Page 66 of A Duchess for his Family

“This is not amusing.”

“I did not say it was.”

“Uncle Benedict,” Marjorie called from above. “Sophia taught me how to test the branches before I put my weight upon them.”

“That is not the point.”

“She made me come down twice when I went too high.”

Benedict looked up sharply. “You went higher than this?”

Marjorie realized her error. “Only a little.”

Amelia took Sophia’s hand. “She was very careful.”

Benedict saw the gesture. Both girls stood with Sophia as though she required protection from him. Something cold and uncomfortable entered his anger.

“I do not doubt that Sophia believed she was being careful,” he spoke calmly. “But care does not mean disregarding every restriction one finds inconvenient.”

Sophia’s expression altered. “I do not find your concern inconvenient.”

“Only the rules produced by it.”

“That is unfair.”

“Is it?”

She held his gaze. “You told Marjorie she might climb if it was discussed beforehand, supervised, and kept to a reasonable height.”

Nathaniel closed his eyes briefly, as though Benedict and Sophia had confirmed some private expectation of his. Benedict scarcely noticed. He remembered Sophia beneath that first oak, telling him that a rule forbidding all risk might teach a child to take risks in secret. He listened. He revised his judgment. He permitted supervised climbing because she persuaded him that protection could become confinement. But he had not surrendered all authority over the girls.

“They need to understand that instructions are not invitations to negotiate until they receive the answer they prefer.”

Marjorie frowned. “We did not negotiate.”

Benedict gave her a look.

She considered. “Not very much.”

Sophia’s hand closed gently around Amelia’s. “They also need to learn to judge danger for themselves. We cannot keep them upon the ground forever.”

“They are eight years old.”

“And this is how they begin learning.”

“They are not being raised to run wild through the countryside. They must grow into sensible, proper young ladies.”

Marjorie looked offended. “I can be proper in a tree.”

Nathaniel coughed, turning the sound into something suspiciously like laughter.

Benedict’s gaze moved to him. “Do you have something useful to add?”

“Not if useful is the standard.”

“Then remain silent.”

Nathaniel lifted his glass in surrender. Sophia looked at Benedict with a disappointment that reached him more readily than anger would have.