“The duke mentioned you are excellent at shorthand,” Keele noted. “I wonder if you might demonstrate?”
Henlow had asked for specific information about Ellis’s skills so he could include them in his recommendation. Ellis inclined her head in an authoritative manner, as a man would. “Certainly.”
“You may sit at the secretary’s desk there in the corner.” Keele gestured to a small kneehole desk, the side of which nearly butted up to his.
Ellis stood, and as she drew closer to the desk, noted it was rather scuffed. Also, one of the drawers did not sit squarely. The chair was in similar condition and did not possess quite the same finish. They were not a matched set.
There was foolscap as well as a goose quill and an inkwell along with other writing implements. Thankfully, there was also a pencil, which was much more suited to shorthand. Ellis plucked up the pencil and poised her hand above the paper. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Keele stood and moved to his desk. He did not sit as he dictated a letter to his banker.
As he neared the end of the missive, Keele approached the secretary’s desk. He stood over Ellis and looked down at her shorthand. She was keenly aware of his proximity and his interest. She didn’t care for either. It made her feel scrutinized, which of course was the point of this interview. Still, she didn’t like the sensation of being so intensely watched and judged.
When he was done, she tipped her head up and back to look at him. “Do you read shorthand?”
“A little, but not well enough to make sense of it. Yours seems very good, but I suppose the test is in the transcription. Please write the letter out now. I’ll just work at my desk.” He gave her a brief smile that made him look less like a hunter, then returned to sit behind his desk. His focus immediately turned to the papers before him.
Ellis watched him for a moment, thinking how scandalous it was for her to be in this office—with the door closed—alone with the Marquess of Keele. Instead of feeling anxious, she suppressed a laugh. She didn’t give a fig about preserving her reputation as a woman, as she had no need of it. She only needed to establish her skill and worth as a male secretary.
Setting her mind to the task, Ellis wrote out the letter using the shorthand she’d taken. Satisfied she’d done a good job, she dusted the ink with the wooden sand shaker.
“Finished?” Keele asked, indicating that whilst he’d seemed engrossed in his task, he’d been listening, at least somewhat, to Ellis work.
“Yes.” She was going to stand, but he extended his hand, and if she did the same, she realized, she only had to rise a short distance from the seat of her chair to present him with the letter.
Keele’s gaze moved over the paper quickly. He appeared to be a fast reader. “Well done.” He lifted his focus to her. “I hope you won’t take offense, but your handwriting is quite nice. It’s almost, dare I say, feminine.”
Ellis’s pulse started to pound. She’d worried about her handwriting and had taken pains to write less…pretty. It was too difficult, however, to completely change the way she wrote. So, she’d come up with an explanation. “I have four older sisters. I’m afraid their influence was rather heavy.”
“Ah, I can only imagine what four older sisters might make their younger brother do.” Keele’s eyes glinted with amusement. “I do not have any siblings, so I was mercifully spared such torture. Though, one could argue I was also bereft of familial support.” He said this in a purely matter-of-fact tone so that Ellis couldn’t tell if he agreed with that sentiment or not.
Keele handed the letter back to her. “This is excellent. Prepare it for the Two Penny, and I’ll have a footman take it.”
“When I depart, I’d be happy to drop it at a receiving house, if you’d care to entrust me with the task,” Ellis offered.
“I would, thank you.” He gave her a slight nod as she set the paper on her desk. “Pre-paid. You may take the funds from the box in the top right drawer of the desk there. There is a notebook in which you’ll record the withdrawal.”
Ellis eyed the mess on his desk and the contents of the box that were spilling over the sides. “Is there anything I can do to help with organizing things for you?”
He sent her a sheepish look, but it was so brief that she doubted what she’d seen. “That would certainly demonstrate more of your skills.” Keele scooped up several things and stood. He moved around his desk to deposit the pile on hers. “If you can sort through that, I’d be grateful.”
“Do you have a preference for how it’s organized?” she asked as she sat back down.
“Er, no.” He appeared nonplussed before turning his attention back to the report—or whatever it was—that he was reading.
Ellis began reviewing what he’d given her. She set them in neat stacks—the household ledger, unpaid bills, and correspondence. The correspondence she further sorted into household and estate, social, and that which related to Lacey and Company Press. There were quite a few missives to do with the latter, and she wondered about Keele’s business with the enterprise.
Once she’d separated everything, she did not start with the Lacey and Company correspondence, though that seemed the most interesting. Ellis had a habit of saving the tasks she liked best for last. Instead, she pulled the unpaid bills toward her and reviewed each one. When she was finished, she made notes on a piece of foolscap and put it atop the bills.
Taking the household ledger next, she reviewed the contents and observed how the bills were recorded. There had been no entries for over a month, and she’d noticed that a few of the bills were past when they ought to have been paid. She tucked the ledger beneath the stack of unpaid bills, then moved on to the correspondence, starting with the stack regarding Lacey and Company.
“You’ve sorted through that already?” He stared, appearing awestruck, at the tidy stacks across the top of her desk with an expression of amazement.
“Yes.” She picked up the bills with the note. “There are several unpaid bills that ought to be settled as soon as possible.” She wondered if he wasn’t able to and glanced away awkwardly. “I also found an error on one of them and drafted a note to the merchant that could be enclosed with the payment, the amount of which I adjusted to correct the mistake. I’ve summarized everything here.” She held up the paper she’d put with the bills.
He blinked at her, his expression showing disbelief. “You did all that?”
“You doubt me?” Ellis couldn’t help feeling a bit perturbed.
