Page 12 of The Artisan and the Duke
“Yes, but … this doesn’t make any sense,” Jules said as she shook her head. “Why can’t I just stay here as one of the servants?”
“You would have to ask His Grace,” Mrs Kelley said simply.
Jules narrowed her eyes and replied, “Believe me, I will.”
The look in Jules’ eyes left no room for doubt that she would indeed be talking to the Duke. Mrs Kelley sighed at her daughter and shook her head. “Try not to get us all thrown in the jails, would you?” Mrs Kelley said with more bite than Jules had ever heard in her mother’s voice.
The tone of her mother’s voice was enough to make Jules pause, but the very thought of the man going behind her back made her blood boil. He had not even had the decency to tell her of his plans. They had been alone in the foyer. He very well could have spoken to Jules then. Jules fumed silently as her mother watched her with disapproving eyes.
Chapter 3
Dinner with the St Claire clan was a quiet affair. Lady St Claire asked an abundance of questions on things that kept Jules’ mother quite occupied.
Duke St Claire and his brother spoke to each other of affairs that somewhat held Jules’ interest, but she did not want to disrupt the conversation. Georgette and Tally were on their best behaviour to Jules’ surprise.
“Do you have any ambitions?” Lady St Claire asked. It took Jules a moment before she realized that the woman was talking to her.
Jules did not know quite how to answer that question. She had plenty of things she hoped to accomplish, but none of them seemed especially welcome over food and drink. Jules opened her mouth but found Duke St Claire already answering for her. He said, “She’s aiming to overthrow the King and put his head on a pike.”
Lady St Claire rolled her eyes at her son. “I asked the young lady, Gregory,” she reminded him.
Jules glanced around at her mother who just gave her a very slight shrug. Jules smiled at the blonde noblewoman and said, “I’m not sure.”
“She talks very commonly,” Lady St Claire whispered. “Did your family have you tutored, or did you go to school abroad?”
Jules shook her head. “I actually apprenticed with an artisan,” Jules said softly.
Lady St Claire gasped, “Really? And your mother and father approved of this?”
“Yes,” Jules said honestly. “Well, my mother wasn’t thrilled, but it actually was my father’s idea.”
The look of incredulity left Lady St Claire’s face. “That explains it all. Men have such strange notions of childrearing,” Lady St Claire said as she gave Mrs Kelley a commiserating look.
Mrs Kelley smiled back at the woman. “My husband was a good man, but he did have some odd notions at times,” she agreed.
Jules met Duke St Claire’s eyes for a moment, and she caught the twinkle of merriment in them. “You do wish to have children, do you not?” Lady St Claire’s question made Jules tear her eyes away from the Duke.
“I suppose. Honestly, I had all but given up on the notion,” Jules said with sincerity.
Lady St Claire nodded her understanding. “I was quite young when I met my Duke. He was very dashing. I never really expected to catch his eye, but here we are.”
“Yes, here we are,” Jules said as she narrowed her eyes over at the current Duke St Claire. The man just raised his glass to her jovially.
***
After the meal, the women retired to a sitting room while the men walked outside. “I noticed when your son went to leave that he has an injury,” Mrs Kelley said softly. “Was he in the war?”
“Yes,” Lady St Claire said. “He took Gregory’s place. You see, Gregory was set to go off and fight evil in the wars, but then his father died. “Gregory had to stay and make sure the family’s place was secure.
When Gregory accepted the title of Duke, Fredrick thought it his duty to take on Gregory’s aims, and he went to do the family proud against Napoleon.” The woman’s words glowed with pride for her sons.
Jules remarked, “Fredrick was very brave to go off to fight in his brother’s stead.” Jules wondered if the man’s quiet nature was more from the war and less from his personality.
Mrs Kelley shook her head. “My husband and I had a son before Jules, but he died of fever when very young. I think that’s where his ideas for Julia came from. He so desperately wanted someone to carry on his legacy,” Mrs Kelley said softly.
“Daughters are precious things,” Lady St Claire said. “I longed for one, but I got boys. I think every mother in life has her lot.”
The mothers’ eyes met, and as they reminisced about their children, Jules was almost uncomfortable as her mother told Lady St Claire about Jules’ childhood antics. There was nothing Jules could do without being completely rude, so she resigned herself to bear it.
