Trifling Favors (Redcakes Book 7) Read Online Free Page A

nursemaid?”
    Dudley folded his storklike legs and dropped onto his bottom next to his niece. He picked her up and she immediately fixed her gums on his left index finger. “Oh, dear.”
    “Long night ahead,” Greggory said. “Any plans?”
    “Lose your girl again?”
    Greggory nodded. “So many applicants won’t work here at all once Mrs. Roach tells them about the household. Either they are too eager or refuse.”
    “They want you to marry them or are afraid you’ll ravish them,” Dudley said. “I can’t live here. Two of us would scare them off even more.”
    “Too bad I can’t find a man to do this kind of work. We’d be set then.” He narrowed his eyes. When his brother made a comment like “I can’t live here,” it meant he was planning exactly that. “What is going on, Dudley?”
    “You need to put a new advertisement into the papers, that’s what,” Dudley said, staring at Sia with rapt attention.
    “Mrs. Roach takes care of that, obviously,” he said. “Why are you in London? Shouldn’t you be—I don’t know, cleaning up after some cows or something in Almondsbury?”
    “It’s a wheat farm,” Dudley said without a hint of humor. “Must you make fun? Besides, I’m starting to think farm life is not for me.”
    “You are managing the Redcakes’ concerns, not actually doing any of the farming,” Greggory pointed out.
    “I know, but village life is getting to me. I’m not growing any younger, and I don’t want some ill-educated, big-bosomed farm girl to wife. I need to spend some time in the city.”
    So his younger brother wanted to find a wife. Rather sweet really. Maybe he could tolerate the old boy under his roof for a few months.
    “I want to move into hotels,” Dudley said. “Cousin Gawain tells me that he’s looking into a hotel investment and there are ownership shares available. I could take a floor manager position with my piece, start a new career.”
    Greggory had some vague awareness of the hotel plan. The idea was to buy it from the original bankrupted builder, to be opened and managed by their cousin’s wife’s former brother-in-law, Harry Haldene. But he’d been too wrapped up in his new marriage and tea shop at the point it had all happened to know much about it.
    “You must be making a fortune with the tea shop,” Dudley said, tickling Sia’s tummy until she giggled. “Uncle Bartley gave it to you outright. If I find a wife, he might bankroll my investment in the hotel as a wedding gift.”
    “He very well might, but I hope you don’t marry just to embark on a new career.”
    Dudley shrugged. “I haven’t anyone in mind; that’s the problem. Can you stake me? I live too far out in the country to spend much money. I have most of two years’ salary tucked away, but that’s not enough to bring to the table.”
    Greggory had Letty’s money set aside, a considerable sum, but he’d planned to keep it tucked away for Sia’s use some day, while he hoped Artie would take over the business. Silly thoughts when he looked at his babies, but then, a father had to plan for his children’s future. It wouldn’t do to leave them flat. He of all people knew the fragility of life. They could lose him tomorrow.
    “I’ll look into it. I’d have to be sure the investment was utterly sound. I don’t have money I can afford to lose.”
    “Of course, of course,” Dudley said, switching Sia in his arms so she could gnaw on a different finger. She laughed as he accidentally brushed her sensitive tummy with his arm. “But you know Cousin Gawain has the Midas touch. He’s never wrong, and he’s considering the hotel investment most seriously.”
    “I’ll speak to Midas,” Greggory said, “if you spend the night in the nursery so I can get some sleep. You seem to be on holiday, but I’m not.”
    “We should wife hunt together. Marry sisters, perhaps? You are less than two years older than me. We can be a matched set marrying a matched set.”
    “Dear