Housekeeping tasks with Mrs.Creevy done and lessons for Katherine set, Jane sped upstairs to her room to remove her apron and tidy her hair before the Marquess arrived.Butterflies took flight in her stomach at the thought of seeing him again.They doubled in size when she considered accepting his assistance to resolve her financial problems.She hardly dared hope he had some good ideas for saving her family from a dire future.
At ten o’clock, Jane sat in her tiny sitting room, a small fire crackling in the grate.She jumped when the front door knocker rapped.Hands gripped together in her lap, she waited for his entry.Within moments, the door opened and Dalton stepped through to greet her.He looked his usual immaculately dressed self, handsome in his close-fitting black superfine coat matched with gray trousers and black half boots.
“Lord Dalton.Thank you for coming today to assist us,” Jane offered.
“I only hope that I can help you, Miss Brody.I am sorry that you have been suffering more than your father’s loss in the last few months.It is a terrible thing to be forever penny pinching, as I know from my time before inheriting my title.My father kept me on a very tight rein, you see.”He smiled tightly.
Jane nodded in acknowledgement of his words.She indicated a chair at the table.“Please be seated, Lord Dalton.We may devise a plan of attack better at the table, I think.”
“Perhaps not, Miss Brody.Come and be seated with me on this sofa.We can be comfortable to talk there, I believe.”
Surprised, Jane sat where he indicated.Their proximity was that for an intimate tête-à-tête.Jane gripped her hands in her lap to still them and looked up at his handsome but serious face.
“Now, Lord Dalton, please tell me how we can get ourselves out of this financial morass.I still hold hopes of getting more pupils in this area.It is full of middle-class families who surely want to improve the lot of their offspring.It will just take time for them to know us and trust us.”
“Yes, you may certainly do that, Miss Brody.It will bring you in some money but will require a lot of your time establishing and running it.It is a worthy cause, however.”
She nodded, wondering what else he could suggest.
“You do not have enough money to invest in bonds and shares, do you?”
Jane was emphatic.“Indeed, we have nothing to spare.”
“So that is out of the question.Your brothers, I presume, still do not have established careers allowing them to assist you in any way?”
“My brothers have assigned us some of their salary, of course, but it is insufficient.They offered more, but they have so little themselves, I refused outright.I’m sure that in time they will be able to assist us further, but not yet.”
He briefly considered her response.“You don’t have any wealthy aunts or uncles willing to assist you?”
Jane laughed dryly.None would recognize them.“None that I know of.I have applied to our maternal grandfather, who cut off our mother when she married Papa, but the answer was a decided ‘no’ and no wish for further contact.”
“That would be old Baron Tindale, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes.”Uncomfortable with such personal questions, Jane fidgeted in her seat.
“Well, he is in very good health for his age, so I wouldn’t count on him dropping off his perch anytime soon.”
“No, indeed.”Jane wondered what his next angle of inquiry would be.
He paused.“There was no pension due from the parish that your father served?”
“No, I checked with the bishop, but he was adamant that there was nothing due to my father upon his death.”
“And you father’s independent income is what you are living on at present?”Dalton continued to probe.
“Yes.It is paid quarterly, but it is very hard to make ends meet on so little.I have asked the servants if they wish to obtain other employment but they do not.They wish to remain with us.That is wonderful and makes life easier, but they must be paid soon.Their wages plus rent take most of the interest from father’s invested funds.”
He raised an eyebrow.“That leaves nothing else I can think of, except accepting charity from your friends.”
“Well, we certainly won’t do that!”Jane exclaimed.
He closed his eyes.“Will you be able to pay all your bills on the income that you receive from your father’s invested funds?”
“Not without my sister or myself working as a governess or by moving to an even smaller house in amuchless respectable area in London, which will make it almost impossible to run our school.”
“And that is the way in which you and Anna wish to earn your living for the rest of your days?”
“Well, I do, but Anna wishes to marry one day, and so does Katherine.That is why I need to earn more money, so they have some dowry to give them the option to marry.”
