Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

H er bed chambers were first, she decided.

She wondered if the staff might see her as selfish for making such a decision, but she knew what she was doing. In truth, she had never had to redecorate before and decided that, whilst she made her mistakes, it was better that they happened to her own private room than anyone else's.

"Are you ready, Your Grace?" Mary asked. "If you are uncertain, I can find someone to do this for us."

"No!" she yelped. "No, thank you. I would much rather do this myself. I shall not know what to do with myself otherwise."

"And what if you hate the room?"

Samantha thought for a moment, looking at the murky gray walls that could have been painted at any time within the previous hundred years.

"At worst," she noted, "I shall at least be able to say that it is because of my own choices and not those of someone else."

"Very well. What were you thinking of changing?"

"It might be easier to ask me what I wish to keep unchanged," she laughed. "Perhaps we might make a few small changes to start? I would like to make this gray more of a lavender as it will make the room lighter. Oh! I would also like to have the windows opened."

"That might take a while. The shutters have been closed for years now. The late Duke said that as there was no duchess, there was no need to have any light in the room at all. The vines have grown over the windows now."

"Then I shall speak with the groundskeeper. I am sure that we can find a way to fix it."

"It will certainly be a change. Perhaps once the light can enter the room, you might not dislike it as much?"

"It is more than likely that I will, but I appreciate your optimism."

"And I appreciate your tenacity," Mary replied. "So, you wish for lilac paint?"

"Yes, please. Oh, and if you happen to know a skilled carpenter, would you mind asking him to come and visit me? I wish to discuss the matter of furniture with him."

"Certainly, Your Grace. I shall do it now, whilst you find the groundskeeper."

Samantha nodded, determined. She had not been warned about him in any way, shape, or form, and she could only see that as a good thing. In any case, she would be better off than she would if she had to engage with Mister Smith.

The groundskeeper was taller than Mister Smith at least. He was also older and was tending to some of the flowers when she found him. Samantha recognized them and crouched beside him.

"Cornflowers," she said absent-mindedly, "or Centaurea cyanus. They are some of my favorites."

"I beg your pardon?" he asked then he turned to her and seemed to recognize her. "My apologies, Your Grace! I was not expecting to see you."

"I apologize for startling you, Mister Davis. I was hoping you were not too busy?"

"Then your hopes are in vain. There was a lot to prepare before your arrival, and I am far from finishing."

"But it all looks lovely."

"That does not signify. It must look perfect."

"If the Duchess likes it, then surely it is enough."

He eyed her carefully.

"Do you think that as duchess, you have the last word on such matters?"

"Of course not, but if the garden is being done in preparation for my arrival, then surely it matters what I think."

"And are you truly happy with it?"

"I am happy enough that I would rather you used your time to help me for the afternoon, if that is all right."

"If you tell me to do something, it is my duty to do it. You ought to know that by now."

Samantha realized, perhaps for the first time, what it meant to run a household. Mister Davis was correct; it was her duty to instruct him on what to do, and regardless of whether or not he had a true desire to do it, he had no choice but to. It was the same as her father had been, and perhaps he enjoyed the power and control, but she did not. She loathed it entirely.

"I prefer to see it as us working together," she explained. "It may not be the fashionable thing to do, but it is how I was raised."

It was the nicest way that she could explain that her father had made her do everything around their household as he could never afford staff.

"No lady is raised to do work," he scoffed. "None of your status, at least. If the late Duke were here…"

His voice trailed off, and Samantha took the opportunity to explain herself further.

"It may not be evident, but I was never raised by my father to marry a duke. He had his expectations, of course, but he simply did not have the time."

"And what of your mother?"

"She passed away when I was an infant. The only person that was there to teach me was my sister, and she and I had to navigate it all together. So no, my beliefs are not those of a true duchess, but I am here, and I would like it to be this way — that is, I wish to help you."

"My apologies for the loss of your mother," he said quietly. "Very well, what do you propose we do this afternoon?"

"I believe that it is something long overdue, but you may not be too impressed that I want it to be done. It is time to cut away the vines from the shutters of the Duchess' room."

She was expecting his face to turn darker or even for him to grumble about his work, but instead, he smiled at her. He immediately began walking towards his tool storage, Samantha on his heels.

"You truly are nothing like the late Duke, are you?"

"If what I have heard about him is true, then I should hope not. Did you like him?"

"I respected him. We all did, of course, but if you were to ask me if I liked him… I cannot in all honesty say that I did. Forgive me for being unkind or standoffish with you. We are all excited to have you, but we are wary all the same."

"Did you expect me to be like him?"

"We do not know. His Grace is nothing like his father, and he never has been, but all the same, when you have a duty to find the perfect duchess, and his father had instilled his values into his sons, we could not be too sure."

"Well, rest assured that the Duke and I have no plans to be like him. We want you all to be happy. I so hope to live in a home that is filled with contentment this time."

He looked at her sympathetically, and Samantha wondered if she had said too much.

"All right," Mister Davis said boldly as he began cutting away at the vines, "how much do you wish to be cut away?"

"It is hard to say, for I do love how they make the walls look, but I do not want them to damage the structural integrity of the bricks."

The groundskeeper paused.

"What did you say?"

"The structural integrity," she repeated. "Allegedly, the vines can grow into the bricks and damage them."

"How do you know that?"

"I read about it," she shrugged. "But it is as I said, they look lovely. Perhaps, to aid in the upkeep of the household, we could cut them back a good deal? This is the back of the house after all, and so it will not be seen as often as the front."

He smiled at her and nodded.

"As you wish, Your Grace. Now, before I begin, has the Duke given you permission to do all of this?"

"He has outright told me to change anything I wish. With that in mind, you shall now also have my permission to do as you please with the gardens. I trust you completely with them, and so anything that you wish to do can be done."

"I would like that very much, but I must warn you that my tastes are quite different to that which you see now."

"Wonderful. I assume that the way it is now is exactly the same as how the Duke had it?"

"To the letter," he noted. "It has looked exactly the same for the last ten years."

"Then that is all the more reason to change it. You can do as you please. My only request is that you find some more exotic flowers for the greenhouse so that I may study them."

"You certainly seem to enjoy your studies, Your Grace."

"Of course! What else could I have done to fill my days? I only wish that I had been a man so that I might have attended university, but the Duke is going to see to that personally."

He laughed, but not at her. He then shook his head with a smile.

"Mister Smith will hate you," he sighed.

"I had a feeling. It is a shame because I want him to be as happy as the rest of us shall be."

"He is not happy unless he has control, Your Grace. The late Duke, at least, allowed him to have absolute authority over us, so long as it was in line with what he wanted."

Samantha said nothing, only nodding at him. She knew that feeling all too well, of wanting and feeling as though one needed control, no matter how it came. She had wanted power over her own life, and so how could she begrudge the butler for wanting the very same thing?

Within hours, the vines were cut back and left strewn around the grass. Samantha looked at them with a smile then followed the walls upwards to the window of her bedroom. She could see her shutters at last. They were in dire need of replacement and extremely old, but she could see them.

"Shall we go and see our reward after all of this?" she asked. "You have earned that much and more after what you have done for me."

"I should clean up after myself," he replied, "but you are more than welcome to go. You have made good company for the afternoon, Your Grace, and I am so very grateful for that."

"If you are sure. Thank you, Mister Davis. I have had quite the pleasant afternoon with you myself."

It was not particularly ladylike for one to run, and so she had to compose herself as much as she could as she went to her bedchambers. There, she saw her shutters once more, still closed and keeping her room in complete darkness. She wondered how much force she would need to pry them open, especially in their damaged state, but she knew that she would find a way to do it.

Fortunately, the damage that had been done to them made it even easier for them to be pried apart. With one strong push, they flew open, and sunlight streamed in around her. All at once, the room was brighter and warmer, and Samantha felt at home, even if the walls were as dull and gray as ever, and the furniture was as old and out of fashion as they had been that morning. All it had taken was that one push, and Samantha couldn't help but smile at that.

All that she had to do was keep pushing.

"Is everything all right in here?" The Duke's voice came suddenly. "I heard a loud — oh, Samantha, look at it!"

He had seen what Samantha had seen the moment she had opened her shutters; there was a perfect view of the entirety of the estate from her window, and there was so much light there.

"I owe it all to Mister Davis," she explained. "He has spent so much time with me today, as has Mary."

"You owe it to yourself," Graham corrected her. "You are going to do incredible things for this place, I can see it. Actually, I can quite honestly say that I have thought this for a while now. You are precisely what was needed here."

Samantha felt her face flush. Her husband was standing behind her, telling her how good she was, and it felt wonderful to be appreciated in such a way.

"Do you suppose it is selfish to begin with my own room?" she sighed. "I only say this because I want to practice first, and if I make a mess of any of the other rooms —"

"Then it shall be our mess of a room. I assure you, I meant what I said about this house. I do not care for it, and so you are to do as you please."

"But I —"

"Samantha," he said calmly but firmly, "this is your husband, the Duke, telling you that you are to do whatever you wish. I do not mind at all."

"Very well," she laughed softly. "I shall start with this room, and then perhaps yours?"

"I would like to decorate mine," he explained. "There are some things about it that I want, and so it is better if I handle it."

"Very well, I shall not pry. Now, I do believe it is nearing time for dinner, and after everything that has happened today, I am rather famished."

"That does not surprise me in the slightest. Come along, then."

They turned to leave, only to see a few of their staff in the doorway. Any other situation might have led them to believe they were eavesdropping, but not one of them was looking at the Duke and Duchess. They were looking past them, out into the gardens.

"Your Grace," one breathed, "It looks wonderful."

"It is only a window," Samantha laughed. "But thank you. It certainly makes it all rather more lovely."

But it was more than a window, and Samantha knew that. To her, it meant that she could see her garden, but to them, it showed them that the tides were changing and that they might not be forced to hold themselves to the same rules as the late Duke had enforced. From the way they were smiling, as if it were the first time they had done so in a while, Samantha could tell that it was indeed the case.

Everything was going to change for the better, and if Samantha had to be the one to prove that to them all, then she would be happy to do so. Their lives would all be changing, Samantha was more determined than ever to make it happen, and all of it would be done with their support.

With the exception of Mister Smith, who eyed the window carefully only to then scowl at her.