Page 9 of The Duke's Impossible Deal
Rowen shook her head, trying to wrangle her thoughts into something sensible.
Why is it so hard to breathe?
“You swore to my brother that you would look after my family.”
“That does not mean I will bow to your every whim.” His breath tickled her skin.
She dug her nails into the palms of her hands and looked back at him. “I will not let any harm come to my children.”
A flicker of emotion crossed the Duke’s face, too quick for her to place. He stepped away from her, and the tension in her chest vanished.
She drew in a deep breath, feeling as though she had been freed from a vice.
The Duke’s face was shadowed, his tone dangerous as he said, “And do you think me some kind of monster that they need protecting from? Rest assured, I have no wish to corrupt them or harm them, but there are things your son simply cannot learn from you. Things that he must know to fulfil his duties as an earl.”
“What makes you think I do not know those things?”
Now that the Duke was farther away, the fog in her mind began to clear.
“Tell me, what university should he attend?” He gave a mirthless chuckle.
“Cambridge,” she replied without hesitation.
“Cambridge is for halfwits, commoners, and simpletons. Real men go to Oxford.” The Duke made a dismissive gesture with his hand.
“My late husband went to Oxford.” She could not keep the venom from her voice. “If he is any indication of the kind of man that place produces, I want my son nowhere near it.”
“I went to Oxford.” The Duke moved towards her. “As did every other man of note you will meet. Whatever failings your late husband showed, you would do well not to paint me with the same brush.”
Rowen suppressed a shudder at the coldness of his words, the harshness that had overtaken him. It was then that she remembered he had been in the army. She could easily imagine this man in the heat of battle.
“Noted.” She forced her shoulders down. She would not show weakness—no, shecould notshow weakness, not to this man. “I only hope that Oxford teaches him how to run an estate better than his father.”
“He will have the finest tutors in the country. And before he goes away, he will learn from the best men I can find. I will make sure that he is ready to run an estate, that he knows everything there is to know.” The Duke’s face softened and then hardened again so quickly that Rowen was not sure she had even seen it. “I have no doubt you have taught him what you can, but there are things you will not know.”
“And I suppose you are the fount of all knowledge?”
“I was raised a gentleman. I know what it is to walk the world as a man. I can teach him how to command the attention of a room using only his bearing. I understand discipline in a way few men do. I know of honor.” The Duke’s green eyes pinned her in place. “Can you teach the boy to shave? Will you be able to show him how to hunt? Teach him the proper etiquette? How can you warn him of vipers if you are not even in the room? I can teach him things you cannot.”
Rowen gritted her teeth, irritated that he was right. There was too much that she had to guess at, too much that was kept from her.
“Fine, you may have a say in his education.”
“How gracious of you.” The Duke gave her a mocking smile that made her heart skitter in her chest.
She rolled her eyes. “You should know that my daughter will likely want to join in as well. The two of them are joined at the hip and fiercely protective of each other.”
She expected the Duke to dismiss her warning, to say that under no circumstances would her daughter be permitted to join her brother. She braced herself for an argument.
“So long as she can keep up with his schedule, I see no reason she should not learn as much as possible. If she falls behind, however…”
“She will not.” Rowen could not keep the note of pride from her voice. “My children are brilliant—both of them.”
The Duke stroked his chin thoughtfully. “She will not be able to go to Eton with him, nor Oxford.”
“I am aware of that,” Rowen replied coolly. “I simply wanted to make sure you had the full picture. If you are to have a hand in their education, you should expect to see both of them.”
“I look forward to it.” The Duke straightened his coat, the movement tightening his still-wet shirt across his muscular chest once more as he turned to the door.
