Devin awoke and felt the bed next to her. She sat straight up when she realized Marcus was gone. She looked out the window and it was just getting dark. That Damn man had left without as much as a goodbye. Devin was angry. She jumped up and ran out the room and down the stairs. Maggie was down in the drawing room. "Maggie when did M'Lord leave?" Devin asked. "Just a few minutes ago." Maggie said. Devin ran to the front door and opened it. "M'Lady you have on nothing but a night shirt." Maggie called after her. Devin paid no mind and ran to the stables. She grabbed a horse from one of the stalls, noting it looked like it had been awhile since they were mucked out. Well she would deal with all this tomorrow. She didn't bother to saddle the horse. She climbed on and took off for the rode. It took her about five minutes but she finally caught up with the group of men. Private Collins was bringing up the rear. He caught site of her first. He rode to the front. "Captain, take a look." He said. Marcus looked back and seen Devin riding up in nothing but a night shirt. Buy God he was going to give her a whipping she wouldn't forget, you could see through that nightshirt and everyman out here was gawking at her. He told his men to halt and rode down to meet her. "What in the hell are you doing woman, riding out her practically naked?" he boomed at her. "M'Lord..." she started. But Marcus was already off of his horse and dragging her down. She was going to learn to act proper if he had to whip her everyday. He dragged her into the edge of the woods. "M'Lord I just wanted to…" she started again. "I don't care what you wanted, you don't come out in front of my men half naked." He said. "Further more it getting dark you have no business out unescorted." He said in a stern voice. He found a tree stump and sat down and pulled Devin across his lap. She started struggling when she realized what his intention was. "Take your hands off me!" she yelled. Marcus pulled her shirt up and clamped his hand across her waist. He lifted his hand and brought it down hard on her bottom. Smack! Devin kicked her legs. He brought his hand down again. Smack! "You will obey me Devin, and start acting like a proper lady." He said and accompanied each word with a hard slap on her bottom. He stopped. "Do you understand me?" he asked. She didn't answer him. Smack! Smack! Smack! "I asked you a question?" he said as he gave her three more hard smacks. "Yes." She said in a quite voice. "Good." He said and stood her up. "Now get back to the house." He said and walked up to the road and his horse. Devin followed him silently. "What was so important you came traipsing out here in your night clothes?" he asked. Devin looked at her feet. "You didn't say goodbye and I wanted to give you these for luck." She said. She went up to him and pinned a ribbon to his shirt and took her necklace off and placed it in his hand. "It belonged to my mother." She said. She quickly stood on her tiptoes and put a quick kiss on his cheek. "Come home safely M"Lord." She said and jumped on her horse and took off for the house. Marcus stood there and felt like a cad. But still she shouldn't have come out in her night clothes. He sighed and rubbed his cheek where she had kissed him. He got on his horse and rode back to his men. Let's ride." He said.
Devin walked back into the house. Maggie was waiting for her. Are you alright M'lady? She asked. "Yes." Devin said. She was a little upset that Marcus had got so upset with her. But there was nothing much she could do about that now. Maggie how many maids are the here?" she asked. "Well there is Three here. "Janet and Mary, there the two young ones, and there's Patricia, she's in charge of the other two, the head housekeeper." Maggie said. "Well then she's the one I need to talk to." Devin said. "This place is not being cleaned properly." She said. Maggie nodded. "M'Lord doesn't spend much time here, they have become lazy." She said. "Could you send Patricia to see me down in the drawing room in about fifteen minutes? I'm going to get dressed." She said. "Yes M'Lady." Maggie said. Devin left to go get dressed. Maggie had a feeling That Miss Devin was going to shake things up around here.
Devin was sitting in the drawing room when Patricia walked in. "M'Lady you wanted to see me. Devin looked her over she was a middle aged lady with a stern look. "Yes Patricia. This house is not being maintained properly." She said. Patricia gave her a nasty look. "M'Lady this is a huge home and there are only three maids. Janet, Mary and myself. Then there's the doorman, Jenkins. There's Tom who is charge of the stables and the boy Joe that works with him. There is Mr. Carlson who runs the aviary by himself. Then there's Miss Travis who is the cook. As you can see we are severely understaffed. I think we do an excellent job considering the size of this estate." She said. "The young ones that work here have a tendency to idleness since the Master is away so often." Patricia said. Devin nodded. "You have done a wonderful job of managing this estate, considering you staffing problems. However one can always do better. I have made a cleaning schedule for the girls. I want you to over see them and make sure they get them done everyday." Devin said. Patricia took the cleaning schedule and looked at it. It was a very good plan actually. Over the course of the week it would see that the whole house would get a through cleaning. "Tomorrow we are going to do the whole house, then after that it should be fairly easy to maintain." Devin said. "That's a big job M'Lady." Patricia said. "I know, but I'm going to pitch in and help, we will start early." Devin said. "M'Lady I don't think that would be proper for the Lady of the house to be cleaning." Patricia said with a new respect in her voice. Devin grinned. "I don't worry too much about what's proper as I'm sure you'll learn soon." Devin said. Patricia smiled back at her for the first time. "As you wish M'Lady." She said. "Could you show me where the ledgers for the household expenses are kept?" Devin asked. "Yes M'Lady, they are in the Master's study." Patricia said. Devin followed her to Marcus's study. She showed Devin to the ledgers and where paper and quills were. "Patricia I want you to call the staff together in the morning so I can give everyone their schedules and introduce myself properly." She said. "Yes M'Lady." Patricia said. "I will need your help to get this estate running correctly. I can't do this alone." Devin said. "You can count on me M'Lady." Patricia said. "Thank you." Devin said. "Goodnight M'Lady." Patricia said.
Devin opened the ledgers and took a look and groaned. They were a mess. This was going to take all night to straighten this mess out. She sighed and got started.
Maggie opened the study door and saw the mistress was still working. "M'Lady you must get some rest." Maggie said. Devin looked up. It was after two in the morning. She sat back and yawned. "I didn't know it was so late. She got up and headed up to bed. "Nite Maggie." She said. "Goodnight M'Lady." Maggie said.
Devin sweated as she scrubbed the floor in the dining hall. She had on a lightweight dress and had her hair tied back with a kerchief. She had talked to the whole staff this morning letting them know there was going to be no more slacking off. She had given everyone cleaning schedules. Tom the head stable man had complained of no help but the boy Joe. She had told him to get started and she would be down first thing in the morning to help him. The whole staff' mouths had fallen open. "But M'lady you can not clean the stables." He had stuttered. She had laughed. "I have cleaned stables plenty of times Tom." She said. He had just shaken his head and murmured something about the Master having a fit. Patricia came in not looking happy. "M'Lady you have a visitor." Patricia said. "Patricia I asked all of you this morning to stop calling me M'Lady, call me Devin." She said. "I will call you Lady Devin." Patricia said compromising with a smile. Devin smiled. "Now who is this visitor?" she asked. "It is the Countessa of Biddeford." She said with a frown. Devin could see Patricia did not care for her. "Why would she come calling on me?" Devin asked. Patricia was silent for a moment. "She is an old acquaintance of the Masters." She said with disdain in her voice. Devin frowned and then realized what Patricia meant. She squared her shoulder and told Patricia to bring them tea to the drawing room. She looked in the mirror; she wasn't going to make a great impression looking the way she did. She had dirt smudges on her face and her unruly hair was escaping the kerchief. She shrugged and made her way to the drawing room.
When Devin walked in the drawing room her heart fell. The Countessa was beautiful. Long curly blonde hair, beautiful green eyes. She was dressed beautifully and was immaculate. The Countessa looked at her and laughed. This was the little snip that Marcus married? There must be some joke. "You must be Devin." The Countessa said. "My Name is Amanda, your husband and I old friends." She said with a nasty smile. Devin narrowed her eyes. "How on earth did you land a man like Marcus? You look like a maid." She said eyeing Devin distastefully. "Well the point is Amanda; I did marry Marcus, while you are married to that old ugly toad Count Biddeford." Devin said smirking at her. "Well I had to marry him, my father forced me to, and if it wasn't for that I would be the one married to Marcus. And I will tell you something else, my husband is on his deathbed, when he dies Marcus has said he will annul your marriage and marry me." She said with a triumphant laugh. Devin was devastated she had thought that Marcus liked her a little, but he was going to rid himself of her when he got the chance. Devin's anger over took her she jumped on the Countessa and started punching her. The Countessa screamed bloody murder. Maggie and Patricia came running in. They gasped in shock. "Lady Devin get off of her." Patricia said pulling the girl off the Countessa. "You stay away from my husband you you…" she said trying to think of the vilest thing she could call the Countessa. "Trollop." She finally spit out. Amanda gasped. "How dare you attack me and call me names. When Marcus gets back I will inform him of you behavior. He will beat you black and blue." Amanda said. She turned and rushed out the door. Devin turned and looked at the two ladies. They stared at her then slowly they started to laugh. Devin started laughing too. "It's about time someone told that strumpet off." Patricia said. "She said she was forced to marry the Count of Biddeford and really wanted to marry Marcus." Devin said. Maggie snorted. "Nobody forced her to do anything; she wanted his title and his lands. She chose the richer of the two that's all." Maggie said. "No don't you go worrying about her, you are married to M'Lord not her." Patricia said. Devin nodded but couldn't get The Countessa's words out of her head. She shook it off there was no use worrying about it. "Ladies lets go to the kitchen and have a cup of tea, were due a short break." Devin said. They headed off to the kitchen.
The next day found Devin mucking out stall along side Tom and Joe. "Lady Devin I don't care what you say this aint fitting work for a lady." Tom grumbled. Devin just laughed. Tom smiled in spite of himself. Devin lit up the whole stables with her smile and cheerful chatter. "Lady Devin I heard how you trounced that she devil yesterday, good for you.' Joe said. Tom smacked Joe on the back of the head. "Ow, what was that for?" Joe asked. "That aint a fit thing to be mentioning to Lady Devin." He said. Devin smiled it's alright Joe, I quite enjoyed trouncing her." Devin replied. They all three laughed and went back to work.
Devin lie in her bed so tired her muscles ached. It had been a tiring two weeks. She had been working hard to get this estate up and running. She sighed and thought about Marcus. She missed him so. She missed the way he loved her. She smiled at the thought of his lovemaking. She frowned suddenly. What if what the Countessa had said was true? He might kick her out on the streets. Her father would not take her back. He truly wanted a woman like the Countessa someone who acted like a proper lady. She had tried her hardest to learn to sew and knit. But Maggie had declared it hopeless. Devin still tried though. The socks she had knitted for Marcus were horrible. She felt tears sliding down her cheeks. She didn't have a chance against somebody like The Countessa.