A short time later, Daisy came back with a few of her dresses and a stack of papers.
“Right! Which do you want to look over first, ma’am?” she asked with a smile.
“Give me the papers to look over first. In the meantime, lay the dresses out. I’ll look them over in a moment.”
She hesitated. “Where do you want me to lay them out? I’d hate for the dogs to ruin them.”
Veronica frowned, eyes falling to where Teddy had almost completely destroyed one of his toys already.”
“Perhaps it would be for the best if you simply held onto them for the moment.”
“Of course, ma’am,” she bit back a smile.
Veronica took the papers and began looking them over. “It looks like we’ve made far more progress than I would have expected. Did we hire more staff?”
“I don’t believe so, but I know Mrs. Carter moved around some of the staff so they would have time to work on other projects.”
She blinked in shock. “I didn’t think we’d be able to get so much done without hiring more staff. She has to be cutting back somewhere else though, doesn’t she?”
Daisy shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell you. You’d have to talk to her about that. Do you want me to go and fetch her?”
“That’s quite alright. There’s no need to go to that much trouble. I can talk to her about it some time tomorrow.”
“Of course. I’ll let her know you’ll need a minute from her at some point the next time I see her.”
“Thank you.”
Setting the papers aside, she turned her attention to the dresses. They were rather plain, but that suited both Veronica’s taste and her family’s situation. Most of them were just solid, unembellished muslin in a simple cut.
She looked them over, thinking carefully. “Perhaps I could do some kind of border on the bottom of this one?” she said, motioning to a pale green dress that was currently completely unadorned.
“I can put the others away for now. What were you thinking pattern wise?”
“Perhaps it is a bit cliche, but I was thinking about doing a border of flowers and vines.”
“I think that would be pretty.”
Veronica smiled. “Then I think that’s what I’ll do. You can take the other dresses and bring me my threads.”
She moved to comply.
Not long after she returned and Veronica got to work on the dress, there was another knock at the door.
Veronica shot Daisy a look of confusion.
A servant entered with a tray.
Veronica frowned. “But I was going to come down for dinner. I thought we established this.”
“Normally, yes, but His Grace informed me that he won’t be able to join you for dinner this evening, so he thought you might enjoy the opportunity to spend more time with your new pets.”
“I suppose I can understand that,” Veronica said with a frown. Why did her heart sink?
The servant set the food out on the table before departing, leaving her alone with Daisy.
The lady’s maid frowned. “Is something the matter, Your Grace?”
“No, nothing,.” she shook her head.
