“Let’s ask them, shall we? Ask them if you can take a leave of absence. I will double your salary.” If she put the dukedom on sound footing, he could afford to give her three of the smaller estates and be ahead for having done so.

She rose and snatched up the pencil. “Stop that. Stop trying to bribe me.”

“Offering the very compensation you’ve longed to earn isn’t bribery. Do you know what rumors of my personal insolvency would do to my bank?”

“Yes.”

She likely did not know what rumors of insolvency would do to his mother, aunts, and sisters. Rachel had been out for “several” years, and she’d had no offers for the past two. Mama was worried, Rachel was quietly despairing, and Rex was supposed to bring all to rights with a smile and a nod.

Mrs. Hatfield paced, the pencil once again behind her ear, and Rex held his peace. He’d told himself that tending to the books was so much financial housekeeping, but then he’d taken a closer look at the figures and admitted he had a problem. Watching Walden’s auditor wrestle with the decision to aid him confirmed that the problem was significant.

Significant to the point of social disaster.

The family could remain handsomely solvent and still be ruined, which meant a dozen cousins, three blameless old women, and several uncles would suffer from the taint of scandal. The cousins would likely have to leave the bank’s employ, the aunties would withdraw from society. Rex’s sisters would be doomed to rural spinster-dom.

And then the bank would fail.

Unless Eleanora Hatfield took his situation in hand, and even then, scandal might still be unavoidable.

“I’ll help you,” Mrs. Hatfield said, coming to a halt before the unlit hearth. “I will give you two weeks. You will pay twice my salary for those two weeks because I will very likely work twice as many hours as I ought. I will devote myself entirely to a review of your domestic books.”

That was an ideal compromise. The banking community was small and gossipy, though Mrs. Hatfield taking a short leave of absence was of no moment, and Rex was confident that she’d not abandon a project halfway through.

“You are turning up your nose at Ambledown?” Was that arrogance on her part, foolishness, or something else?

“I am not a country squire, Your Grace.”

Neither am I, more’s the pity. “What if two weeks isn’t enough?”

“Don’t be greedy,” she said, gathering up her papers from the table. “I will give you two weeks and report my findings. You will give me complete access to your personal finances and to your time.”

The analogy of the tooth-drawer came to mind. “Of course. When do we begin?”

“Immediately.”

Chapter Three

Chapter Three