Page 77 of How to Ruin a Duke
“You will miss me for about twenty minutes,” Edith said to the empty room.
This house was in a much nicer neighborhood than the last, and while it was tiny, it was also sturdy, spotless, and situated on a quiet street.The back garden was half in sun and half in shade, but nobody had thought to plant flowers there.
Edith finished her tea and retrieved her new cloak—dark blue—then went around to the mews in the alley and borrowed a bucket and trowel.As she traveled the several streets to her previous abode, she realized that walking unaccompanied no longer bothered her.To go back to the polite fiction that a lady needed an escort at all times would be like donning a corset that laced too snugly, and she wasn’t looking forward to it.
Perhaps Manchester would be different.For a certainty, it was rumored to be dirtier than London, which simply did not seem possible.Edith turned onto her former street and fished in her pocket for a coin.James, the lad who aspired to become a crossing sweeper, was idling as usual beneath a lamp post.
“How fare you today, young James?”
“Miss Edith!I thought you’d piked off.”
She dropped the coin into his grimy little mitt.“My brother and I have moved.I’m back to dig up some of the irises so he’ll have a few flowers at the new house.When I’m through, you should pick a bouquet to sell to passersby.”
The coin disappeared into a pocket.“I can sell your flowers?”
“You’ll likely have more luck if you offer them at a spot with plenty of foot traffic.Oxford Road, for example.Pick a bunch and sell them, then pick another bunch tomorrow.Offer them to people dressed well enough to spare a coin for a flower.”To devise that scheme would have been beyond her six months ago.
“I like flowers,” James said, falling in step beside her.“They smell pretty, like you.”
“Flatterer.Bring a few to your mother too.The flowers should not go to waste, and they only bloom for a short time.The new tenant won’t move in until the end of the month, and by then the irises will be fading.”
James skipped along at her side and chattered about everything from the Mad King to his friend Cora the mudlark.In no time, Edith had a bucketful of muddy roots and green foliage.
“If I sell all of these, I’ll be rich!”James said, burying his nose amid his bouquet.
“You will have a few coppers,” Edith replied.“Save them for when your mama has nothing to spend at market, and she will thank you for it.”
He accompanied her halfway back to her new abode, choosing a busy intersection for his commercial venture.
“Thanks, Miss Edith.Mama will thank you too.”
Miss Edith.Being Miss Edith as opposed to Lady Edith wasn’t so bad.Lady Edith could not have set this boy on the path to earning money.She would not have carried a muddy bucket down a London street just to ensure her brother had something to remember her by.
And—this thought pounced, like an unseen cat springing from the undergrowth—Miss Edithwould not have surrendered her post because a philandering numbskull of a courtesy lord had caught her on the backstairs.
James separated a half dozen stems from the armful he’d been carrying.“You should have these, Miss.”
“That is very kind of you, James.”Edith took two flowers and added them to her bucket.“Good luck with your venture.”
“That fancy cove came back around, you know.The tall gent with the fancy walking stick.”James had the grace to say this quietly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The man with the expensive coat.”James took a half dozen steps along the walkway at a purposeful march, shoulders angled slightly forward.“All business, that one.He paid a call or two on you before you moved.He came around yesterday and the day before and fair pounded the door down.I told him you’d moved.He gave me tuppence and told me to take a bath.Be he daft?”
“My caller came by again?”
“Twice.He’s not friendly.I still have the tuppence and I don’t have to take a bath until Saturday.”
All manner of emotions welled at James’s news.Pleasure, consternation, curiosity, and not a little anger.What sort of lover waits more than a week to stroll by again?Why not send a note?A letter, a bouquet?A little farewell message?Anything?
“Thank you for telling me this, James.It matters.”Though just how it mattered, Edith did not know.
“If he comes around again, do I give him your direction?”
A young fellow walking a large dog hovered nearby, apparently intent on purchasing flowers.
“No need for that, James.I’m off to Manchester in a few days.I believe your first customer awaits.”
