Page 45 of The Jilted Duchess
“I havenae seen much of ye since the picnic,” he told her. “I was beginnin’ to think ye were avoidin’ me.”
The color that rushed into her cheeks at the suggestion answered that question conclusively. Still, he was unsurprised when she tried to deny it. “I haven’t been avoiding you.”
“Nay? Ye havenae been to the dinner table in days. Takin’ all yer meals in yer room.”
“I…well, I wasn’t feeling my best,” she managed.
“And yet ye’ve been out horseback riding on more than one occasion.”
She looked down at the book in her lap and said nothing.
“Well, come along,” he said. “I’ve somethin’ I’d like to show ye.”
“Show me? What is it?”
He laughed. “If ye want to see, ye’ll have to come.”
She rose to her feet slowly, and Hector wondered what he had done to inspire such hesitance in her. He had thought the two of them were getting along well enough, but he could see now that he had assumed too much. It was clear that she didn’t feel comfortable in his presence. She maintained a distance from him as they walked along, her arms wrapped protectively about her body.
He cleared his throat, made awkward by her awkwardness, as he led the way into the library.
“I’ve seen this room,” she said. “I was in here earlier today, picking out the book you just saw me reading.”
“Aye, ye’ve seen the library,” he said. “But perhaps ye’ve not seen this section here.”
He led her over to it. It was a collection of books in the far corner of the place, most of them untouched for years and collecting dust. They were of little interest to him, and he’d struggled for years to imagine how they might be of interest to anyone at all.
But he had seen the way she had looked at his ledgers every time she was in his study. The most cursory of glances, to be sure, but enough to let him know that she had a head for figures. And hadn’t she told him that she had taken over the books in her father’s house? That he couldn’t be counted upon to maintain the family finances reliably, and so the task had fallen to his daughters? Reprehensible, but she must have a talent for it.
“I thought ye might take an interest in these,” he said. “Mathematics and economics. They’re of nae interest to me. But I noticed ye’re interested in numbers. Thought ye might like to see it, if ye hadnae found it for yerself already.”
“Oh, this is wonderful!” Alexandra went to the shelf and pulled down a weighty book. “I don’t know that I have the ability to read it, though. I do have a head for these things, but what I never had was a teacher…I don’t suppose you could teach me about it?”
The sudden sparkle in her eyes, after the distance she’d kept from him since the picnic, was enough to make Hector feel as though something within him had been roused from slumber. “I’d teach ye if I could, lass,” he said. “I can’t fathom the contents of those books. Never read them.”
She frowned. “Perhaps a tutor might be hired to explain them to me?” she suggested.
“Aye, we might consider that.”
“I wish I’d been taught properly growing up. My father would have gone to any lengths to get a good education for his child if he’d had the son he so badly wanted. For the four of us, though, he couldn’t be bothered to see to it that we were educated—beyond what he thought we would need to get us married off to good husbands, that is, and of course that didn’t include mathematics.”
“Nay, I wouldnae think it would,” he agreed. “I could see me way to hirin’ a tutor for ye, if that’s somethin’ ye truly want.”
“That would be wonderful,” she said. “It would mean the world to me to be able to learn, Hector, truly. And…and perhaps I could even involve myself in your business ventures?”
He might have seen this coming. To his surprise, it didn’t bother him as much as he thought it might if he’d realized she would ask. “Ye wish to be me bookkeeper?”
“Or perhaps…maybe I could even start a business of my own?” Her cheeks were flushed again, but this time, it was pure excitement putting that color in them, and he had to admit he liked to see it there. “It would be in your name, of course, and you would be in charge of everything, but it could be something I have an interest in. We could make decisions together. I could actually be a part of things, maybe…if you wouldn’t mind.”
She seemed to realize all at once just how forward the request was, because she fell silent and looked down at the floor.
But Hector smiled. “If it would please ye, we can find a way for ye to get involved in business. Whatever ye’d like, we’ll figure a way to do it.”
“You really do say all the right things,” she murmured.
“Is that a bad thing?” She sounded as though it might be.
She shook her head, though. “Not bad,” she said. “Unexpected.”
