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As she turned to pick up the notepaper and quill from the table beside her, ready to begin whatever lesson this new tutor had to teach, she could feel him watching her as though there was a question he wished to have answered. His gaze burned into her skin, causing her to tingle all over, and she had difficulty containing herself.
Turning with the paper and quill in hand, she offered him a gentle smile and asked, “Is everything well, sir?”
“It is you. I’m certain of it,” the earl’s son whispered the words so quietly that Daisy barely heard him. She lifted an eyebrow, preparing to ask him what he meant, but before she could do so, he quickly seemed to shake off whatever was on his mind and then dove right in, “Lady Lockhart, I must ask, why do you wish to learn?”
Daisy had believed his first words were peculiar, but his question was even more so. Straightening her back, Daisy looked at him sternly and responded, “Why wouldn’t I wish to learn?”
The earl’s son appeared quite unamused with her answering his question with one of her own. She could practically see his hackles rising as though he was a dog whose nose had been offended by something they had sniffed at.
“Lady Lockhart, I am a very busy man, and I do not wish to waste my time tutoring you if this is a mere passing desire to keep you entertained while you await a marriage proposal,” Mr Radcliffe announced, his voice so stern that it took Daisy quite off guard. Her surprise was quickly overwhelmed by the anger of his insinuation. Allowing her shock to register upon her face for only a moment, she quickly rebuked him.
“Cupio discere quod feminae satis possunt facere plus quam infantes papavere et tea sequi,” she snapped at him, glaring back with such intensity that she didn’t miss the shock that instantly spread across his face. Silently, she repeated the words to herself in English,I wish to learn because women are capable of more than popping out babies and attending tea.
Self-satisfied and feeling quite smug at his surprise, she smirked at him and placed her paper and quill back on the table so she could cross her arms and show her displeasure.
As the surprise on his face began to ease off, it was replaced by amusement, and Daisy’s anger only grew when he started to laugh.
“Pray tell, My Lord, what is so amusing?” she demanded, never taking her gaze off his. She narrowed her eyes at him, searching his eyes for any hint of the answer, but he only seemed to laugh harder at her reaction.
“Forgive me, Lady Lockhart. I am not nearly so used to ladies being quite so frank,” he exclaimed, wiping away an amused tear from the corner of his eye and sniffling as though he was trying to regain control of himself. “Nor have I ever heard a lady talk of popping out babies, as you say.”
Is that all you thought of my words? That the subject matter was funny coming from the lips of a lady?Daisy thought, continuing to glare at him as she prepared to say the words out loud. Yet she never got the chance.
“Lady Lockhart, I must commend you on your excellent knowledge of the Latin language,” he added quickly, cutting her off, and the genuine compliment in his tone caused her to clench her jaw to stop from saying something she might regret.
Though she was pleased with his saying so, Daisy determined that it was best not to thank him for his compliment. The very last thing she wanted to do was act like a dog who had just completed the perfect trick in the hopes of receiving a treat.
Instead, she smiled sweetly and suggested, “Shall we get on with it?”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Mr Radcliffe responded and quickly rose to his feet to look at the piles of books she had already placed upon the table next to her. He examined a few more closely, picking them up to check the back covers before placing them back down. Daisy watched him silently for several moments, the urge to tell him to get on with it again dancing upon the tip of her tongue until he finally turned and moved over to a bookshelf across the room.
“May I ask what you are looking for, sir?” Daisy asked, keeping her voice as polite as humanly possible even though her nerves and anxieties were threatening to get the best of her.
She had been entirely prepared to mess things up, entirely prepared to force him to change his mind and end the arrangement their fathers had made between themselves, yet she had been entirely unprepared for the idea that she might actually like to be tutored by this man. Though she would never admit it aloud.
“Well, as your Latin appears to be impeccable, I thought that we could begin by reading a few books from the great Roman philosophers,” Mr Radcliffe responded, finally removing a book from one of the shelves that appeared to live up to his expectations. He carried the book over to Daisy and placed it in her hands. “If you wouldn’t mind reading aloud, that is?”
The way he stood over her, eyebrow raised, suggested to Daisy that he was attempting to be daunting. There was no way that she was ever going to back down to a challenge like that, so she took the book and began to read aloud, clearly and with great zeal, her Latin exceptional.
Yet as she read, she could feel the earl’s son watching her from where he had dropped back down into his seat on the couch beside her. His gaze didn’t feel like that of a tutor watching his student. In fact, all the tutors she had ever had never seemed to look at her for more than a moment or two, instead choosing to gaze out into space whenever she was asked to read a passage aloud.
Feeling quite unnerved by it, Daisy paused in her reading and turned to look at him. The earl’s son flinched and began to look away for just an instant. But then their gazes met once more as though he had second thoughts about looking away. She felt him examining every inch of her face, felt his eyes scouring over her skin as though he were physically touching her, and she couldn’t help asking, “My Lord, do I have something on my face?”
To illustrate her question, she reached up to touch her nose, half expecting her fingertips to come away smudged with ink or some other such substance. Yet when she looked at her fingertips, they were clean and pale, just as they always were.
“Lady Lockhart, your frankness is astounding,” Mr Radcliffe responded, looking quite surprised all over again. The smugness inside her battled against her nerves. A part of her was pleased to surprise him, yet the other part was suddenly scared of frightening him off with her directness.
I will not stop being myself for any man,she reminded herself firmly, straightening her back before opening her mouth to respond. Before she could, he added, “I have never met anyone such as yourself.”
The moment the words left his lips, Mr Radcliffe’s lips pursed, and his cheeks flushed pink. His next question shocked her beyond measure. “Lady Lockhart, may I ask, have you ever been to Oxford University; I mean specifically, Christ Church?”
This time it was her turn to blush, and she bit the inside of her lip, the urge to blurt out a dozen lies startling her. Usually, she would answer most directly, having no fear at all of what others might think of her, yet in the face of this beautifully handsome man, she couldn’t help wishing she knew exactly what to say so that he might judge her well.
“I … Well, sometimes I like to sneak onto the grounds and listen to the lectures,” she admitted, realising she could not deny herself by lying to the man. She had to be true to herself and face the consequences, whatever they may be. Even as she said the words, her cheeks grew hotter and hotter until she could feel herself blushing right down to her neck.
Her entire body felt as though it was growing hot with embarrassment, yet she could not bring herself to look away from his startlingly blue gaze. She glared at him defiantly, willing him silently to tell her what everybody else told her, that she was a lady and that it was not appropriate for her to be anywhere near the university unless it was to attend some silly event or other to celebrate the success of men on the arm of her father.
When the nobleman remained silent, and Daisy felt that she had been glaring at him for long enough, she snapped, “You may judge me foolish all you like, My Lord, but I am firm in my belief that women should be offered the same education as any man.”
