Lord Barry's Dream House Read Online Free PDF

color and fabrics. Whether or not she might offer them to her patron would remain to be seen.
    “Juliana, what is that man doing?” Uncle George inquired.
    She glanced at Lord Barry to find him absorbed in the detailing of the trim around the doors. Swiftly crossing to her uncle’s side, she raised her brows in silent query.
    George pointed out of the window to where a man prepared to cut into a long piece of lumber. Juliana gasped and darted from the room without another word to anyone.
    “Shall we proceed, milord?” George said patiently. “It seems my niece is momentarily required elsewhere.”
    Edmund frowned, then joined the other men in exploring the remainder of the ground floor.
    Juliana rushed out the central door and flew down the stairs and across the grounds, reaching the carpenter who had placed his saw upon the length of wood.
    “Precisely what do you think you are doing, my good man?” she demanded, hands on hips.
    He hiccupped and said, “Was told to cut this in one-foot pieces. Walls too short in the stables.”
    Juliana boldly took the saw from his unresisting hands and subtly guided him away from the spot. The man was slightly foxed—not the first time this had occurred to one of the carpenters.
    “I do believe there are ample short pieces of lumber here for you to use without resorting to cutting up a long—and rather expensive—piece.” She led him to a pile of lumber containing perfectly good—if short—pieces remaining from lengths that had been used in the main house and were quite usable for his purpose.
    “Oh.” The man was not quite so befuddled that he couldn’t realize that Juliana meant him to work here and leave the other timber alone.
    “Who told you to work with that good piece?” she asked, trying not to sound as annoyed as she felt. There had been entirely too many incidents of this sort. They continued to drive up the cost of the building, something she sought to avoid if at all possible.
    “Fellow over there.” The carpenter pointed vaguely in the direction of the main building, and Juliana sighed. It was clear to her that the culprit would be impossible to identify if all the men banded together to maintain silence. Had she not needed the lot of them, she would have fired the crew and hired others. That was impossible, for they were skilled—in spite of their fondness for ale—and had been excellent workers in the beginning when her father was still living. But Juliana felt that unless she or Henry were in constant attendance, the construction would suffer greatly.
    “Try to use common sense,” she murmured, hoping the man would not take silent umbrage at her words and do worse. “I should like to know why the stable walls were built too short in the first place.” She felt guilty, for she should have inspected them the day before, and she had merely glanced from a distance, depending upon Henry to catch any wrong.
    “Dunno,” the man replied carefully. “Henry Scott looked at ’ em. ”
    J uliana murmured something, then marched away in search of Henry. She could not believe that he would undermine her work on this house. He had always given her to understand that it was as important to him as to her.
    Then she wondered if this was another attempt upon the part of Sir Phineas to subvert the work on the mansion. She would not put it past him to supply strong ale to the carpenters, slipping it to them when she was not present. The men would likely seek to place the blame on Henry, hoping to divert attention from their own wrongdoing.
    When she entered the house again, she was met by Lord Barry, who looked ready to explode.
    “Is there something the matter, my lord?” she said in a brisk, businesslike manner.
    “I would ask about the little rooms scattered here and there in the house. Henry Scott informed me that a number of water-closets are planned, that you have actually ordered the fixtures!” Lord Barry sounded as though he had not believed his ears,