Lord Loxley's Lover by Katherine Marlowe Read Free Book Online

around and do his habitual hovering once they arrived, which satisfied them both.
    In the two weeks that Mr. Rochester had served as valet, he had more than doubled the Loxley Manor’s income for the month. Much of this was accomplished by the simple expedient of tracking down defunct accounts and persuading them that their past-due amounts would be dismissed as long as payments were resumed promptly, and the rest was accomplished by uncovering neglected industries and inventories, such as the question of the orchard. Mr. Rochester was quickly able to determine that the trouble with the orchard was that Mr. Kepley, who saw to the orchards, had once had an assistant and had once been much younger, and the combination of these two troubles had caused the orchards to become neglected, which reduced their output. Within a day, Mr. Rochester had secured employment and apprenticeship as gardener’s assistant for a young man from the village whose mother had been having difficulty paying her rent for reasons that even Mr. Rochester agreed were legitimate, and the young man and Mr. Kepley set about the lengthy process of revitalizing the neglected orchards.
    Incredible though Mr. Rochester’s accomplishments were, Lord Loxley was beginning to rather feel that he was being avoided , which was a difficult feat for a personal valet. Unless Lord Loxley provided him with an immediate task in direct proximity or left the manor far enough to require overprotective supervision, Mr. Rochester performed his duties and then promptly removed himself in the interests of further improving Lord Loxley’s estates. He was so good at the latter that it was hard to complain, and Lord Loxley was more than happy to do the sums and record the accounts based on the inventories and payments that Mr. Rochester brought him, but there hadn’t been so much as a single kiss since the original incident in the study.
    It was becoming maddening. Lord Loxley had taken it into his head that he would need to take drastic action, whereupon he spent several days in indecision regarding what sort of drastic action it might be effective to take and had still not decided on the day that they took the carriage to Lady Mathilda Loxley’s stately home, which was quite a bit larger than Loxley Manor.
    The company in the carriage was stiff and tense, and Lord Loxley was cold from the rainy May weather. He made two abortive attempts to discuss the weather, but Mr. Rochester’s disinclination to converse was greater than Lord Loxley’s skill at creating conversation and in short order he gave up and resigned himself to riding in silence with his surly, resentful, and unreasonably handsome valet.
    As they arrived at Lady Mathilda Loxley’s estate, they were greeted by a very charming and enthusiastic young lady who Lord Loxley hoped desperately was not Miss Sarah Meriwether, on account of her being only about thirteen.
    She nearly barreled past them in the front hall, stopped short at the sight of them, and stared.
    Quite startled, Lord Loxley stared back.
    The young lady gazed between the two of them in surprise, and settled upon approaching Mr. Rochester with a friendly, curious smile. “Are you Lord Loxley?”
    Lord Loxley winced preemptively on the young lady’s behalf in anticipation of Mr. Rochester’s ill temper, and was exceedingly surprised when Mr. Rochester gave her a kind smile and offered his hand in greeting. “I am Mr. Miles Rochester. This is Lord Loxley.”
    “Pleased to meet you,” the young lady said, bobbing a half-curtsey in better manners than she’d shown thus far. “I am Miss Lucy Meriwether.”
    Lord Loxley sighed in relief.
    Lucy looked the two of them over with continued interest. “You won’t tell that you saw me running in the hall, will you? I’d be in such trouble, and Lady Loxley is so very disapproving.”
    Pressing his lips together to try and contain a smile, Lord Loxley nodded reassuringly to her. “We shan’t tell. It is a