If this is the life of a bottom tier lord than I identify as a beggar

The Harper family was the bottom tier of the families who held the Lord title. They were practically beggars compared to families like Rochforths and the Vaughans, or even the long time disgraced Wades, whose drama constantly caused tongue wagging.

Jude, however, begged to differ. The Manor they lived in had thirty rooms in total, the servants lived on the property, in single cottages that were placed close to the enclosed animals.

The entire property was very big, in his opinion, the amount of acres…he never learned how to count acres of land, but he figured if he owned two cliff sides facing the sea, rocky hills and small wooded mountains, he was pretty well off.

The first day he'd gone to see the horses, which they owned four of. If that was 'poor' to the nobility, then he'd rather be a beggar forever.

Both sets of two were for two coaches, which they also owned six of. Two singles, one double, and the other three were for arriving at 'fellow nobility'. In other words, they were heavily decorated to an almost tacky degree, and looked terribly hot to be in.

He would need to learn how to ride on horseback ASAP, because there was no way he was getting in one of those.

The rest of his day was spent exploring the manor, he'd popped into the sizeable library, touch a few keys on the lightly dusty piano in the sparse music room, and swiftly turned around at the sight of his new sister in the second foyer, eating snacks while commissioning a poor seamster for a new dress.

His last stop before he'd need to see his office, which he hadn't been able to find yet, was the garden.

It was large, the flowers barely tended to except for a row of colorful ones that looked like they'd just been watered.

He was already out of breath, so he went to sit at the stone bench, cherubs carved into the legs, depicted holding up the person sitting on the bench.

He muttered a small 'tacky' under his breath, and made a mental note to get rid of it and buy a more tasteful bench later.

For now, he could only sit down under the tree that provided the ugly bench shade and catch his breath.

He was given what his pocket watch said an hours reprieve, before a butler had finally found him, and insisted he led Jude to his office to approve documents of increased importance.

Said importance was the approval for Myrna's new dress. According to the records he'd been skimming through, their family, or rather, he; made fifty thousand pounds a year, a mere cough compared to Lord Arderne, who made one hundred thousand pounds a year because of his horse rental business, which he had the monopoly on, and had been reportedly been trying to buy some of the Harper lands according to the butler.

The butler, who'd he'd had to send to do other things when he'd realized he'd been acting a bit too clueless about the affairs of the family.

Either way, he approved the commission, it was, after all, only about a hundred guinea. Which from what he'd read about in Myrna's diary, wasn't that much.

Other things to sign off the approval for were repairs for the stables, upkeep of the basement for the upcoming summer, repolishing the flooring of the 'ball room', which he doubted was that big, and approving the servant's monthly payment.

Which he quickly hadn't liked. When he had monthly payments, he felt like he'd been playing 4D chess trying to make sure everything was covered and what money needed to be saved up.

So he reassigned the payment to weekly, and gave them a pound more in their paycheck, which would now be four pounds.

They only had about twenty three servants on record, which would be bad, if their rake in money from the family businesses wouldn't have done more than just cover it.

He didn't have to worry about electricity, because there was none.

They had their own woods, so they had no need to buy firewood, and he might as well just hire a chandler instead of buying 'premium candles' off the market.

They didn't need to light so many rooms at the same time, instead, he'd buy thick and heavy curtains stuffed with wool, and carpets that could warm the floors.

Their family business was sparse, if they didn't have so many fingers in different pies. They were a small fishmonger company, they also hired writers in the city for the paper, and they had a small company in the capitol who did stone work.

All were small companies who wouldn't be able to afford such a manor on their own, but together, well, Jude's Father really was a smart man.

He called the butler back in.

"Here, I approve of these, and these go to be burned. I won't have any more dealings with Lord Simon, he's a cousin to the Wade family, if we're seen making a business deal with him, it'll take a hit to our reputation."

Well, not directly, but if there was anything he knew from customer service, it was people, and they would take a hit to their credibility. People didn't want to work with or buy from someone who was in cohorts with someone they didn't like, even if it was only gossip.

"Are you sure my Lord? Your Father owed him a favor.." He shook his head, "Then ask him to spend it now, but I won't be making public dealings with someone who's family likes to throw stones and receive them on the same day."

"Ah." He turned to the butler, a young man, now that he looked, cut black hair in the front, a mid back braid that laid at the base of his neck that he could see now that the man was half turned.

"Tell the servants to collect their pay at the end of the work day, there's been a change in pay schedule, you'll find more details in the documents.

He turned to look at the monthly visitation records of the estate, in the corner of his eye, he could see the man's jawbone become more pronounced, no doubt he was gritting his teeth.

"Of course my Lord. It shall be done."

"See that it does." He paused again, holding from flipping a page, "I forgot to ask…what is your name."

"Edmonde, my Lord." "What, no last name?" The man shook his head, "I would never presume, my Lord."

"Hm." He turned back to the log, and Edmonde took the opportunity to leave.

As the door clicked shut behind the butler, he pushed the thoughts of the noble sounding name aside, and turned instead to the frequent visits of a young suitor named Yvonee of the Merton family, who'd been requesting his sister's presence every Thursday.

He wrote a side note on a blank sheet, reminding to ask Edmonde about him.

_-_

It had been a week and he quickly found the office his new home, paperwork constantly passed across his desk.

Come Thursday, he gave stern instructions to his newly appointed right hand butler Edmonde, that Yvonee was barred from entry of the estate gates.

It prompted his sister to give him a surprise visit, proving to be immediately volatile twice in a row, but this time, she knocked the ink and thankfully unimportant papers from his desk.

"Just what do you think you're doing, banning Yvonee?! Have you lost your mind from the blood loss?"

He sighed and set his pen aside, lamenting the fact he'd have to buy more ink.

"Yvonee plans to enroll in the army for the upcoming war with the French. If he marries you and then dies, you'll be a disgraced widow, not to mention, he is the youngest of seven, he will never inherit his family's money unless he starts his own business, which, considering he plans to die in war, will never happen."

"Have you no heart! I love him!" He rolled his eyes, "Younger sister, you are eighteen, you do not marry for love, you marry for security. Yvonee is handsome with a good moral compass, I will hand you that, but will not stand by and let some fifteen year old upstart leave my sister a widow, especially since if you married into the Merton family, I could not receive you back."

His sister's wavy black hair was practically frazzled with her upset, "Why not, I am eighteen, can you not let me marry into a higher station, do you have something against me being better off than you?"

He deadpanned, "I bought you a one hundred guinea dress just last week, but that isn't the point, the Merton family's late Patriarch was old blood enemies with the Harper family's Matriarch, they would never let you live in peace should you marry their youngest, whether he loves you or not."

He turned to Edmonde, "Did I get anything wrong?" The young man shook his head, his braid swaying with the motion, "No. You were correct, the Merton family was disgraced by the Harper family after the Harper family's late Matriarch, your great grandmother, rejected their at the time young Lord suitor, who'd begged her for her hand at a large trafficked ball held by the Rochforths."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "See? I told you. I'm not against you tying your hand, but please, ask me if you want to pick potential suitors."

He leaned back in his chair, putting a hand to his chin, "The Vaughans are holding a large ball, one that the prince will attend, or am I wrong?" He turned again to Edmonde who again, shook his head.

"Right, you bought that new dress, correct? Just wear it to the ball, I'll take you as my plus one."

Myrna startled, "You'd…take me?" he shrugged, "Sure, of course, If you don't want to, I can always reject it—" He was cut off, she ran out the door, the poor wood slammed shut.

"You wouldn't have actually rejected it, would you have, my Lord?" Jude shook his head, "Of course not." He looked through his right hand drawer for more ink and paper.

"I would have sold it to Lord Simon to get rid of that favor."

The small, pained "My Lord.." he got in reply kept his spirits up despite the fact he'd have to do the recorded spending log for the month over again.