Page 56 of So Wild A Heart

“I had not expected to have so many people present,” Miranda confessed. “I was merely going to go over the estate with Mr. Strong. Did you bring the information I requested?”

“I—I did my best, ma’am.”

“I am sure, Ravenscar, that you and Mr. Dalrymple can add to my knowledge of the estate, as well,” she went on, looking first at Devin, then his uncle.

“I will be happy to help you all I can, Miss—excuse me, Lady Ravenscar,” Devin’s uncle replied.

“Please, call me Miranda. We are related now.”

“And you must call me Uncle Rupert, as Devin does,” he responded, a twinkle in his eyes. “But, I confess, I am at somewhat of a loss. Exactly what are we doing? Strong came to me in a tizzy yesterday, saying that you were going to be running the estate? I told him it was a lot of nonsense, but—”

“Oh, I shall not see to the day-to-day running of it,” Miranda assured him. “That would be far too time-consuming, and I am confident that Mr. Strong can make sure everything goes smoothly. I shall simply oversee it, of course.”

Uncle Rupert stared at her in much the same way the estate manager had the day before. “You are going to oversee the estate?” he asked carefully, as though he had not heard correctly. “But—but you are a girl.”

“Thank you. However, I have to admit that I am a good bit older than a girl.”

“Miranda…I can assure you that money will help us to put the estate in good order. There is no need to worry about it. You should be enjoying yourself. It’s not every day one gets to be a new bride. No doubt there are many things about the house that you will need to get acquainted with first.”

“Oh, I shall meet with Mrs. Watkins and Cummings, of course, but they seem to have things well in hand. If one has a good housekeeper and butler, the household takes little of one’s time and energy, I find. It certainly won’t keep me from getting the estate in order. Don’t worry about me, Uncle Rupert. I am used to working. I have never run an estate of this sort before, of course, but I have had quite a bit of experience with other businesses. I feel sure I will be able to get the hang of it.”

“But—” Rupert turned in confusion to his nephew “—Devin…I don’t understand.” He looked back at Miranda. “Perhaps you don’t realize I am the trustee of Devin’s estate. I will be happy, of course, to try to explain to you about it, but—”

“Well, no, sir, actually you are not the trustee,” Miranda said as gently as she could. “I know that you have been running the estate for Devin for a long time now, and I am sure he appreciates it a great deal. But in point of fact, the trust for his property ended over five years ago. There isn’t a trustee.”

It was just this sort of sloppy handling that she feared had helped the estate to its ultimate demise. Uncle Rupert seemed willing and good-natured, but she had seen little evidence yet of his acumen. It was a delicate situation, for Devin was quite fond of his uncle, but she did not see how she could allow the man to remain in charge of a job for which he was vastly unsuited.

“I suppose that that is technically true,” Rupert admitted.

“It has been very kind of you to continue to do it for so long,” Miranda went on. “But I feel sure that if the truth were known, you would prefer not to have the work and the responsibility. Wouldn’t you?”

“Well, yes, of course, but duty called, you know.” He coughed deprecatingly.

“If you will be so kind as to give me the benefit of your experience and advice, I would be very grateful. As I said, I have not had dealings with this particular sort of business. Most of what I have invested in has been raw land or city lots. And, of course, there was the canal venture that I entered into in Pennsylvania.” At his blank look, she went on. “Connecting coal fields to their markets in Philadelphia and New York. It will revolutionize the industry. But that is neither here nor there.”

“Ah…” Rupert looked faintly dazed. “I will of course be happy to lend you a hand, my dear. Indeed, now that I think of it, you are right. It will be a relief no longer to be responsible for the estate.” His face brightened visibly as he thought about it. “It was rather a hard thing, seeing it sliding down like that year after year and not having the resources to stop it.”

“I am sure it was,” Miranda said sympathetically. “It is a rather large estate, is it not?”

“Almost ten thousand acres,” Strong put in. “Of course, a lot of that is in the Roaches. It’s rocky and pretty much useless.”

“The Roaches?”

“Yes. A god forsaken landscape,” Uncle Rupert said. “It’s the tail end of the Pennine range. Hilly and rocky. Not useful for anything, as Strong said.”

“It’s attractive,” Devin commented. “In its own strange way. We’ll ride down there one day so you can see it if you’d like.”

“Yes, I would.” Miranda smiled at him. “I would like to ride around the whole estate. I want to see exactly what I’m dealing with. Meet your tenants.”

“All right.”

“I shall be happy to take you out on a ride, Miranda,” Uncle Rupert said. “Why don’t we all go? We can ride along the river, eh, Dev? It’s a lovely spot. Have a picnic.”

“Of course,” Devin agreed.

“Excellent.” Miranda favored Devin’s uncle with a smile, then turned to the estate manager. “Now, Mr. Strong, I would like first to see maps of the estate. And you must tell me what the main product is. I assume it’s agricultural.”

“Yes, ma’am. Rents from tenants. They’ve been dropping steadily the past few years. The land just doesn’t produce as many crops.”