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Unlike most of his peers, Arthur encouraged his daughter’s education and had already decided to look for a great learning institute for her, and not just one where she would be taught to be a man’s wife. They spent the next half hour eating the delicious breakfast of English eggs, toast with marmalade, and thick-cream milk, and discussing the topic of the Parliament.
When the table was cleared and plates taken away, Arthur dabbed his mouth with his handkerchief. “So, what has your governess planned for your lessons today?”
“We shall be memorizing two poems and reading a bit about flowers. After that, we’ll be practicing our tunes.” Nora said, making a face.
Arthur frowned. “Aren’t the lessons to your liking then?” At the start of the week, he sat down with the governess, Mrs. Cooper, to plan Nora’s lessons accordingly. Arthur took an active interest in what Nora was learning. But he steered clear of everything when music was involved. He couldn’t stand hearing it without palpitations.
“Well, they are but Mrs. Cooper can be so terribly off-key at times! Sometimes she’s so bad, I have to put my hand to my ears to keep her out.”
Ramon stood to the side, stifled a snort and coughed into his hand. Arthur heard the inappropriate sound but chose to ignore it. He turned to his daughter instead. “That’s not a very nice thing to say about Mrs. Cooper. She’s your elder, and deserves your respect.”
Nora rolled her eyes, in a decidedly un-ladylike manner. If Lydia were here, she would have chastised her, but Arthur allowed his daughter certain liberties. She had suffered a terrible blow after the Duchess had passed away. “I do like her,” Nora insisted, “but I really wish I had a better music teacher.”
Arthur ignored this. He wanted nothing to do with music, so he always made sure that Nora’s lessons were focused away from that. It had been to his favor that Mrs. Cooper was such a bad musician and an even worse singer.
Father and daughter walked out of the dining hall. Nora played with her pendant before running to the window. “The weather is so splendid today,” she remarked, looking out.
“Certainly,” Arthur said, already distracted. He noticed the time on his pocket-watch. He had an appointment with his friend Richard in the afternoon.
“Let’s go out, Papa!” Nora said. “It’s such a wonderful day. It would really be a pity if we stayed inside.”
“I have work to do, sweetheart,” Arthur said, knowing that his daughter was too stubborn to let go of it so easily.
And sure enough, she pouted, and her big violet eyes filled with sorrow. “I so wish to go outside, Papa. I dearly want us to have a stroll in the park.”
“Let’s have a stroll in the garden instead,” he said. He held out his hand to her and she reluctantly took it. They walked through a long corridor to reach their backyard filled with wet plush grass, neatly trimmed bushes, and some trees. Two gardeners were working hard on the flower bed. They strolled through the garden in the warm sunshine, watching the two gardeners tend to the flower bed.
“It’s the same every time,” Nora said. “I can’t remember the last time we went out.”
The truth was, neither could he. He had all but isolated himself from Society, which led to countless speculations in the gossip columns and even amongst his peers. Most left him alone, citing his wife’s death even though he was well past the mourning period. The truth was, Arthur didn’t want to go out, nor did he have anything to go out for.
“I really wanted to visit the park. I’ve heard it has a beautiful water fountain and all sorts of birds flock there. I want to feed them, even the swans in the water.”
“How do you know about swans?” Arthur asked.
“It was in my lessons, of course,” she said. Arthur frowned to himself. That lesson wasn’t supposed to be over before next week. They were only reading about lions and tigers the other day. How quickly did they move to birds? Arthur made a mental note to check in with her teacher, but he suspected that Nora was moving farther ahead than he had anticipated. “Papa, please. I do all my lessons on time. I’ve even managed to sew in a straight line two days in a row! Mrs. Cooper says I’m improving.”
“All right, fine,” Arthur said. He knew that she wouldn’t stop asking him about it and he couldn’t keep on saying no to her forever. It was best to just get it over with. “We shall go down to the park, but only on one condition…”
