“I need to know so I’ll wear my best dress that day,” the girl chattered excitedly. “I’ve added more flounces at the hem and embroidered a pink handkerchief for the neck so it does not look so unfashionable. I’m told pink works well with my black hair.” She tossed said tresses so the curls bounced.
“Oh, Miss Marlowe has said you will be working the shop, then?” Kate asked, her voice dropping another degree to frost.
“Odila is my only competition, and she makes hats. Besides, she’s short and freckled and no one will pay attention to her.”
Even Fletch wanted to smack the chit, and he didn’t know this Odila.
Fortunately, the drive was short. Keeping an eye out for madmen, he helped the ladies out while the children leaped down and ran up the stairs to school, swinging their books and slates.
“Shall I fetch someone to hold the team while you unload your clock parts?” Kate asked at his elbow, startling Fletch from his observations.
Damien normally turned the team around and left, so the usual assortment of stableboys had not run out.
“Thank you. Just send the footman. He can help me unload.” He tried not to admire her handsome figure or notice the gleam of light on her burnished hair when she released her bonnet, but he wasn’t accustomed to people asking if he needed assistance. He had to study her to be certain she wasn’t poking fun in some way.
“Is your shoulder better?” She nodded at the sling he’d loosely knotted to rest his aching arm. “You seem to be favoring it.”
He grimaced. “Can’t fix a clock with one hand. I’ll live.”
“You could be crippling yourself so you can never work again without pain. Talk to Dr. Walker.” She lifted her hem and entered the manor without a glance back.
Did that mean she wanted him to stay and had just offered an excuse to do so? Because he had no intention of abandoning her until Hugh was found.
He just wanted it to look like he had.
Twenty-nine
Kate
“We’ve only had the two applications.” Lavender set the two receipt test papers on her desk. “I thought there would be more.”
“You’re not offering more pay,” Kate noted. “There’s no incentive for the younger ones who might be literate but have children upstairs.” Like her, but Rob and Lyn were old enough to walk to their aunt’s house after school. Others had small ones they walked home, taking their work with them. The school and that freedom to leave were the reasons Lavender had found so many workers in the first place.
And now, with a possible murderer lurking. . . The uncertainty had even Kate doubting the safety of walking.
“Maryann can write and doesn’t have children. Should I ask why she’s not interested?” Lavender seemed hurt. After all she’d done for the village, she had a right to be.
Kate wondered if Mrs. Jameson couldn’t write or if she didn’t wish to compete with her sister. Her children were old enough to walk home on their own. “Why don’t I make a few discreet inquiries?”
Lavender relaxed a little. “Would you? Do they think the shop is a bad idea? Are they afraid to work there?”
“Good thinking. I’ll start with Maryann. She can walk down with me when I take the buttons. Do you have more fashion books I can take?” Kate knew she was being entirely selfish. She wanted more applicants. She didn’t want to work with Vivien, even though she’d probably be a much better sales person than quiet Odila.
Approving this plan, Lavender provided a stack of older fashion plates as well as a recent order of ribbons.
Kate called in Maryann, who offered no objection to the break in routine to take a walk. The day was cloudy and breezy but flowering bushes and colorful wildflowers distracted from the nippiness. They had a bouquet gathered before they reached the bottom of the drive.
“Miss Marlowe is hoping to open the shop soon.” Kate started the conversation.
“We’re all hoping it will bring in more business,” Maryann said happily. A pleasingly plump young woman in her twenties, she revealed a gap between her protuberant front teeth when she smiled, which was often. “My sister will have to work in a factory if we can’t bring her more piecework.”
“She’s looking after your mother and the youngers now, isn’t she?” Kate knew the family. The sister had been widowed young.
“And keeping the house and farm. She has a bad leg, so me going off to work and bringing piecework home seems best. But with everything costing more and the children always growing. . .” She shrugged.
Kate certainly knew that feeling. “Understood. If we bring in more business, perhaps Miss Marlowe can raise prices and our wages. Are you not interested in working in the shop? She says you didn’t apply.”
Maryann looked startled. “But I did! I left my paper on Miss Marlowe’s desk. Perhaps it got buried?”
