Page 46 of Miss Wylde and the Wynd

It still did not seem right that he had traveled so little, and unfair.

“Have you truly not been anywhere else? What of, oh what are they called for young men…a Grand Tour?”

“England was at war with Napoleon when I would have considered such and decided to remain in England.” He glanced out the window. “Besides, my father was teaching me all that I needed to know to run Trade Wynd, then he died not long after I had completed my schooling. I was one-and-twenty when Trade Wynd became my responsibility.”

That was terribly young to have so much placed on his shoulders.

“I was prepared,” he said as if he knew what she was thinking. “When not away at school, I was learning from my father either at home, but more often at the offices, working late into the night, rising with the sun, touring the docks, and learning all wisdom that he could impart.”

“Then you were never really given the opportunity to travel.”

Damian had been thrust into responsibility beyond what most could begin to understand.

“It is a shame that you have access to so many ships but have never ventured somewhere fascinating.”

Damian chuckled. “Where would you like to visit that is fascinating?”

“I have not given it much thought.” She lied with a shrug, because she did want to visit somewhere that was not Italy, such as India, but it was impossible. “Though, if we do not catch up with my sister before she sails, I might be traveling to America.”

Damian arched a brow, more of an indication that he would not be joining her.

“Is it because you do not like to sail?” Georgie asked. “Which, well, would seem rather odd given your profession.”

This time he laughed.

“I do not mind sailing, though long trips can be tedious, such as the one I vaguely remember when my family sailed from Cape Colony to Southampton when I was all of ten.”

He had told her that he hadn’t been anywhere besides London and Cambridge. Though, maybe he did not see that as travel for adventure or holiday because he had been so young.

“Had your family been to visit Wyndview Farm—the vineyard?”

“I was born there,” he answered as if it wasn’t a revelation. One that surprised her. She had assumed he’d been born and raised in England.

“Is that where you lived until you were ten or did you travel back and forth?”

“I spent the first ten years of my life at Wyndview Farm and assumed that I would learn about making and shipping wine while Sterling was to be trained to be the estate manager. But when an uncle died before he could father an heir, my father became the Earl of Wyndham and we were required to return to England. With the title came the responsibility of Trade Wynd. While he trained Sterling for the earldom, he trained me for Trade Wynd.”

“Have you ever wanted to return?”

“I did think to visit, when I was younger, but my father prohibited it, and then, when he was gone, I never found a time that I could be away for so long.”

Why would a father prohibit a son from visiting the home of his birth, or a vineyard that they owned?

It was a question that Georgie did not feel comfortable asking, and likely none of her concern, but that did not stop her curiosity.

He dismissed his life as nothing more than England and running an import-and-export business, and while she admired his responsibilities, it saddened her that his life was so limited.

Nearly as limiting as hers.

Chapter Sixteen

Damian did not want to discuss his father, family, or his lack of travel. “My turn.”

“Your turn for what?” she asked

“How did your father, who is Irish, end up in Carrera, Italy, in a bakery?” That had to be a far more interesting story than his own parents.

“Architecture,” she answered simply