AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In that case…
Henrietta smiled to herself. She did enjoy a challenge, and it seemed that getting to know the Marquess—thisDaniel Thynne—would be quite the undertaking.
“What is your favorite color, my lord?”
“Green.”
“Do you enjoy walking in the garden, then?”
“At times.”
“Do you perhaps prefer riding?”
“Often.”
“Have you had much opportunity to ride in the parks of London?”
“Not particularly.”
Henrietta bit her lip to keep from revealing her consternation. How was she to learn anything about the man when he insisted on such short answers? He must of course concentrate on his work to some degree, but still. It was as though he was deliberately being too brief in his responses to tell her anything. She could hardly return to Eva with the report that the man had all the conversational skills of the marble he worked with!
She took a deep breath and let an impish smile curve the corners of her mouth. If his intention was to silence her questions through his short replies, he would soon find she was not so easily deterred. She was already so far beyond propriety that she saw no need to be delicate or decorous in her inquiries. He might think her impertinent, but what did that matter to her?Even offended sensibilities will no doubt tell me more than his current preoccupation.
Now, to see what manner of question she needed to ask to elicit an answer of more than one or two words…
* * *
Hetty Smith was a woman of uncommon character, and she was quite possibly the boldest young lady he had ever conversated with.
He had hoped that Hetty would relax and settle into a more natural pose and expression as the session went on. That had been, in fact, his primary reason for not refusing her questions. He was used to silence while he worked and would far rather have had quiet, but he had deemed that satisfying her curiosity might give him further inspiration…or at least encourage her to relax and stop standing stiff and wary, like a purebred Arabian horse in an unfamiliar environment.
On that front, he had succeeded. He’d seen her relax almost the moment he had agreed to her interrogation. And with the questions, it seemed she’d regained some of the boldness that had brought her to his doorstep the night before.
Her first questions had been innocuous enough. His favorite color, which was green, like grass and trees in full spring growth, both things he’d seen far too little of in his years at war.
The questions about his enjoyment of walking or riding were a natural progression of the topic and caused him no concern.
Her next question nearly startled him from his work.
“Where were you raised, my lord? Surely not London?”
He supposed it was a reasonable matter to be curious about, but still. Why on earth should she ask him such a personal question?
Well, he had agreed to answer. And it was not like it was much of a secret, nor anything with which he was particularly uncomfortable. “Northern England.”
He caught a flash of some expression that was gone too quickly for him to be sure of it. Then her expression regained its calm demeanor. “Does your family still reside there?”
“No.” He had no family. None living, at any rate. He had been an only child, and both his parents had passed on shortly before he had become a soldier. He might perhaps have a second cousin or two somewhere around, but any kinsmen he might have were so far removed that neither they nor he had ever felt the need to pursue the relationship.
Case in point that he had not even known he was a relation to the previous Marquess of Salisbury until the news of his unexpected inheritance had come to him.
“If your family does not live where you grew up, did they retire to another estate? Or to the Continent?”
“Neither.”
“But surely…”
“They’ve passed.”
