AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I know you have more important things to do,’ she said. ‘I will have the tutor.’
‘I suspect you will not make progress with a tutor,’ he said. ‘I think you will somehow manage to convince the man to quit his post. I have seen no dancing tutor of late.’
‘You do not trust me?’ Her brows rose.
‘Should I?’ he responded in kind.
The brows lowered. ‘You do not know what you ask for.’
His eyes didn’t leave hers, but he managed to take in her whole body. Warmth flooded him, and he felt he could conquer the world, but perhaps not stand upright any longer. ‘I know what I am up against. I will fight the challenge.’
* * *
She glanced at the book he opened and the ink swirled into the dreaded confusing shapes. The duke stood, watching her. His hair curled the slightest bit at the end, brushing his ears. Some rested at the collar of his shirt, and some hid behind the cloth.
The currents in her stomach increased. How could she learn with the duke near her?
‘I would prefer to stand,’ she said. ‘If you sit at the desk, I will watch.’
‘You only want to be able to leave quickly if you can think of an excuse. You are scared of the words.’
No. His words flamed a challenge inside of her. She had survived far worse than this. ‘We must start with the letters first.’
After putting the book away, he moved to one of the overstuffed chairs, grasping the back to move it near the desk.
‘I will stand.’ She shook her head.
He dropped the back of the chair. ‘Very well.’ He moved to the desk, shuffled the ledgers aside and pulled out a paper and dipped the pen in ink.
As he wrote the alphabet, she spoke the letters she knew. When she didn’t remember, he marked it and went to another one. Then he asked her to pick out her name and she did.
‘You knew all but four of the letters,’ he said, glancing at her. No smile. No frown. ‘Memorising them should be easy. You also know your name. I’d say you’re more than halfway there already.’
Then he sketched short, quick strokes on the page.
She leaned towards him, watching the movements he made and noting the scent of his hair, bringing back memories of the mornings by the sea, causing a stab of homesickness and a curling reassurance of home.
‘And this is a pig,’ he said of the drawing, jarring her mind back into the room.
He wrote the letters under it and spoke them aloud. She’d not remembered the G.
‘We will name him Snowdrop.’ He glanced up at her and she saw sparkling brown eyes and strong lips, half-upturned, and with a private laugh hidden behind them. Then he returned to his mission. He wrote the letters and called them out as he put them down. ‘This is the W.’ He tapped it with the pen, leaving a drop of ink. ‘And Snowdrop wasn’t quiet. So we’ll have the Q and U.’
‘How did you know of Snowdrop?’
‘Warrington told me.’
‘The earl was wrong. Snowdrop wasn’t unpleasant. I kept her in a soapbox with oilcloth under her because the sow didn’t like her. The stable boy could not have kept her alive, but I did.’
He digested her words. ‘You must not only learn to read—you must let the servants do their jobs. Do you wish to live among the staff or with the people who employ them? If you do not keep your station, your children will not have the same opportunities they could have. The legacy you create for them will follow for centuries. You do not want your children considered less than they could be. If you ignore society’s ways, they will ignore you.’
She stepped back. ‘I do not think they will ignore me. I think they will banish me. How terrible. No more dancing. No more maid putting her hands around my hair and pulling it tightly, trying to put a stinking mixture on it to make it stay in place. I do not want to anger people, but I do not like their discomforting ways.’
She lifted the hem of her skirt slightly as she retreated so he could see. ‘These are my boots. I wear them comfortably in the house. And you spoke to me about them because they are not slippers. The more beautiful my clothes, then the more people will note my boots and talk of them. So I wear the plain dresses.’
‘I noted your gown in spite of its plainness,’ he said, almost under his breath, as he drew another line on the page.
‘Without looking,’ she asked, ‘what colour is it?’
‘Lighter than your eyes. Softer than your hair.’
Seconds passed. She spoke again. ‘Brown. So my boots do not appear so different.’
‘If you are saying you chose that gown so you would not be noticed so much...’ He barely looked over his shoulder at her, but his lips caught her attention. ‘You failed miserably. I hope you do better at reading or you won’t learn a word.’
