After Wilson stepped out of the room, Georgie smoothed out her brown hair, hoping that she appeared somewhat presentable. It shouldn’t matter to her that Lord Grenton was deucedly handsome, but it did. She had been around handsome men before, but none of them had affected her in such a way as he did. Perhaps that was because her interactions with the opposite sex were always during social events, and she’d never seen Lord Grenton at one of those. Regardless, he was her employer, and it would be in her best interest to not dwell on him.
Lord Grenton stepped into the room, and she took a moment to study him. He was dressed in a dark blue jacket, maroon waistcoat, and buff trousers. His blonde hair was brushed forward and his long sideburns were neatly trimmed.
Lord Grenton bowed. “Miss Lloyd,” he greeted, albeit tersely.
Georgie smiled, hoping to disarm him. “It is a pleasure to see you again, my lord.”
Reaching into his jacket pocket, Lord Grenton pulled out a few sheets of paper and held them up. “I have come to speak to you in regard to your list of books.”
“I imagined that would be the case.”
“It is ludicrous that your orphanage would require so many books, considering the girls can’t even read.”
“I am hoping to change that.”
Lord Grenton clenched his jaw. “I thought we agreed to dismiss that ridiculous notion.”
“It isn’t ridiculous,” Georgie countered, “and you only said that I couldn’t hire tutors to teach the girls, but said nothing about me teaching the girls myself.”
“You would teach the orphans?”
“I would.”
Lord Grenton placed the papers onto the desk. “Have you taught anyone to read before, Miss Lloyd?”
“I have not.”
“Pray tell, why do you think you are qualified to teach the girls to read?”
“If not me, then who?”
Lord Grenton reached for the empty chair and positioned it in front of the desk. “My patience is wearing thin with you,” he said as he sat down. “When I give an order, I expect it to be followed.”
“And I did follow it.”
“No, you are trying to find ways around it, and, quite frankly, it is very aggravating. You have too much on your plate with running this orphanage to waste time with reading lessons.”
“I just believe the girls are capable of so much more than we are giving them credit for.”
“As I have said before, we are not a boarding school,” Lord Grenton said. “We are teaching the girls a trade so they can find employment after they leave us.”
“Imagine what doors would be open to them if they learned how to read.”
Lord Grenton shook his head. “Or the doors that would shut for them for being overly qualified.”
“I do not believe that would be the case.”
“Your naïveté is on full display, Miss Lloyd,” Lord Grenton said. “You were no doubt raised in a household where your every whim was indulged, but you need to understand that these orphans were raised much differently than you.”
“I do understand that.”
“I don’t believe you do,” Lord Grenton pressed. “You need to accept your lot in life, and you must accept theirs.”
Georgie reached for the ledger and asked, “What if I found the funds to pay for tutors to teach the girls?”
“How would you accomplish that feat?”
“I don’t rightly know, but I am sure we can trim the cost somehow.”
