Page 65 of A Duchess for his Family

Benedict stopped at the edge of the path. “What is the meaning of this?”

His voice crossed the garden like a crack of thunder. The laughter ceased. Sophia turned first. Amelia’s eyes widened. Marjorie froze upon the branch, with one hand curled around the trunk.

“I thought we had spoken about climbing trees.”

“We did,” Sophia replied. Her expression remained calm, though surprise still lingered in her eyes.

“Then perhaps you will explain why Marjorie is presently sitting on one.”

“I am not sitting,” Marjorie protested. “I am balancing.”

“That does not improve the matter.”

Amelia came nearer to Sophia. “She has not climbed very high.”

Benedict looked up at Marjorie. “She has climbed higher than she was given permission to climb.”

“I gave her permission,” Sophia said.

Benedict turned to her. The words struck him with more force than they ought to have done.

“You did?”

Sophia’s brows drew together at his tone. “Yes. I remained beneath her the entire time. I tested the lower branches first, and I made her come down whenever she attempted to climb higher.”

“That was not your decision to make.”

“Marjorie asked first. She listened, she allowed me to show her how to test each branch, and she obeyed when I told her she had gone far enough. I thought that was what you wanted her to learn.”

Nathaniel shifted his weight. “Perhaps we might first establish that Marjorie is safe⁠—”

“She is safe,” Sophia repeated more fiercely.

Benedict’s gaze remained fixed upon her. “For the moment.”

Her chin lifted slightly. “She is being supervised.”

“That does not alter the rule.”

“The rule was that she was not to climb alone.”

“The rule was that she was not to climb without my permission.”

Sophia looked toward the tree, then back at him. “I understood that supervision was the purpose of it.”

“The purpose was to prevent another accident.”

“And that is precisely what I am doing.”

Benedict felt his temper sharpen. Sophia did not appear careless. That almost made the matter worse. She stood before him with perfect sincerity, believing she had interpreted his rule wisely rather than disregarded it.

Yet he had entrusted the girls to her care. He expected her to reinforce the structure he had created, not quietly revise it whenever she thought his caution excessive.

“They require consistency,” he reminded her. “If I forbid something and you permit it the moment my back is turned, the rule becomes meaningless.”

“I did not wait for your back to be turned.”

Nathaniel lowered his head over his glass. Under any other circumstance, Benedict might have recognized the answer as one of Sophia’s quieter provocations. Now it only increased his irritation.