“I’m fine,” he said naturally.
“Are you?” her voice was gentle but skeptical. “Because you look like a man who’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
Too perceptive by half.
“My daughters are my responsibility,” he said stiffly. “I cannot have them endangering themselves. They need guidance I can’t provide,” he admitted quietly. “Rosalie especially. She’sso determined to prove she’s not bound by conventional expectations that she’s forgotten conventional expectations exist for a reason.”
“Some of them do,” Sybil agreed. “Others are simply society’s way of keeping women in their place. The trick is teaching young ladies to tell the difference.”
Exactly. Exactly what I’ve been trying to say but couldn’t articulate.
“You understand,” he said, looking at her with something approaching relief. “You understand what I’m trying to do for them.”
“Of course, I do.” Her voice was soft, almost tender. “You want them to be strong and independent, but you also want them to be safe. You want them to keep their spirits without losing their reputations. It’s a difficult balance.”
Impossible, sometimes.
“This morning proved I’m not enough,” he said grimly.
“This morning proved you’re a father who loves his daughters enough to jump into a lake to save them,” she corrected firmly. “That’s not nothing, Your Grace.”
She’s trying to make me feel better. Why is she trying to make me feel better?
“Have you given any more thought to my proposal?” he asked, changing the subject before he could do something foolish like tell her how much her words meant to him.
Something shuttered in her expression. “Some thought, yes.”
“And?”
“And I find myself wondering why you’re so certain I’m the right woman for this position.” Her voice was carefully neutral.
A ghost of a smile touched Hugo’s lips. “Well, aside from your obvious qualifications, my daughters have been rather transparent in their approval. Rosalie has already suggested three separate occasions when I might ‘accidentally’ encounter you in the gardens. And this morning, Melanie asked if you might stay long enough to teach her about healing herbs.”
He paused, his amber eyes warming with genuine amusement. “I’m afraid subtlety is not a family strength. They’ve taken quite a shine to you, and their judgment in such matters has always been sound.”
Because that’s who you are. Someone who cares, even when it costs you.
“That doesn’t make me qualified to be a duchess,” she said quietly.
“It makes you qualified to be their stepmother,” he replied. “Which is infinitely more important.”
She was quiet for a long moment, her pale blue eyes searching his face as though looking for some hidden agenda.
What are you thinking? What doubts are running through that clever mind of yours?
“Your Grace,” she said finally, “may I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What happens if this arrangement doesn’t work? If your daughters don’t accept my guidance, or if I prove inadequate to the task? What happens to them then?”
They’ll be lost. Just like their mother was lost.
But he couldn’t say that. Couldn’t admit how worried he was about failing them.
“Then we’ll find another solution,” he said instead. “But I don’t believe that will be necessary.”
“You sound very confident for a man who barely knows me.”
