CHAPTER ONE

Mrs. Rose Purple walked through the castle hurriedly with a lamp in her hand. It was already first light and she had to make sure the maids and the other servants were doing their jobs. She had only recently been made Housekeeper after Mrs. Cotton, the former Housekeeper retired due to old age. Now, Mrs. Rose Purple, at the age of forty-two, was the Housekeeper of the Graham residence.

The Graham residence was the castle in which the Duke, Harry Graham owned and resided. The castle had been in his family for over seven hundred years. It had been passed on from generation to generation. Duke Harry Graham’s grandfather, the late Duke Peter Graham, had told him stories about the castle before the old man passed away. Now, the castle was the property of the twenty-eight years old Duke Harry Graham.

Duke Harry Graham was a handsome young bachelor and he was the only child of his late parents. He had no close relatives and he was usually lonely. The members of his household knew that and they all wished the generous young Duke would find someone young, kind, attractive and of royal birth for his wife. Most of them did not speak directly with the Duke but they could tell he was nice and generous because they were better treated than other servants in the city were.

Usually, the servants in the city would have one evening off the whole week. That was not the case with the young Duke’s servants. He wanted his servants to feel a sense of pride and so, he always made sure they were better catered for than most other servants were. To this end, he made sure that they had a day off every week. Sometimes, their evenings were also free for them. This meant that they were able to go into town to have fun and do a few other things for themselves. This was highly unusual and some of the nobles were disgusted by it. They did not like the idea of giving these servants so much free time. They felt it was setting a bad precedent.

On the other hand, it endeared the young Duke to the lower class people. Many of them dreamed to work for him and be a part of his household. Unlike other servants who usually had to sleep inside lockers or tiny rooms, Duke Graham’s servants were a lot more comfortable with more space in their rooms. This made other servants envy them and if people below the middle class wanted to work, they would prefer to work in the Duke’ household. However, very few were ever fortunate to live that dream. The Duke’s household was fifty staff strong and needed no more addition.

That was the very topic that burdened Mrs. Rose’s mind. She needed to speak to the young Duke and she hoped that just like always, he would be in a good mood so she could get his consent on one more staff. She had control over the members of the household but Duke Graham had told her that he would only accommodate fifty servants. He did not need more. Therefore, she would have to request his permission to add even one more person to the staff, even though he would not even notice. She just did not want to start badly as Housekeeper. Otherwise, she would have ignored him and employed her little cousin immediately.

She wondered how Duke Graham would react when she would tell him this morning. She hoped he would be accommodating as he always was.

She finished making her rounds around the house, overseeing the servants. Some of them seemed to need a constant reminder for everything and it annoyed her. They all had a lot of work to do and she did not like them adding to her work by making her move around more frequently. She still had to balance the accounts. The way they were racking up expenses, she could understand why Duke Graham did not want any more maids. She could also understand if he cut out the holidays or limited them. If she had been the one paying all these bills, she would want maximum service for her money. Fortunately, the odds of Duke Graham cutting down on costs by firing servants were low. She knew he would also not reduce the time they had to themselves. Apart from being kind, he was rich and money was not in any way his problem. He had lots of lands and he had a lot of people working for him. His farms were doing so well that he had only recently invested proceeds in the mining industry. Coal was the business of the day and people who had a lot of money to throw around wanted to go into it. It was both a prestigious thing and a prosperous thing to do.

Duke Graham kept a large household so as to help a few commoners get their dream life and because it was fashionable. The number of servants a wealthy person had usually stood as a symbol of his wealth.

“Good morning, Mrs. Rose” the young Duke’s voice came through to her, startling her.

She was still trying to get used to being called “Mrs”. She was not married. She already had two children out of wedlock but she was not married. Still, it was the custom of the day to call the housekeeper by the title of “Mrs”.

“Yes, Your Grace!” she responded to her royal and benevolent employer with as decent a bow a genuflection as she could.

She noticed that her genuflection caused the Duke to smile. That was the desired effect. Now, she too smiled.

“What do you want now, Mrs. Rose?” Duke Harry Graham asked, smiling at her as h headed towards the dining room.

“Your grace, it is a small favor,” she responded.

“Then, it should be easy to grant,” he said to her.

His response made her smile. It would be easy for the blessed benevolent soul to grant her request.

“Your grace, it is about my little cousin. Her employer passed away a month ago and she is currently without a job. As you know, being a servant in a great household is the preferred occupation choice among poor commoners like myself. I was hoping to get her a job here. I need your permission to increase the staff by one more person, your grace,” Mrs. Rose said to her employer.

The Duke smiled. He understood that the poor folk preferred working in great households because of the job security that came with it. The mining jobs, for instance, were usually done on a contract basis and once the contract expired, the workers had their contracts terminated. The same thing applied to most of the other industrial jobs.

“You have my permission, Mrs. Rose. I would like to meet your cousin” he said to Mrs. Rose and watched as a beautiful smile broke out on her face again.

He could see she was relieved and happy. He liked seeing everyone in his household happy. It made him feel happy too.

He went into the dining room. His breakfast was ready and his butler was already on hand to serve him. This morning, he would have to hurry up with his meal. He had decided he would go check up on his farms and on his workers today. He also wanted to get to the mining company and see how business was going. He could request them to send someone to his castle but he did not want to do that. He felt like he needed to go out more often. So, he was going to go out and only come back to the castle in the evening.

“What is your little cousin’s name and how old is she?” the young Duke asked Mrs. Rose who stood close to the door of the dining room as she whispered instructions to a Housemaid.

“Your grace?” She asked. She did not hear what he said to her.

“Your cousin. How old is she? What is her name?” Duke Harry Graham asked her.

She smiled excitedly. It made her feel happy that the issue was still on his mind. He was a busy man who was always in his chambers. She did not think he would even remember after their first conversation.

“Mary, your grace. Her name is Mary Brandon. She is twenty years old, your grace,” Mrs. Rose said to her employer.

“Well, then, she isn’t so “little” now, is she?” The Duke said and smiled as he drank from his glass of wine.