She gifted him with a radiant smile. “Thank you, Roman.”
Dear God, she humbled him.
“Would you care for a cup of tea and toasted bread?” she asked. “My tea-making skills are fairly reliable and Dora told me how to toast the bread. I’d like to try her method. It doesn’t sound difficult. The loaf is fresh from your mother, so if the first piece is too black, you can eat it untoasted.”
“Who could have imagined the elegant Miss Charnock of London would be willing to toast bread?”
She blushed. “Wait until you’ve tasted my toast before you brag upon me.”
Leonie started toward the house but Roman, still holding her hand, pulled her back. She glanced to him.
“We will share a bed,” he said. Her lips parted as if to protest, but he continued. “Aye, we will. I’ll not do anything you don’t wish.” It would be damned hard not to touch her, but he could. “I’m tired of sleeping on that cot, Leonie. I want my bed.”
“And I can move?” Her chin had come up and a flash of fire lit her eye. “You are the one who left the bed, Roman. Not I.”
“That is true. I’m a fool.”
She looked down at their joined hands, and then her mood softened. She smiled.
He smiled back and, just like that, there was hope for them. It would take time. He understood. She was still fragile. She had set for herself a colossal task, one she must do for herself.
God, could he be patient and wait? Had he not waited long enough for her?
The answer was—he would wait for her forever.
And yes, she burned the toast.
Yes, he ate it buttered with praise.
True to his word, Roman had one of the field workers plow up the back garden. It was quite a chore.
Leonie didn’t have the opportunity to watch the work be done because she and Yarrow were busy discussing staff for the house.
This was all new to her. She’d never run a household and realized her mother hadn’t either. Her mother had other pursuits and Leonie had not paid attention to what the succession of housekeepers over the years had been doing. Besides, in such a wealthy household, there had always been plenty of servants to do even the most basic of tasks. That would not be the case at Bonhomie. Even with the wealth Leonie brought to the marriage, economies needed to be practiced to achieve all that Roman had planned.
Yarrow understood her lack of household knowledge. With infinite kindness, he helped school her in what the lady of such an estate as this should know.
Leonie also had the support and combined wisdom of her mother-in-law and her sisters-in-law. She would have hired the first cook who walked in the door if it had not been for Catherine.
“Don’t you want to know how she cooks?” Catherine had asked.
Shrugging, Leonie said, “She is a cook. She has references. Why would she not cook well?”
“Because there is a great deal to know about cooking.”
“I know nothing. How can I judge if she knows what she is doing? I served Roman burnt toast.”
“You eat, don’t you?” Dora said with her customary bluntness. “That is the only true measure of a good cook.”
Encouraged by the two women, Leonie asked the woman applying for the position to prepare a dinner. The food was terrible. Catherine, her daughters, and even David understood exactly why. There had been no salt. The gravy had lacked flavor because of a lack of fat and the vegetables had been cooked to mush. And so began Leonie’s education in the kitchen arts.
“Even a countess needs to boil an egg from time to time,” Dora declared.
Since that might be true, Leonie attempted egg boiling to accompany Roman’s burnt toast. Eggs led to chickens and Roman had the abandoned coop cleaned out. He purchased hens and a rooster to fill it and it was Leonie’s task to gather eggs until they hired a girl from the village for the duties of a scullery maid.
In two weeks’ time, Leonie hired, with the family’s approval, an excellent cook from Yorkshire who wished to move to Somerset to be closer to her family. The woman had worked on a large estate so understood that she was not only cooking for the Earl of Rochdale’s extended family, but would be expected to serve meals to the field workers, the stonemasons, the carpenters, the stable lads, and the growing number of household staff. Leonie didn’t know how Cook managed the overwhelming task and yet everyone was well fed and satisfied.
Roman hired a land steward, a Mr. Briggs, who came highly recommended and knew exactly how to tame the forests about Bonhomie. The fields began to take shape. One field was sown with the clover that had seemed an odd crop to Leonie but which Mr. Briggs agreed with Roman would be good for the soil and the future. The other two-thirds were planted with corn and hay. Briggs also had a cousin who could restore an old mill that had fallen into disrepair. Soon people would not have to travel all the way to Ilminster to have their grain ground. He and Roman also began making plans for a logging mill. Now that the stream was unblocked, water flowed freely and could be put to use.
