A Lady's Secret Weapon Read Online Free PDF Page B

position.”
    “That is too bad,” she mused. “Promoting from within your own household reduces the amount of learning a new servant must undertake.”
    “True,” he said. “However, I’m looking forward to introducing a new perspective. Bring someone in who can look at the running of my household with an objective eye. One thing I cannot abide in my staff is complacency.”
    An interesting observation from a bachelor with a modest number of servants.
    “Won’t you reconsider, Miss Hunt?” he asked. “I have every faith that you will find an appropriate replacement butler in time.”
    Could his lordship’s visit simply be a coincidence? Every instinct told her no, but outside his initial reaction to seeing her, she had detected no ulterior motive. Perhaps the old saying about keeping one’s enemy close at hand might be excellent counsel in this situation. Though she did not precisely view him as an enemy. Not yet, at least. If his suppressed knowledge of her identity ever surfaced and he threatened her business and all that entailed, he would become not only her enemy, but her mortal enemy.
    Making her decision, she said, “Give me a day or two to review whom we have available, my lord. Tomorrow, I will tour your residence and interview your butler, so that I might better understand the scope of your needs.”
    His eyes widened. “You wish to visit my home?”
    “If that is convenient for you, of course.”
    Although he made a gallant attempt, the viscount could not completely mask the caged look in his eyes. “Tomorrow?”
    “Yes,” she said. “I prefer not to tarry long over a new assignment.”
    “Good to know, but I don’t understand why you feel the need to visit my home. Did I not give you enough information to conduct your search?”
    No servant placed through the Hunt Agency ever went to a new situation without either Sydney or Amelia visiting the household first. Much could be derived by a few well-placed questions to the other servants and viewing the living conditions of the home. Amelia’s ability to detect malevolence beneath a pleasant mask was one of the many reasons why she was so valuable to Sydney. Sydney would never forgive herself if she inadvertently sent one of her people into a bad situation like the hell her mother had endured. But her wealthy clients did not need to know that she was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing their new servant.
    “Of course you did, my lord,” she said, with practiced finesse. “I simply like to get a firsthand feel of my clients’ needs before placement. The last thing I want to do is send you an incompatible butler if a thirty-minute visit could have prevented such a waste of everyone’s time.”
    “You have put a great deal of thought into this process.”
    “It is my livelihood, sir,” she said. “Word of mouth has proven to be my best advertisement. If I become too complacent, my clients will become dissatisfied. Dissatisfied customers are the death of any vocation.”
    “A valuable motto.”
    “The credit must go to my father,” she said. “He taught me everything I know about business matters.”
    “Then you were lucky in your mother’s choice of husband.”
    Indeed, she was. However, luck was but one component in her good fortune. “I have much for which to be thankful.”
    The viscount’s charming smile slowly reemerged, softening the square angles of his face and making him intolerably handsome. Lethal, even. “As much as I would like to accommodate your in-person observation, I’m afraid tomorrow’s not possible. Another appointment, you understand.”
    Sydney had battled charmers, bullies, vacillators, and evil all her life. She knew how to handle each set with barely a flicker of forethought. Dealing with Ethan deBeau was no exception, though her adjustments to his moods came much more slowly than normal.
    “Please do not concern yourself, my lord,” she said. “There is no reason for you to be