Her Sisters Challenged Her To Sit Beside The Duke Whom Everyone Feared — But His Treatment Of Her Astonished Everyone

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN A:THE FIRST DAY’S WAGES

Selena arrived at the village workroom before sunrise on the first day of her trial.
Mrs. Elkin was already lighting the stove with the grim determination of someone negotiating with an unreliable enemy.
“You are early,” she said.
“I was afraid of being late.”
“Then tomorrow you may arrive at the proper hour and save your fear for something useful.”
Selena hung up her cloak and examined the work laid across the tables.
There were shirts for the schoolmaster’s sons, a mourning dress for the miller’s widow, and twelve coarse aprons ordered by a local baker.

Mrs. Elkin pointed to the aprons.
“You will begin with those.”
Selena looked at the rough cloth.
“I thought you might ask me to repair the mourning dress.”
“I shall ask you to do whatever work is needed.”
“Of course.”
By midmorning her fingers ached from guiding heavy fabric through stubborn seams.
A younger seamstress named Alice watched her struggle with a stiff waistband.
“You are pulling against the grain,” Alice said.
Selena released the cloth.
“Show me.”
Alice demonstrated a quicker method, then stepped back with the expression of someone expecting her advice to be rejected.
“Thank you,” Selena said.

Alice blinked.
“You need not thank me for knowing my work.”
“Then perhaps I should thank you for teaching it.”
The young woman smiled despite herself.
At noon Mrs. Elkin counted the completed aprons and set a few coins beside Selena’s workbasket.
Selena stared at them.
“Is that my wage?”
“It is the portion you have earned today.”
“I have not finished the order.”
“Then you will earn the rest when you finish it.”
Selena picked up the coins.
They were ordinary, slightly worn, and worth less than the ribbon Blanche had bought for the Alverton ball.
Yet Selena felt the strange dignity of having produced something another person had agreed to pay for.

She placed the coins in her purse without speaking.
Mrs. Elkin watched her.
“Do not become sentimental about wages,” she said.
“You will need them for bread.”
Selena laughed and returned to the aprons.