Page 22 of The Duchess’ Second Chance

“And won’t it be nice to have a member of staff who’s here just to see to your needs? You never had that before.”

“You mean she works for me?”

“Certainly not,” Amanda said firmly. “But she was hired to help you. If you need anything, you may ask her. You may not give her orders. But you may ask.”

Rose considered it. “Is she nice?”

“She seemed nice enough when I met her,” Amanda said. “If you have any trouble getting along with her you can talk to me about it—but I don’t expect that to happen. I know you’ll do your best to keep things nice between the two of you. I can count on you, can’t I?”

Rose heaved a heavy sigh, as though she had been called upon to perform the world’s most arduous task. “I suppose,” she said, dragging the word out so that it was nearly a groan.

Amanda laughed. “You’re going to be very happy here, you know,” she told Rose. “His Grace will take wonderful care of us. And the best part of all is that we know we’ll get to stay together. He agreed to that before I agreed to marry him.”

Rose nodded.

“What would you like to see next?”

“The kitchen,” Rose declared. “Lord Stapleton never let me go into the kitchen. He said I would get dirt on things. But my hands weren’t usually even dirty, and I would have washed them!”

Amanda’s heart ached to think of her father speaking to Rose that way. She hadn’t known. “Of course, we can go to the kitchen,” she said. Hadn’t Sampson told her to treat the house as her own?

Still, it was a new place for her, and at first she struggled to locate it. When she finally did find the kitchen, she discovered a short, stocky woman with gray curls standing before the stove.

“Good afternoon,” she called out, not wanting to shock the cook.

The woman turned. “Your Grace,” she said, nearly dropping her spoon. She caught it just in time. “Is there something I can do for you? Some way I can assist?”

“Not at all,” Amanda assured her. “Young Rose here wanted to see the kitchen, that’s all—and I don’t believe you and I have been introduced.”

“No, we have, Your Grace,” the cook said. “I was there with the other servants when you arrived.”

Amanda was embarrassed. “I’m so sorry I don’t remember,” she said.

The cook laughed. “You were meeting so many people all at once,” she said. “Of course, you wouldn’t remember every single name and face. I’m Jean.”

The name did ring a bell. “Of course,” Amanda said. “Jean. I won’t forget again. Rose, this is Jean. She’s going to be our cook.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Rose,” Jean said with a smile and a tiny dip of a curtsy.

Rose’s lips puckered. “Are you a good cook?”

“Rose,” Amanda admonished her.

“It’s a good question,” Jean said. “You want to make sure the person cooking your meals has the skill to do it well, is that it, Miss Rose?”

“Yes,” Rose said, lifting her chin slightly. “I think good food is important.”

“Well, I couldn’t agree more.” Jean smiled. “Why don’t you take a seat at the counter and I’ll give you a bowl of this stew and one of the biscuits that are about to come out of the oven? Then you can tell me if you think it’s good enough.”

Rose looked up at Amanda. “Can I? You’re not going to say it will spoil my dinner?”

“I think we can make an exception to the rule about eating between meals with this being your first day here,” Amanda said. It was good to see Rose so excited about something. “But you mustn’t get carried away about it, all right? Don’t come to expect this sort of thing every day.”

“No, I won’t,” Rose agreed brightly. She took a seat at the counter and waited as Jean scooped some of the stew into a bowl, then removed the biscuits from the oven. “Would you like something as well, Your Grace?”

The biscuits smelled wonderful, hot and buttery. They were golden brown. Suddenly, Amanda realized she was hungry. “I’d take a biscuit,” she said, claiming the seat next to Rose.

Jean brought them each a biscuit. Rose had already begun to eat her stew, and she grinned up at the cook. “This is wonderful!”