The Reluctant Duke (Love's Pride Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

how inane.
    “Yes, Your Grace. It is very pleasant.”
    Why is it, when one of his young soldiers called him sir, it affirmed that he was in charge. However, when this pretty young woman called him Your Grace, it just made him feel old and decrepit.
    This is preposterous. He’d faced canons and bayonet charges. He’d led tough, grizzled veterans against an experienced and terrifying enemy. Nothing should trouble him, yet he felt out of place. He didn’t know the rules, didn’t know what was expected of him.
    Let’s be honest, he thought, he knew what was expected, and he knew the rules, he just didn’t like them.
    Focus on making Brookshire and all of his holding successful he thought. Remember you have thousands of tenants and hundreds of retainers depending upon your actions.
    The silence between them returned, not as tense or unnerving as before, but still there between them like a dead fish on the parlor floor.
    The horse slowly made its way up the narrow path. Normally Thomas would have been getting impatient with the plodding pace. There were too many things that needed to get done, too many problems that needed to be solved. He shouldn’t be wasting time like this. But he smiled to himself, he was enjoying the drive, there was something about sitting next to a pretty girl who smelled of lilacs and roses. It just seemed to comfort him.
    “I need to stop at a tenant’s farm, I believe we turn to the left up ahead, and they are just down a short way,” he said. “It shouldn’t be more than a few minutes. I do hope that won’t be a problem.” Again, why was he explaining himself to a servant! But then you don’t see her as a servant, do you Thomas.
    He turned down the road and a few minutes later brought the wagon to a halt in front of a small cottage. He steeled himself for what he must do.
    It was important to be strict he reminded himself. He couldn’t afford people thinking they could get one over on the new Duke, and the Rifes had been getting one over for years. It was better for everyone to know that he had high standards. He could always relax later, but under no circumstances could people ignore their rents, the whole system was dependent upon them.
    If they didn’t pay their rents then merchants and taxes went unpaid. The whole country would fall apart.
    He quickly observed some problems with the small farm. The fields should have been planted by now. He didn’t know a lot about farming, but there should have been a crop in the ground, wheat, oats, something.
    Where were the farm animals, pigs, chickens, those types of things? The small cottage looked lived in, the shutters were open, and a curtain moved in the breeze. A young woman opened the cottage door and tentatively stepped out, followed by a boy of eight or nine and finally by an older girl of twelve. They were all rather thin with sharp, frightened looks about them.
    “Mrs. Rife?” he asked.
    “Yes, Sir.”
    “Is Mr. Rife about,” he said as he scanned the distant fields. She looks older than she should, he thought. Appearing to be about twenty-eight, maybe thirty with deep wrinkles about the eyes, worn hands and a hard set to her pale lips.
    “My Billy was killed at the Battle of Sourauren three years ago” She said, as she pulled her children closer. “Are you from Brookshire? If you are, I ain’t got your rent. And if you be kicking us out we don’t be having anywhere to go.” Looking him square in the eye, she dared him to ruin her life and all those she held dear.
    He looked around the farm yard, confirming his earlier impression, then looking at the woman and her children. Another soldier lost; each death had impacted so much.
    The next time you want to whine and complain about doing the books or all the correspondence you have to finish, remember this woman. Trying desperately to keep her family together, unable to properly feed them, let alone make enough for the rents.
    So much for being strict about these