Marblestone Mansion 01 - Scandalous Duchess

more unpleasant to answer. “I dinna keep count, Sir.”
    “ Did she manage to get a fair price?”
    “ More than fair, there were many willing to…”
    “ And did my sister pay her own way?”
    “ She mentioned your brother made all the arrangements for her, Sir.”
    “ I see. Thank you Alistair, that will be all.” Hannish watched the door close and then read the short, but to the point, cablegram again:

    All rooms filled STOP
    No George Graham aboard STOP
    Pleasure to meet you and charming wife STOP

    Hannish wadded the cablegram up and threw it across the room.

    It wasn’t long before the sky outside looked as gloomy as Hannish felt. Rain was beginning to pound against the windows and he found he could not stay in his study a moment more. He picked up the cablegram, smoothed it out, put it in his desk drawer, and went to see what his sister was up to. He found her in the upstairs sitting room surrounded by women, all of whom were looking out the window. At a sudden flash of lightning, each of them drew back a little.
    Sassy giggled, “We dinna often see it in the orphanage. It frightened Old Mrs. Forthright and she’d not let us near the windows. We could see the light, but…” Just then, loud thunder rolled across the sky and then slowly subsided.
    “ Oh look,” McKenna said, “you can see it dance all the way to Kansas. How thrilling!”
    “ Mrs. Forthright was right to be frightened, Sassy,” said Blanka. “You will surely die if it hits you. In Scotland, I once saw it split a tree in half.”
    Sarah sighed. “What I love is the way the rain washes the earth. Everything smells so new and fresh afterwards. You can smell rain coming, you know.”
    “ How?” McKenna asked. “I have never smelled it in Scotland.”
    “ I do not know, but you will smell it here someday,” Sarah answered. “It is spring and it often rains in spring.”
    “ Does it snow in spring?” Donnel wanted to know.
    Sarah answered, “I have seen it snow a foot in June.”
    Sassy wrinkled her brow. “We were not allowed out in the snow either. How deep is a foot, exactly?”
    Sarah held her hands apart to indicate the depth. “As deep as this and you best not go out until the paths are swept. It is slippery.”
    “ We opened a window last year and touched it,” Sassy bragged. “But we was caught; she was always catchin’ us.”
    “ What did she do?” McKenna asked.
    Sassy giggled. “She spanked me good. Then she made me take care of the babies for a whole month while Miss Mary was away. I dinnae let on, but I love holdin’ the babies and rockin’ them to sleep. I had the knack, the others said. Miss McKenna, you best get busy as I’ll be needin’ a baby to rock soon.” Sassy enjoyed the disturbed look on McKenna’s face and then laughed with the others.
    Behind them, Hannish quietly walked away. No matter how badly he felt, Sassy had a way of making him feel better and he wished it would snow just so she could play in it. He had troubles, true, but nothing compared to what Sassy had endured. A spanking at twenty? How humiliating that must have been for her, and to stay in such an awful place for the sake of a sister was a devotion he had rarely seen. Indeed, he could learn a thing or two from her when it came to strength and endurance.

    As the next week progressed, the butlers seemed to have worked out a schedule of sorts, where by each served as their employer’s valet on alternating days. The other butler managed the dining room, the wine cellar, and the male servants. It allowed Alistair time to see to the spring planting of the gardens on his odd days and some early flowers were already beginning to bud. Prescot warned of a late freeze, which made Alistair watch the sky often, though there was not much he could do about the weather.
    The valets, which included Keith, Shepard, Dugan, and Ronan, opened and closed doors, served meals, polished the silver, carried anything heavy and rearranged furniture for the maids. It was also up to them to provide a clean table and chairs when McKenna desired tea outside, usually with Sassy, since Hannish kept himself too busy.
    As head housekeeper, Sarah was in charge of the maids, which included Charlotte, Blanka, Donnel and Sassy, when McKenna didn’t need her. They would need more help eventually, but five were enough to keep the rooms currently being used clean. As far as Hannish knew, there were no problems with the housekeepers or the valets.
    The