“I cannot read.” The earl watched him.
Robert’s jaw dropped before he quickly recovered. If Bags’s and Michael’s complaints about their responsibilities were any indication, the man must read piles of Parliamentary bills and correspondence just for his membership in the House of Lords. “How can that be, sir?”
“Please, ’tis Edward. I can struggle through a brief note when I need to, but the letters and words sort of stir themselves into a knot and by the time I’ve undone a longer missive, I’ve lost the thread.” He sat back, crossing his leg again. “Suffolk helped me get through Cambridge, and Sophia helps me every day now. I was so ashamed I swore never to marry because students at school had made fun of me. And when I was a free second son before Charles’s passing, I did not need to marry. Even after we adjourned to Peterborough as man and wife, I hid my weakness from Sophia.”
This earl had been bullied too?Aloud, he replied, “I had no idea. I shan’t say anything, of course. But why tell me this?”
“Because I fear sharing this information with others less now that Sophia discovered it and still loves me.”
Robert sat back as Edward’s words settled over him. Beth knew about his dislike of attention. She cared for him anyway. She’d pushed him to overcome the fear because those people were not important to his happiness. He would still prefer that she had not pushed, but he also understood that her actions had stemmed from her own fears.
Mayhap there was a compromise for them.
“I am not certain she loves me,” Robert voiced his greatest worry. “Or can accept my aversion to public interest.”
“What I am saying is that her support may give you courage to overcome that to a small extent. Meeting her in the middle, so to speak. As for the rest, there is only one way to know, is there not?”
****
Robert knocked on the front door of Evan’s townhome. He greeted the butler and strode the length of the main hall to Evan’s office unaccompanied.
Rapping lightly on the door, he poked his head in.
“Ford. How are you?” Evan tucked an unopened letter into a drawer, looking distracted.
“I’ve been better. Do you have a few minutes?”
“Always for you. Drink?”
“Tea?” Robert requested.
Evan rang for tea. “Right, then. How can I assist?”
“I am not even sure what to ask. You know more of my reluctance to be in the public eye, and my reasons, than anyone.”
Evan nodded.
“Beth wanted me to sell through a catalogue—”
Evan raised a brow, looking interested.
“No. Do not start on about that, you investment-minded sod. Focus, please. We can discuss the catalogue later.”
“Promise?”
“Yes. Now, as I was saying…to Sarah Potter’s girls and clientele, beyond at parties. She also thought the school and—I don’t know, people related to the school? Sponsors? Alumnae?—might be another opportunity for expansion.”
“That girl. So much intelligence in such a petite package.” Evan shook his head in amazement.
“I balked, for understandable reasons, particularly when I realized how many school-adjacent people there were. I suppose I’m asking if you understand and respect my concerns.”
“Of course I do.” Evan tilted his head at Robert. “I also have no doubt that Miss Jenkins does as well.”
“I am not so sure.”
“Look, you’d never heard of the school. Yet you have no idea how many balls you’ve attended with servants trained there. For that matter, how many Ton ladies have you spoken with who attended? Hellfire, I am involved in the school oversight, and even I don’t know.”
“Really?”
