Page 47 of A Duchess for his Family

“The certainty to enter a room as though you have every right to be noticed.”

Sophia regarded him uneasily. “That sounds alarmingly like vanity.”

“It is rank.”

“I had not realized the two were so closely related.”

He took her hand again. “From the beginning.”

Nathaniel laughed aloud.

Sophia looked toward him. “You see what I have to endure.”

“I see it,” Nathaniel replied. “I also intend to enjoy it.”

Benedict began counting. Sophia objected to his pace before they reached four.

“You are rushing.”

“I am keeping time.”

“You are keeping military time.”

“There is no military time in dancing.”

“There is now.”

They began again, then again. The afternoon advanced around them in slow golden stages. Sunlight moved across the carpet. The fire settled lower in the grate. Tea arrived and grew cold because no one except Nathaniel remembered to drink it, and Nathaniel was too occupied offering uninvited commentary to finish his cup.

Marjorie attempted to imitate Benedict’s stern expression and nearly injured herself by drawing her brows too tightly together. Amelia declared Sophia’s turns perfectly acceptable. Nathaniel declared Benedict’s teaching methods suitable for cavalry.

Benedict ignored them all… or attempted to. The problem was Sophia. She questioned every instruction.

“Why must I enter first?”

“You will be the Duchess of Rivermere,” he explained, and for a moment, that seemed to be enough.

But then, she had another question. “Why must I hold my hand so?”

“Because elegance requires it.”

“That seems an extraordinary burden for one wrist.”

By the second hour, Benedict began to understand that teaching Sophia was not an educational exercise but a campaign of attrition. She obeyed nothing without inquiry. She accepted no correction without argument. And each time her hazel eyes lifted to his with that quiet, stubborn challenge, he felt an entirely improper satisfaction.

“You are turning too soon,” he said.

“You are leading too late.”

“I do not lead late.”

“You did then.”

“I was allowing you to anticipate the movement.”

“That is an elegant way of saying you forgot it.”

Benedict stared at her. Sophia’s mouth twitched.