Arian by Iris Gower Read Free Book Online Page B

I went to the cellar to get it for Mrs Bob,’ Arian said puzzled by his manner. ‘Is anything wrong?’
    ‘Very possibly,’ Calvin said dryly. ‘Please bring me the bottle, would you?’
    Arian forgot to bob a curtsy as she hurried from the dining room and quickly negotiated the stairs to where in the kitchen Mrs Bob was sitting down to a cup of tea.
    ‘He wants the bottle of wine,’ Arian said quickly, ‘Where did I put it?’
    She looked among the dishes on the huge table and picked up the wine, staring at the writing on the label without comprehension.
    ‘Oh, my good lord!’ Mrs Bob put both hands on her cheeks, ‘you’ve only gone and fetched one of his best bottles of claret and let me use it for the cooking. Duw , there’s a fool I was, I should have warned you not to take anything from the back of the cellar.’
    ‘Oh, well, it’s all wine,’ Arian said huffily, ‘I can’t see that it really matters.’
    Mrs Bob stared at her. ‘If this wasn’t so serious, it would be funny,’ she said. ‘That claret was laid down by Lord Temple’s great-uncle many moons ago. Cost a pretty penny today it would.’
    Arian shrugged and returned to the dining room with the bottle. Calvin took it and stared down at the label for a long moment.
    ‘Mrs Bob must be losing her mind,’ he said at last. ‘This is one of my best wines.’
    ‘It’s my fault,’ Arian said defensively. ‘Mrs Bob has enough to do without running up and down to the cellar. In fact, I might as well tell you now that we are all overworked. There are not enough hours in the day for a small staff to keep a place like this going. I thought a man like you would have the sense to realize that.’
    He stared at her for a long time in silence and Arian braced herself; now she would be dismissed, she would be forced to return to living rough on the hillside. Well, she wouldn’t wait for his scornful dismissal.
    She untied her apron and threw down her cap. ‘I was a fool to come here, this work isn’t for me.’ She pointed to her head. ‘I have a brain, I commit the sin of thinking; something not encouraged in the lower orders, is it, Lord Temple?’
    ‘Sit down.’ He indicated one of the carved ornate chairs beside him.
    ‘What?’ Arian was taken aback by the sudden turn the conversation had taken.
    ‘I said sit down,’ Calvin repeated. ‘I thought you had a brain and yet you fail to respond to the simplest of instructions.’
    Arian sat down. Calvin looked at her for a long moment in silence.
    ‘What would you like to be doing?’ he asked. ‘What would you use this famous brain for?’
    ‘No need for sarcasm,’ Arian said mildly. ‘If you must know, I would like to run a business,’ she spoke without hesitation.
    ‘I would like to buy and sell leather, I know how to choose the best.’ She laughed bitterly, ‘I learned from a harsh teacher.’
    She thought for a moment of Price Davies, so clever when handling skins, able to discern what texture was needed, the correct amount of resilience, how to cost the leather coming from the tannery to the nearest penny.
    ‘I’m not interested in your past,’ Calvin said in a matter-of-fact way that Arian found strangely comforting. ‘I’m not really interested in you at all – as a woman – but as a business prospect maybe there’s a chance we could work something out.’
    ‘What do you mean,’ Arian said, ‘work something out?’
    ‘Do you mind if I eat my dinner while we talk?’ Calvin said lifting the gleaming cutlery. ‘Now that you have used my best claret for sauce, I might as well enjoy it.’
    Arian waited in a fever of impatience, oblivious of her surroundings; the elegant dining room, the high chandeliers, the sumptuously curtained windows were all part of a backdrop to her. Here was Calvin offering her a way forward for the future but what was the catch?
    ‘Through my somewhat disastrous marriage, I became interested in the footwear business,’ Calvin said. ‘If