Page 34 of One Night of Surrender
“You might have,” Viola answered.“I’m confident in Mrs.Cortland’s abilities.Perhaps you should be too.I have to assume you know her better than I do.”
He narrowed his eyes at her.“Assume nothing.”
Viola rose, smoothing her pale blue skirts as she approached him.Touching his arm gently, she said, “I should like to be here for you, if you need me.”She withdrew her hand and left.
Val surrendered to his familiar defense: he didn’t need anyone.
CHAPTER 11
Though she’d only started a few hours ago, Isabelle loved working at the circulating library.When she wasn’t reading, she was recommending reading.She was already thinking how she might use her savings to found her own circulating library.If only books weren’t so expensive.It was a crime, really.Only the wealthy could afford to buy them, and even circulating libraries weren’t free.Plus, you had to return the books, which in some cases had caused Isabelle great heartache.
Isabelle looked up from her book as the shop door opened.Then she gasped in delighted surprise as Beatrice and Caroline dashed toward her.
She’d barely stood from the stool before both girls had wrapped their arms around her.She held them close, basking in their warmth and their familiar sweet scents.Looking toward the door, she braced herself, assuming she would see the new governess or Lady Barkley.
She only saw Val.
“You brought them?”she asked.
The girls stepped back from her but didn’t let her go—Beatrice clutched her left hand while Caroline clasped her right.
“He said he had a surprise,” Caroline said, grinning.“It’s a wonderful one, isn’t it?”
“The very best.”Isabelle laughed.“Now, tell me what I have missed.”
Caroline launched into a diatribe detailing the horrors of needlepoint and the dangers of dancing, then Beatrice complained about Miss Shipley’s terrible pronunciation of French.
“She’s atrocious,” Beatrice lamented.“Your ears would bleed.”
Isabelle stifled another laugh as she glanced toward Val.Only he wasn’t there.Where had he gone?
Caroline sighed.“I never thought I’d say this, but I miss Greek.”
“Miss Shipley doesn’t teach it at all?”Isabelle asked.
Both girls shook their heads.“And Mama doesn’t care.”Beatrice’s tone was derisive.“I’ve been keeping up with it, however.As well as I can.His Grace helped me with some this morning, actually.That’s when he said he had a surprise for us.”
Val was helping them with Greek in addition to bringing them to see her?First he’d found her a job and now he was filling the hole in her heart that had formed when she’d had to leave her charges.Was he simply trying to make up for his authoritarian behavior when he’d dismissed her from the tavern?
Or was it something more?
She wasn’t sure she dared contemplate the latter.
“How wonderful that His Grace is helping you,” Isabelle said.
Beatrice looked down at the floor for a moment.“Well, that can’t last since we’re moving to Queen Street tomorrow.”
Isabelle’s chest ached at the melancholy in Beatrice’s tone.She wished things could be different, but there was nothing any of them could do.
Squeezing their hands, Isabelle sank down so she was more on eye level with Caroline and had to look up a bit at Beatrice.“Change can be difficult but also wonderful.Perhaps you will fall in love with playing the pianoforte.”
“Mama is making us learn guitar.”Caroline stuck out her tongue.
“You may enjoy it.The point is to keep an open mind.If you don’t, you might miss the wonders that life has to offer.And I do hope you will give Miss Shipley a fair chance.She is not me, and she shouldn’t try to be.”
“But we want you,” Caroline whined.
Beatrice nodded in agreement.“We miss you.”
