Page 27 of The Duke's Promise to Her Child
She leaned forward in her seat. “Number one,” she said, raising her own finger. “I do not choose to do everything on my own. I am a woman without brothers, uncles, or cousins. My father and my mother are dead, and my husband fell off a roof. If I do not know how to do things for myself, nothing will get done at all. Number two…there is nothing wrong with a lady knowing how to lay a fire. I would pity the fool who does not. Do you know how to lay one?” she asked.
He blinked. The smirk appeared. “I do, as it happens. Your father taught me.”
“Well, there you go then. As for number three. I can scarcely afford to pay Mary as it is. Would he have me pile more duties upon her and take further advantage of her good nature? Perhaps you should chase him down and ask whether he would like to contribute to my household expenses so I may hire more staff. Or I can simply allow the whole house to fall into disrepair. And number four … should I have lived in the poorhouse rather than demonstrate that I am capable of negotiating on my own behalf?” She drew a breath. “And number five.”
“There was no number five.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Number five — gentlemen such as Jonathan Pierce are not the sort I would wish to spend my life with. So there.” She sat back and crossed her arms again. People were looking at them, and she was aware that her voice had risen considerably over the last few minutes.
“Well,” he said. “And there we have it. The problem.”
“The problem?”
“This formidable nature of yours. It is perfectly fine for you to display it with me. But we cannot have you act this way with gentlemen. You must be less forthright. More biddable in your manner, at least until a gentleman has made up his mind about you. How did you ever attract Lord Vale with that attitude?”
She flinched slightly and looked away before answering, the way he’d noticed she often did whenever her late husband came up. “I did not have this attitude when I courted him. I was rather more biddable. But I found that it did not serve me well. I did not choose these circumstances, Gideon. But I will not sit down in the middle of them and weep.”
“No,” he said. “But I think it would help if we had some lessons.”
“Lessons? What sort of lessons?”
“Conversation lessons. You and I will conduct ourselves as though we are in company. We will have the sort of conversation you had with Mr. Pierce, and I will help you to respond better.”
She wanted to snort at the idea but knew that was hardly ladylike. Instead she shook her head. “Very well. If we absolutely must.”
“We must,” he said. “And we will start this very afternoon at your house. Now, if you are quite finished…” he paused and glanced at the book. “I do not think I know that one.”
She turned it to face him. “It is by Caroline Crenshaw. A Gothic romance about a young woman who awakens in a castle on an island with no recollection of how she came to be there. She attempts to escape, only to encounter a series of most alarming obstacles. The only other occupants are a grouchy old man who lives in the lighthouse, and his son, who appears at rather inconvenient intervals.”
“Interesting,” he said. “But perhaps not the sort of book to be discussing with potential suitors.”
She got up and tucked the book under her arm. “Well, in that case it is just as well that you are not one.”
“Indeed,” he replied, and offered his arm. She took it, and they walked out together. But as they did, she had to admit to herself that at this very moment she was enjoying her time with Gideon rather more than any time she had spent with any of these perplexing gentlemen.
CHAPTER 12
HELENA
“He told me that I had to be less formidable. Less independent and strong,” Helena said, shaking her head as she told Mary what had occurred.
“Well,” Mary said with a slight shrug, “it might not be the worst thing. You are a very independent woman, and many men in our society do not like that.”
“You are independent too, Mary,” she fired back.
“I am, but I have no hopes of getting married again. No need to. I am forty-nine years old. I already had one great love, though the war chose to take him from me. I have my place here with you and Lavinia.”
Helena’s heart broke a little every time she thought of Mary’s circumstances. Her husband Lawrence had been killed at the very start of the war, and while she had recovered, she knew that often Mary was lonely. They had spoken of the possibilityof finding love again, but in Mary’s case it was always an abstraction. Not something she genuinely considered. In truth, if she could have afford to, Helena would not have remarried either. She had had her fill of marriage. And men.
“I will do what I must to provide for us, Mary. You must know this.”
“I do,” Mary replied. “I do. But perhaps you should take his grace at his word. See what he has to say. You know his reputation. He certainly knows what ladies like. And if he knows what ladies like, that means he has learned what sort of things gentlemen like from ladies, you see.”
“You mean to tell me that because he is a great philanderer he is more than qualified to teach me how to attract a gentleman.”
Mary chuckled lightly. “I suppose that is exactly what I am saying.”
The discussion went no further because there was a knock at the door. Helena went to answer it herself. She already knew it would be Gideon. They had arranged for him to call on her that evening.
