Page 76 of A Marquess' Season of Secrets
“How many do you need, Isabella?” the gardener asked, approaching her with a basket of cabbages.
“Two heads, please,” she replied. “Cook wishes to prepare braised cabbage and fried mutton today.”
“Fried mutton?” the man repeated, his lips spreading into a wide smile. “That’s my favourite, it is. My missus adds livers and onions when she fries it and serves it with boiled potatoes. I expect the duke eats it fancier than that.”
“The livers and onions are served separately, and the duke prefers mashed potatoes to plain boiled potatoes.”
The gardener licked his lips. “Mashed potato with a tart sauce. Hmmm-mmm.”
Juliana had to laugh. James loved his food and often stopped to discuss his supper with her whenever she visited the vegetable garden.
“How is your little one?” she asked him once she had sobered. “Has his fever lessened?”
“His fever has broken,” James replied, tenderness softening his brown eyes. “He awakened his usual self this morning and has not stopped talking since. My poor missus has not slept a wink since he grew sick, so I have taken him with me to give her a little rest.”
“Where is he?”
“I have left him in the garden to mind the pesky birds after my beans. They’re still young, but the crop will be as plentiful as these cabbages.”
“Mr Carter will not be pleased to find our order less than usual this month,” Juliana told him. “He might assume we are buying our vegetables elsewhere.”
“I don’t care too much for the man,” James admitted. “I heard he might have killed Farmer Haskin’s asparagus crop after an argument. I do not know if it is true, but I’m inclined to believe it.”
Juliana was aware of the vegetable vendor’s dishonest ways and didn’t think the story too far-fetched.
“Well, if he did, I hope they find the evidence and punish him accordingly,” she said. “Justice should always prevail.”
“Right you are, Isabella,” the gardener agreed. “Would you like me to take two cabbages to Cook? They are rather heavy and big.”
“I’m confident I could manage, but I would appreciate it if you would take them for me. The pedlar is about to appear at any moment now, and I am hankering after a book to read.”
After the incident, Juliana had decided to stay away from the duke’s library, swapping her chores with Kitty. She still tidied the duke’s study, but it was done so early that there was no risk of running into him or being along with him in the room. Juliana was not ready for that yet.
“Would you get my boy something as well?” James asked, drawing out a few coins. “I promised him a gift, but I haven’t had the time to go to town.”
Juliana folded the man’s hand over his money. “I will buy it for him,” she said. “Consider it my gift to him.”
“I couldn’t do that, Isabella,” the man protested.
“You certainly could, and I shall not take no for an answer.”
Juliana’s stockpile of earnings was growing as she didn’t have many expenses beyond a few personal items. With no family and home to care for, her wages were her own to do whatever she pleased.
“Thank you,” said James, showing a missing tooth as he smiled. “I’ll take these inside before Cook wonders where they are.”
The gardener thanked her again before they parted ways, and she went down to the servants’ gate where all sorts of pedlars usually came to sell their wares. The one Juliana awaited was a tinker, a gipsy who flirted outrageously with all the female servants, young and old.
She saw no harm in him and regularly bought his little books of folk tales, children’s stories, religious tracts, and whatever other literature she could get her hands on.
After work in the evenings, Juliana would read them to whoever wished to listen and was consequently forming a social club within the house.
Tilly had requested some poetry this time, and Harriet had shyly asked to be taught more nursery rhymes to tell them to her younger siblings. Juliana was more than happy to oblige as it took her mind off the duke and her pining away for him.
It was a pitiful situation where a woman wished to keep her distance, but her heart wanted the opposite. Juliana had taken to hiding in corners if she saw the duke approaching, but instead of running off once he was gone, she stood in place and wished for him to reappear so she could gaze upon his handsome form.
Could there be another woman as foolish as I?
Shaking her head, she jumped over a low wooden fence that seemed to serve no purpose, coming to an abrupt pause as the faces of two people swam into her mind.
