Captain Jones's Temptation - Audrey Harrison Page 0,22

acknowledged that she was fully aware of his feelings. She soon would have it confirmed what he thought of her ludicrous scheme.

A footman entered the room, and Esther stood. “Please escort Lizzy to her room and allow her to pack her bag. Do not leave her alone for a moment. When she has finished, return her here for her reference and wages, and then escort her off the grounds. That is, completely out of the boundary. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Miss Hardy,” the footman answered, before waiting for Lizzy to join him. The pair left the room, the door being closed firmly behind them.

“You have opened yourself up to every member of staff taking advantage of you and making our job a damned sight harder than it blasted well needs to be,” Samuel cursed.

“Please allow me to make a judgement in regard to my staff,” Esther answered tersely.

“Where are the consequences for the chit? She’s done wrong and got away with it!”

“She has done nothing of the sort!” Esther snapped in return, finally unable to keep her temper. “She is a child who has been taken advantage of. Do you think her naïveté should be punished for the rest of her life?”

“It looks to me as if there are absolutely no consequences to her action at all. Not when she is walking away with a fistful of money and a reference!”

“You absolute fool! Why do you think she was persuadable?”

“She was besotted with a boy turning her head.” Samuel had walked away from Esther, partially because he wanted to throttle her. Lizzy wasn’t the only one who was being foolish. Esther’s response to the situation frustrated and disappointed him more than he wanted to admit to himself. He had thought her so capable, and yet here she was being fooled by a chit of a girl.

“Perhaps initially. The main motivation for Lizzy would have been the ability to give her mother twenty whole pounds. Do you know what Lizzy’s circumstance is? No, you know nothing! And you could not care less. Well, Captain Jones, for once in your life you are going to listen.” In the heat of her words, Esther had stood, her hands on the desk in front of her. She was as formidable-looking as she had been when telling him off on the first day he met her.

“Go on,” he said reluctantly.

“Lizzy is the eldest of fourteen children. Her father abandoned them after the last child was born. The man had stayed around to produce his family, and then when it became too hard to provide for them, he disappeared. Lizzy’s poor mother does not know what to do with herself. The children who are old enough are all working, and she is taking in sewing, but the woman is almost dropping on her feet. If you were inclined to visit the house, though, you would find it spotless, and although the children are in rags, they are clean and as neat as they can be. I have punished Lizzy. She will not get work in Sidmouth, for gossip travels, so she will lose her connection with her family. She will also take a pay cut, for she was earning more here than she will get as a scullery maid. She took the money because she would have known that it would ease her mother’s burden. That child will not have kept a penny of that money for herself. So, do not talk to me about her getting away with it!”

Samuel looked at Esther through narrowed eyes. He wanted to dismiss her words with a wave of a hand or a mocking look, but he could not. She not only cared for the children in the school; she also took time to get to know her servants’ situations. It was most unusual, but Samuel could not condemn her for it. Yet again, she had surprised him. He was suddenly jealous of the people under her care. She would never abandon those she loved.

“You are quite right, and now I understand more of Lizzy’s situation, I can appreciate why you took the course of action you did. It is very fair of you,” Samuel said.

Esther grinned, her anger dispersed at his change of heart. “I did not expect such easy capitulation, Captain. I am almost disappointed.”

Laughing, Samuel shook his head at her. “I am glad to surprise you. I have to admit, you keep astounding me.”

Esther opened her mouth as if to reply, but quickly closed it. She had