She looked up at him again. Then down at her food. Then up at him.
She went back to eating.
“When I was a boy, I loved orange marmalade best,” he said, trying to maintain some good cheer. “Have you tried some? Would you like to try some?”
This time, she didn’t even glance in his direction. The silence in the room wascavernous.
“Our cook makes very good marmalade,” he continued. “So good that I don’t ever want the kind that comes from the shops. She isn’t the same cook as when I was a child, of course. But the recipe is the same.”
Iris gave him an utterlywitheringstare. This, Ezra decided, was fair enough. He didn’t know how to talk to children, and especially not little girls. With boys, at least, he had the advantage of having been one. Though probably most lads didn’t care to talk about orange marmalade or the employment history of Rutledge House, either.
Jesus Christ, I am out of my depths.
He diligently applied himself to eating a plateful of fluffy eggs, kippers, and, yes, toast with orange marmalade, because it was delicious, damn it all. If he had hoped that eating silently would be less excruciating than his wretched attempts to charm this child, those hopes would have been well and truly dashed.
Iris kept eating as if the food might be taken away from her—and didn’tthatthought cause a miserable twist in Ezra’s guts—but every so often, she would steal a hidden glance in his direction as if he were the person she should be worried about.
It was, in a word, crushing.
Ezra prided himself on his competence. He was a man who got things done. When there was a problem, he figured out how to fix it. When information was missing from a situation, he found it. He liked to be on stable ground. He liked to know what he was about.
And then there was this little girl, who was an utter mystery to him. Who, in a way, seemed to take everything about her changed circumstances in stride. She had not spoken, except to Miss Knightley. That was true. But she also had not pitched any fits or performed any mischief or any of the other things that Ezra understood children often did.
She just watched. Stared. As if she were keeping a record of everything around her for later, in case she needed it.
It surprised Ezra how much he wanted to see the little girl laugh. Smile. Give him any kind of hint—any at all—that any of the things he was doing were therightkind of things.
“Do you remember Miss Knightley?” he asked when the silence became more than he could bear. Ezra could not even count the number of times he’d used silence as a weapon—refusing to speak so that someone he was questioning would become nervous and start babbling. He’d known it was effective, but he was reallyfeelingthose effects.
Iris looked up at him, her big blue eyes wide as saucers.
Lightholder eyes, Ezra thought, not for the first time.
“I see you do,” he said, trying to keep his tone conversational, though inwardly he was crowing with triumph. “Well, she is going to arrive today. She will be your governess. She will help you learn all sorts of things—your numbers and your letters, if you don’t know them already. You shall play games with her, do art projects?—”
Iris didn’tsmileat that, not precisely, but there was a sort of lift to her head that suggested she might have almost, maybe, very nearlyconsideredsmiling.
Ezra didn’t have such restraint. He beamed.
“I see that appeals to you. Well, I am sure we can tell Miss Knightley about your special preferences. Would you like that?”
And then—miracle of miracles—Iris gave him a nod.
A tiny nod.
But a nod.
“Good,” he said. “Now, let us finish our breakfasts. We should want to be ready when Miss Knightley arrives, I should think.”
Iris started shoveling the rest of her porridge into her mouth with a speed that Ezra worried she might choke. Still, he didn’t interfere and finished his own meal at a rather more sedate pace.
This was a victory, albeit a small one.
Thank the good Lord above for Miss Letitia Knightley.
* * *
“Can you believe it?” Sarah had actually put her valise down on the ground so that she could use her good hand to tug excitedly on Letty’s arm. “We are actually going to work in aduke’s house. Together!”
