Page 31 of The Duchess Debt

“Helena.”

She sat on the bench of a horse cart with Alice perched next to her. The two were dressed in half-boots and driving coats, and straw bonnets were tied snuggly under their chins. Alice’s face shined with excitement, while Nanny Potts stood beside the cart on the gravel and looked not at all pleased about whatever scheme had been concocted for the day. The only description Gabe could give of Helena’s expression was sheer determination.

He continued slowly down the steps toward the cart and tugged his gloves into place at his wrists. “What’s all this?”

“My chosen activity for today,” Helena announced.

He cast her a suspicious glance as he checked the harness on the woolly pony hitched to the cart. “And what do you have in mind, exactly?”

“I want you to accompany us for a ride across the estate,” she informed him. “Alice and I thought it would be a nice idea to pay visits to the villagers who weren’t able to attend yesterday’s picnic so I can meet them and deliver baskets to them.” Shesmiled so sweetly the gesture made his teeth hurt. “And we thought you should come with us.”

Ah, so that was her scheme. “An ambush, then, is it?”

Her eyes gleamed mischievously. “Wherever would I find the idea to spring an activity on you without warning?”

“Where indeed?” he muttered.Just desserts.He grasped the pony’s mane and shook it affectionately with a pat to its neck “Unfortunately, I’ve already planned to spend the day at the bridge. The new workers are starting, and I want to be there to greet them and give instructions.”

His protest drew a pleased reaction from Nanny Potts, who placed her hand possessively on little Alice’s knee and waited eagerly for permission to pull the girl down from the cart and march her back up to the nursery. Gabe didn’t fault her. The woman was surely bothered by all the changes that having Helena in the house was creating for her. Her round face flashed hope that Gabe would overrule the activity and make Helena see sense.

If only dealing with Helena were that easy.

As if to prove that, she countered, “You have an excellent engineer and project leader in Caleb Parker, so let the man do his job. Besides, he should be the one to greet and instruct the new workers so there’s no confusion about whose orders they need to follow.”

“Yes,” he answered, deadpan. “Mine.”

She wisely ignored that. “You also promised to introduce me to the tenants. Maggie Parker gave me a list of those who weren’t able to come to the picnic.” She gestured toward the back of the cart and the dozen or so baskets sitting there. “Mrs. Brimley and Cook put together baskets of leftover picnic foods to take to them.”

“I helped, too!” Alice interjected.

“Yes, you did,” Helena acknowledged. “We couldn’t have done it without your help.”

Helena slipped her arm around the girl and hugged her to her side, and the small gesture of affection warmed Gabe. Helena and Alice were becoming attached. At least that was one worry he could strike from his list regarding his impending marriage.

Nanny Potts, however, glowered disapprovingly.

“It will only be for the morning,” Helena persuaded. “I promise that you can ride to the bridge this afternoon once we’re finished delivering the baskets and lecture the new workers all you’d like about how you think you’re in charge.”

Gabe grimaced at her teasing and rubbed the pony on its muzzle. Caleb didn’t need him at the bridge today; Helena was exactly right about that, and the sharp woman knew it, too.

“Do we have a deal?” she pressed.

He was reluctant to agree, given yesterday’s confrontation. But he also knew he wouldn’t win this argument and blew out a long breath. “Deal.”

With a parting pat to the pony’s neck, he strode to his horse, took the reins from the stable boy, and swung easily up onto the saddle. He wasn’t prepared for the look of excitement shining on Alice’s face or the happiness on Helena’s. Or the consternation on Nanny Potts’s.

“Nanny,” he called out to her, “enjoy your free morning.”

The woman pressed her lips tightly together, then spun on her heel and walked back into the house.

Gabe made a mental note to find some way of appeasing the woman and reassuring her that her position within the household was not in jeopardy. Then he tapped his heels to his horse’s sides and started down the drive, with the pony cart rolling beside him.

“Where to first?” he called out.

“Mrs. Mary Hansen,” Helena answered. The tails of her pink bonnet ribbons flew around her shoulders in the breeze.

Gabe nodded and pointed to the south so she would know which way to turn when they reached the end of the drive. “She’s a widow who lives with her extended family in a farmhouse near the river pasture. Her husband raised sheep on the estate, and now her sons manage the tenancy. She’s tough as nails.”

“Why would she have missed the picnic?”