Cordelia clapped her gloved hands. “Excellent! There is a great deal of work to be done to the house to make it livable.”
Mr. Merrill nodded. “Yes, my lady. A renovation is in order. I daresay it will take several years to complete.”
She shook her head. “That is unacceptable, sir. There is no plumbing anywhere but on the ground floor, tucked in the most inconvenient corner. This is 1894, not the Dark Ages.”
Thomas felt the blood run to his face in embarrassment, but the estate agent laughed.
“I suppose England must feel like the Dark Ages to you, my lady, compared to the bright and shiny city of New York.”
Cordelia inclined her head. “I don’t see why we couldn’t have working plumbing on all four floors of the house in a few months.”
“To get the job done so quickly, we would need a dozen crews.”
“Then hire them.”
Mr. Merrill scoffed. “The cost would be nearly three times as much.”
His wife shrugged her shoulders. “Cost is not a consideration.”
The man turned to Thomas. “My lord?”
Thomas’s eyes were on his wife. He could see the frustration in all her features. He couldn’t imagine Mrs. Astor, Mrs. Jones, or any New York woman being questioned by their employees as if they were not competent.
He forced himself to smile. “Mr. Merrill, my wife is my partner in all things. You may safely presume that anything she says has my full support and agreement.”
Cordelia gave him a glowing look and squeezed his hand.
“Then, cost isnota consideration?” Mr. Merrill repeated incredulously.
“Speed is our greatest concern,” Cordelia continued, still holding his hand. “You will also need to hire an army of carpenters and tradesmen. Ashdown Abbey was obviously not designed for modern amenities, and it is essential to add walls and doors particularly to the first-floor family rooms and guest rooms. We will have to cannibalize many of the middle rooms to ensure that all of our guest rooms have their own private bathing room and water closets.”
Thomas watched Mr. Merrill furiously scribble down notes.
“How soon would you want the crews to arrive, my lady?”
“As soon as tomorrow if possible,” Cordelia said, cool and confident. “I was up rather early because of the cold and made a full map of the house. I will see that it is in your hands by tomorrow. It will show where I want bathing rooms installed, walls and doors added, and others removed.”
Mr. Merrill wrote down a few more lines before closing his notebook, restoring it to his interior pocket, and standing up. “I shall work on getting plumbers and carpenter crews scheduled as soon as possible.”
“Very good,” Cordelia said with another smile. “Good day, Mr. Merrill.”
“Yes, thank you and good day,” Thomas added.
The estate manager gave them one last bow before taking himself out the door.
Cordelia squeezed Thomas’s hand once again and, to his surprise, lifted it up to her delicate lips and kissed it.
“You said that we would be friends,” she said, grinning down at him. “And part of me didn’t believe you, but you were telling the truth, and I am so very grateful to be your partner.”
Thomas wished he could have sealed their partnership with a real kiss, but Cordelia had already let go of his hand.
“I hope I wasn’t too domineering,” she said, kicking her small, booted feet. “I promise not to change anything that you don’t want me to.”
He thought of the large holes in the carpet and truthfully said, “You can change everything with my good graces.”
Cordelia giggled again. He loved that sound.
“I was hoping that we could divide the work between us,” she said.
