her husband found his place there once more.

The grass was damp, and even though it was not the proper thing to do, Samantha could not resist taking off her shoes and feeling it beneath her feet. It was cooling, connecting her to the world once more in a way that her new home did not. Soon enough, she was lying on her back and looking up at the clouds, no longer thinking about where she was and who she had become.

"What are you doing here?" A harsh and deep voice came.

Samantha scrambled to her feet only to see a short and rotund man before her. She tried not to smirk at him.

"My apologies," she said quickly, stifling a giggle. "I am the new duchess. It is so nice to meet you."

She reached out her hand, and he looked at it and then looked back at her, eyeing her carefully for a moment, and then bowing. Samantha stammered and then curtseyed in return.

"I am your butler," he said firmly. "And you ought to know that your gardener will not be best pleased if he sees you lying around in his handiwork."

"No, of course not. My sincerest apologies."

"Yes, well, do not let it happen again."

He was gone as quickly as he had arrived, and Samantha watched after him long after she could no longer see him. He was strange, that was the best way that she could describe him, and certainly bold. After all, what sort of man would speak in such a manner to a lady he worked for?

Soon after, she was lying in the grass once more. She tried not to toss and turn and made a note to apologize in advance to her gardener, but she had decided that any dents in the grass that she had made were already there now, and so there was no harm in being there a while longer.

Everything had happened so fast; everything was still happening, and she needed a few moments to collect herself and simply be Samantha, not Samantha Winston, the daughter of a drunken earl, nor Samantha Pratt, the wife of a duke. She was simply Samantha, and it felt wonderful to be her even if it was for but a fleeting moment.

"All good things must come to an end," she mumbled to herself after a while, pulling herself up from the ground.

She wanted to be a good duchess, and that meant that she had duties to fulfill. Most of these would have to be done within her first few days on the estate, meaning that she was running out of time to make a good impression. She had already, it appeared, ruined things with the butler, but she had many other people to speak to, meaning many more chances to do things correctly. She would do it right this time. She had to.

"Excuse me," she said to a tall and thin lady in the hallway, "might you be the housekeeper?"

"Mary," she replied. "Yes, I am indeed. The Duke has told me so much about you."

Samantha blinked.

"What did he say about me?"

"I shall keep that to myself," she chuckled. "But they were all good things. He also told me that you have taken a tour yourself?"

"I apologize for that, truly," she explained, "but the Duke had warned me about the… interior, and I wanted to see it for myself. The last thing that I want to do is hurt anyone's feelings."

"You certainly will not hurt us with your judgment. I assure you, we loathe it every bit as much as you do. More, in fact, because we have to handle the upkeep of it! Could you imagine having to care for something you dislike so strongly?"

Yes, Samantha thought, her own father.

But she did not say it. It was not the right moment, and Mary was not the sort of lady to find humor in such a thing, Samantha was sure.

"I can still show you some places if you wish," Mary continued, "but I can assure you that you will not notice any differences between the rooms. It shall simply be the same thing over and over."

"Then I shall not waste your time. However, I would very much like to take tea with you. I have not practiced pouring in a good while now, and I would hate to make a mistake when we accept company."

"I will never say no to tea and cake," Mary replied, eyes sparkling. "My, you are certainly not like the late Duke at all."

"Is that awful of me?"

"On the contrary, It is refreshing. Now, you go and sit in the drawing room, and I shall have tea prepared."

Samantha nodded to the woman who seemed to be a new friend of hers, and she returned to the drawing room. It was not pleasant, but it was serviceable, especially now that she knew the story behind it.

Soon enough, Mary arrived with the tray, and while she was shaking slightly from nerves, Samantha poured two cups of tea and quickly realized that she had not forgotten her technique at all.

"That is rather impressive, you know," Mary commented. "I was a governess once, and the ladies I helped to train were rather useless. I thought it was a skill that was going out of fashion at one point!"

"I used to enjoy it. My sister and I would take it in turns, and I would watch her closely each and every time because she was much better than I was. I must have learned from watching."

"How is your sister? The Duke did not mention her."

"He has seen her but twice himself. Her name is Diana Novak, and she is the Duchess of Abaddon. She is my older sister, and she trained me to be a debutante."

"And it clearly did some good. Both of you have married dukes!"

Samantha was tempted to tell her the real reason they had both married dukes, but she kept it to herself. There was not much that a housekeeper could do, even if she wanted to, but it was not right. Mary clearly thought a great deal of their match, and Samantha didn't want to spoil it.

"I have a question," Samantha said instead, steering the subject away.

"I am quite sure that you shall have several, but I am more than willing to answer them for you."

"It is about the butler."

"Ah, Mister Smith."

"So that is his name."

"Yes, surely he told you himself?"

"No, he simply instructed me to act in a more becoming manner and to think of my gardener."

"He will be like that with you. Do not expect any changes there."

"Why? Is it not his job to serve me?"

"Yes, but he was also chosen by the late Duke because of his nature. He will not accept what he deems nonsense, and that means anything less than perfection. He is a copy of the late Duke through and through."

"But the late duke is gone. He should listen to the new duke now, surely?"

"You would think so, but it is not what happened. I believe that Mister Smith saw how the late Duke was and how he gained so much wealth and power from being that way, so Mr. Smith thought that was the way forward. If you ask me, I think he chooses to act the way he does because he thinks it will take him in the same direction."

"That is horrible," Samantha sighed. "So I am not to expect a change in him?"

"That depends entirely on what the Duke says to him the first time he hears anything. If your husband is the sort to protect you, then you should be all right."

"I believe he is, yes."

"Then you have nothing at all to worry about. Mister Smith is harmless, I assure you; he simply has high standards, and he lives to serve his duke. It is commendable, or it would be if it did not make him so insufferable."

Samantha laughed, pouring two more cups of tea and taking a biscuit.

"These are wonderful," she mumbled through some crumbs. "I simply must meet the cook."

"Cook is wonderful," Mary agreed. "And now that you are here, we can at last make a list of foods that you do and do not like."

"I believe I like everything. I trust Cook completely. Would you mind telling her that?"

"You can tell her yourself! We shall at least ensure that you have met the staff, even if you are not interested in seeing the same room fifty times over."

"Is it better that I see them after all?" she asked, biting her lip. "I do not wish to be perceived as disrespectful."

"Well, I will not tell a soul if you don't!"

The two ladies laughed, and Samantha felt herself relax for the first time since her arrival. She had a companion, and that meant the world to her.

They planned to meet Cook after dinner so that Samantha could sample her food beforehand, and Graham was seated in the dining hall before she had arrived.

"My apologies," she said quickly as she seated herself. "I did not think you would be here yet."

"My papers could wait, I decided," he observed. "There may not have been much to love about this place, but Cook was one of those few things. I have been thinking about dinner since we arrived."

Both the Duke and the housekeeper had only good things to say about her, and they did not oversell her skills. It was a feast, and Samantha was ravenous the second she smelled it.

"So," Graham began after a while, "how has your first day here been?"

"Surprising," she said carefully. "I had not expected to make such fast friends with Mary, and I did not expect to be accosted in the garden by your butler, and —"

"Accosted?" he echoed.

"I do not mean that I was threatened," she laughed. "Only, well, he seems to dislike me a great deal. Mary told me not to take it to heart, however, because he likes things done in a certain way."

"And if he continues to treat you that way, he shall leave."

"Graham, there is no need for such drastic measures."

"There is. There is, because nobody will speak down to you in your own home. Mister Smith did that to me for years as a boy, and he only changed that because I am his master now. It will not happen under any circumstances."

Mary was right about the Duke defending her at least. A silence fell between them, not because Samantha was concerned but because she did not know what to say to him. She would have thanked him, but it did not feel appropriate.

"Beyond the butler," Samantha said, breaking the silence, "I would like to ask you something, and if the answer is no, then it is no."

"It likely will not be."

"I was hoping that I could redecorate? I know that it would be a change, and a drastic one at that, but we both dislike it as does your staff, and I thought it might be the right time."

"Will you be all right doing it yourself? I shall be too busy to help you for the most part."

"That is precisely why right now is the perfect time. With you having so much to do, I shall need a way to fill my time too."

"Then do it exactly as you please. I shall like it regardless."

"But your father —"

"… is a man that I hold no connection to, much like this house. Make the walls magenta and the floors yellow for all I care, but whatever you do, do not make it that awful brown color. It has been that way for years, and I could not be more tired of it."

For the first time since they had arrived there, Samantha swore that she saw her husband smile out of real happiness. She had been given permission, and she was certainly going to run with that.

Then again, there was Mister Smith to contend with. It did not matter that Graham did not want her to bow down to the butler; he was quite intimidating in spite of his short stature. Not only that, but Samantha wished to belong. Not finding a good footing with such a fundamental member of the household was not conducive to that.

"You are still thinking about him, aren't you?" he asked her.

"I cannot help it. I want to be good at this, and if I am to do that, then I must make him see things the way I do, or at least try to see things the way that he does."

"Should you manage to see things in the same manner as him, I shall be more surprised than I ever have been."

And in spite of the fact that Samantha knew it would be impossible, she wanted to try regardless. The butler would like her, or at least tolerate her, and then the household would be all the better for it. It was now the only hurdle that she would have to overcome, and then at last, she would be ready to begin her new life as a duchess.

Then she remembered the state of her household and how it was in such dire need of redecoration. Fixing the house or her connection with the butler — which would she try to do first?