She stepped back from him, and looked at her new home. It was a story and a half high, constructed from lumber, with three brick chimneys, and a wooden roof. She was pleased to see the windows were of glass with heavy shutters flanking them. Captain O'Flaherty had been correct when he had said it would be different than anything she had ever known, or lived in. It certainly was.
"There's a cellar beneath the house," Kieran said in an effort to elicit some sort of opinion from her on the dwelling. "We'll replace the house eventually with one built of brick, but for now we can just make enough brick for chimneys."
Fortune nodded. Finally she said, "How big is it inside?"
"It has four rooms on the main floor, plus a buttery and small pantry," he told her. "The servants sleep on the upper floor which is not particularly big. Kevin and Rois have their own cottage nearby."
"Servants?" She was surprised, and then she remembered the indentured woman who had kept her husband from her. "How many?"
"In the house three bondwomen, and in the barn four bondmen," he replied. "I purchased them in Virginia last year."
"Are not bondservants transported criminals?" she asked him.
"Some are," he answered her, "but many have been convicted of ridiculous offenses. Then there are those who have assigned themselves into bondage because after seven years of servitude they are freed, and given their own lands. Mrs. Hawkins, who is our cook, could not pay the physician who attended her dying husband. He had her transported. Dolly, who I bought to look after Aine, is a Catholic. Comfort Rogers, the maidservant, was caught stealing bread to feed her siblings. The four men I purchased to help in the fields and with the livestock are all Puritans. Those are their crimes, but they're welcome in Mary's Land. They are all good workers. I would not bring dangerous criminals into the house, my darling. God! You are so beautiful even in that silly hat with its white feathers." He kissed her again, this time hard, and quick.
Fortune laughed up at him. "This hat is all the fashion in London now. I shall be the envy of every lady in the colony."
"Come into the house, my love," he entreated her, taking her by the hand.
They entered the dwelling so Fortune might inspect it. She was somewhat taken aback to find that inside the walls were rough wood with mud set between the boards to help keep out the wind and rain. However, there was a center hallway that ran the length of the building. The floors were unfinished wooden boards. Thank heaven she had brought India carpets with her, Fortune thought. On the left side of the hallway was their bedchamber. On the right side was a salon. Behind their bedchamber was a tiny second bedchamber, access to which could only be gained through their room. Then running across the entire back of the house and at the end of the hallway was a large keeping room off of which, and almost as an afterthought, were the buttery and pantry.
"The walls have to be plastered at once," Fortune said firmly. "It will be much too cold in winter for Aine, and for me. The floors must be sanded and polished. Where is the furniture I brought with me?"
" 'Tis in the salon but for the bed which I have already set up," he told her, a meaningful look in his eye.
Fortune blushed, but it was a blush of pleasure, and of anticipation. If her husband was eager for her, she was equally eager for him. "The furniture will remain where it is until we plaster the walls. It will not look suitable against the rough boards."
"We will begin tomorrow before the summer damp sets in," he promised. "Come, and meet the house servants," he said, and they walked back to the room where three women were waiting for them.
One was plump and smiling with twinkling brown eyes. This was Dolly, who would watch over Aine. Fortune liked her at once. She curtsied to Fortune very politely.
"Do you know how old you are, Dolly?" Fortune asked her.
"I was born in the year they tried to blow up the Parliament," Dolly answered. "I don't hold with such things, m'lady."
Dolly would be thirty then. "Good," Fortune said, and her own voice was filled with laughter. "I don't hold with such things either. Will you mind having more than one bairn to look after? I plan on having more, and for now you will also have to watch over my Rois's lad. He is two days younger than my daughter. They can both walk and are inclined to get into mischief."
"I can manage," Dolly replied. "Had two of my own before the sickness took them, and my man in the prison."
Fortune felt tears spring into her eyes, and she reached out and comfortingly touched Dolly's hand. Their eyes met in a moment of understanding, and Fortune smiled at the woman.
"Here is Mrs. Hawkins, my darling. Without her we would not eat half as well as we do," Kieran said.
Fortune turned her attention to a tall, big-boned woman, who curtsied to her. "I can see how well fed my husband is, Mrs. Hawkins. I am grateful for your obvious talents."
Mrs. Hawkins smiled, and her teeth were every bit as big as the rest of her. "Thank ye, m'lady. I've a nice big turkey roasting on the spit for yer dinner, and I'm happy to serve ye."
"And this is Comfort Rogers, who keeps our house for us," Kieran said. "She had a bad fright this morning."
"So I have been told," Fortune replied dryly, looking over the bondwoman with a critical eye. Where the other two women were older, Comfort Rogers was barely out of her childhood, and she was very pretty with sandy-colored hair, and blue eyes. "Do you know your age, Comfort?" Fortune was frankly quite curious. The wench had a sly look about her.
"I be born in the year the old queen died, or so I was told," Comfort Rogers said. "Me mam died with the eighth baby, and me dad run off soon after. I be the oldest, and was transported for stealing bread to feed me brothers and sisters."
"What happened to them?" Fortune asked the girl.
Comfort shrugged. "Don't know," the girl said, seemingly unconcerned.
"And don'tcare," Fortune heard Mrs. Hawkins mutter under her breath.
"You will not wander into the woods again, Comfort?" Fortune fixed a stern gaze on the girl.
Comfort didn't answer. She just stared at Fortune.
"You have not answered me, Comfort," her mistress said.
"Didn't mean to get lost," Comfort replied. "I was looking for berries for Master Kieran's breakfast."
"Do not go into the woods again unless you have someone with you who can find their way back to the house," Fortune said firmly.
"You can't tell me what to do," Comfort said boldly. "Only the master can give me orders."
Before Kieran might remonstrate with the girl Mrs. Hawkins whacked her hard on her bottom with a large wooden spoon. "Mind yer manners, ye little London trull. This be the mistress of the house, and the house belongs to her, and all in it. It is she who will tell ye what to do, and ye will do it, Comfort Rogers, else she sell yer bond elsewhere, which I'm thinking would be a good idea." She turned to Fortune. "She can clean, I'll give her that, but she has no respect for her betters, m'lady. Didn't learn it in her own home, if indeed she ever had a home, and a mam she remembers."
"Master! Ohhh, master," Comfort howled, and flung herself at Kieran, clinging to him. "Don't let her send me away! Please don't!" She turned her head to look at Fortune.
"Now, now, lass, just do your work, and mind my good lady wife," Kieran said, "and we'll have no problems. Mrs. Hawkins knows the lay of the land. The house is indeed my lady's. Your loyalty should be first with your mistress." Kieran patted the girl on the shoulder, and untangled her from his person.
Fortune slipped her arm through her husband's. "You will call us when dinner is ready," she said to Mrs. Hawkins, ignoring Comfort.