She made her way into the room slowly, feeling as if she might accidentally provoke him to anger, and took the seat opposite him at the desk. “You wanted to see me?”
“I wanted to speak to you about what happened at dinner last night, when I tried to persuade my daughter to talk to me about her kidnapper.”
“Oh.” She had expected something like this, and she hoped that he meant to speak to her for Emma’s well-being. “I think that was what was to be expected, pressing her like that so soon after her return to you. You can’t expect her to let go of everything that happened so quickly—it was a lot for such a young person to cope with. If you’re patient with her, if you let her take things at her own pace, I’m sure you’ll find that she’ll be ready to talk about it in no time.”
The duke narrowed his eyes. “My concern, Miss Wetherby, is that she won’t feel as if she has to talk. I think you’re slowing her recovery with the way you’re babying her.”
“Babying her?” Bridget drew back, eyebrows lifting. “I don’t think I’m babying her, Your Grace.”
“The message you’re giving her is that she doesn’thaveto try to speak, because someone will always jump in and talk for her. Thatyouwill.”
“You did bring me here to help her,” Bridget reminded him.
“Yes, tohelp. Not to meddle in my relationship with my daughter, and certainly not to try to prevent me from finding out who’s responsible for taking her.”
“You can’t honestly think I’d want to keep you from finding that out,” Bridget protested. “I didn’t stop her from telling you anything. She wasn’tgoingto tell you anything. You saw the way she was reacting just as clearly as I did. You should know as well as I do that she wasn’t going to be able to speak to you about it. The fact that you kept pushing her… that isn’t my fault. But you brought me here to care for her, and I’m going to do that to the best of my ability!”
“Well, I want to see her captor brought to justice.” He glowered at her. “I won’t rest until that’s done.”
“I want that too, but you won’t get there any quicker by badgering your daughter to speak before she’s ready. Once she knows she’s safe, she’ll relax, and then she’ll be able to talk.”
“You seem awfully sure of yourself.”
“I am,” she said. “I’ve been through this before, as I told you. I’ve helped many children who have suffered through similar things. I know you don’t want to believe it, but I do know how to help. All I need is for you to allow me to do it.”
“And you say she needs time.”
“I do.”
“I’ve given her time.”
“Give hermore.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s how you speak to a gentleman of my station? I think you’re forgetting yourself.”
She leaned forward. “Do you think that my deferring to you and showing you respect is more important than doing the right thing by your daughter?” she asked. “If I were you, I would spend less time worrying about the kind of conversation you want to hear from me and more time thinking aboutwhyEmma doesn’t yet feel safe enough to speak.”
“It’s probably because she knows her captor is still walking free,” the duke snapped. “I don’t know how she could possibly feel safe under those conditions.” He eyed Bridget. “I’d never have guessed you were from a noble family with the way you conduct yourself,” he said.
“What in the world is that supposed to mean?” Bridget suspected she should be offended, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel that way. What he had said was simply too strange, too inexplicable. If it were supposed to be an insult, he was going to have to find a way to be clearer with his words.
“You think you know everything,” he told her. “You don’t listen to anybody. A lady from circumstances such as yours ought to know better how to conduct herself.”
“Well, maybe I just don’t consider those things to be of much importance in a situation like this one,” she said, irritation blooming within her. Was he really going to try to give her a lesson on manners? It was clearly a subject he himself knew nothing about, so she didn’t see how he could justify sayinganything to her about it. “I suspect,” she said, “that you’re simply not used to anyone questioning you. I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that I’m a lady. I could be the queen, and you wouldn’t be able to hear criticism from me, because you don’t think anyone ever knows better than you about anything.”
“That isn’t true,” the duke said. “And it’s not just the way you constantly question me that makes me doubt your upbringing.”
She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “Go on.” If he had something to say, let him say it.
“You leave your life at the orphanage and come here with no thought about what anyone in your life might have to say about it,” he said. “You ride away with a stranger. Now, if my daughter tried to do such a thing in the future, I would intervene and stop her. I would warn her of the risks to her safety. Not to mention her reputation. Is that why you didn’t tell anyone you were coming with me? You didn’t want to risk being stopped?”
She snorted. “Hardly.”
“I’m hard pressed to think of another reason you would keep it a secret from your own family.”
Bridget sighed, temper flaring. “If you must know, I know for certain that my parents would not have stopped me,” she snapped. “They don’t care what happens to me. They never have. What do you think I was doing at the orphanage in the first place?”
The duke looked up. “Your parents threw you out? That’s why you work at the orphanage?”
