Page 108 of Doxy for the Ton
“But you’ve brought your young man this time.” Mrs. Briggs cocked her head to one side and cast her sharp glance up and down Alexander’s body. “And who mightyoube?”
“I’m…Mr. Sawbridge.”
“Mr.Sawbridge?” Mrs. Briggs folded her arms. “I suppose it’s as good a name as any.”
“It is my name.”
“It’s all the same to me, Mr. Sawbridge, but I’ll not take kindly to deception in my establishment. Trust is a privilege—and it’s not given lightly here.”
“Then I shall consider myself privileged if you’re kind enough to admit me.”
Mrs. Briggs gave a wry smile. “He makes a pretty speech, Mimi darlin’, I’ll give ’im that. So what are you then, sir? For I doubt you’re a plain mister, for all that you’re dressed like one of us. You a lord or something?”
“I’m a duke. But I’ve not come here today as a duke. I’ve come here as Mimi’s…” He hesitated.
“Mimi’swhat?” Mrs. Briggs asked. “Admirer? Benefactor?” She let out a laugh. “Protector?”
“Mrs. Briggs, you promised to be kind,” Mimi said.
“Just so long as he’s kind toyou, darlin’.” Mrs. Briggs unfolded her arms and poked Alexander in the chest. “It was one of your sort who destroyed our Mimi’s life and tossed her out on the street. Mind you”—she took Mimi’s hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze—“she couldn’t find better friends round here than the likes of us. We love her.”
She released Mimi’s hand and gestured back into the hallway.
“Well? What’s with the dawdling? Are you comin’ in or not? There’s much to do today, what with the coal delivery, that I can’t be spending time gossipin’ on my doorstep. We work for a living here, Mr. Sawbridge.”
Alexander grimaced at her sharp tone, and Mimi suppressed a smile. Then he nodded. “I’m here to work, Mrs. Briggs. That’s why Mimi brought me.”
Mrs. Briggs grunted. “I doubt you’ve seen a day’s work in your life—not with those baby-smooth hands of yours. Mind you, we can do somethin’ about that. There’s four bags of coal needing shiftin’, and I can’t do it all myself. A good, strong man is what I need, though I’m loath to say it.”
“In the absence of a good, strong man, willIsuffice?” Alexander asked.
Mrs. Briggs let out a low chuckle. “I suppose when there’s nothin’ better, I could settle for you. Well? Stop your dawdling and come inside—I’ve not got all day. There’s a pile of mendin’, and the chamber pots to clean, and I’ve only got one pair of hands.”
She ushered them into the dark, windowless hallway.
“Ouch!” Alexander cried.
“Are you all right?” Mimi asked.
“I caught my toe on something—a table, I think.”
Mrs. Briggs’s snort cut through the darkness. “I’m not made of money—I can’t afford candles in every room. A good dose of work will take your mind off a sore toe. There’s folk in here who’ve endured far worse. Follow me.”
Mrs. Briggs led them to the back of the house and down the stairs to the kitchen.
“Tea, I think,” she said. “There’s a pot on the boil.”
“I’ll make it,” Mimi said. She crossed the floor to the store cupboard and set out the tea things while Mrs. Briggs busied herself with scrubbing a pile of carrots at the sink.
“I’ve got a nice bit of pork if you’re stopping for supper later,” she said.
Alexander stood in the center of the kitchen, discomfort in his eyes. Perhaps he’d never entered a kitchen before—or any room below stairs.
“What can I do?” he asked.
Mrs. Briggs let out a huff. “Can’t youfindsomething to do? I can’t be spending my time looking around for something to keep the idle occupied. Men! You’re useless, the lot of you. And gentlemen are the worst. Didn’t you hear me say there’s them bags of coal needin’ shifting? You can carry them to the store first, then fill the scuttles and take them to the bedchambers. But don’t go in the bedchambers, mind. The last thing my girls want to see when they wake isyourface gawping at them.”
“Why, because I’m a duke?”
