“Yes. Little as I deserve it.”
She made no reply, tucking her hands firmly back on her lap. He watched her for a moment, memories still dancing.
“But we must teach you,” he said.
“Teach me?”
“I’ll find you a dancing instructor. Some old caper merchant to school you ready for your next ball.”
“I’m not sure I wish to go to any more balls.”
“Stuff! We can’t let last night’s disaster be your only experience. You’ve a lifetime of society to catch up on. You’re not to moulder anyway anymore, little Minnow. And I trulywouldlike to dance with you at some point. Don’t you think it would be fun?”
She tilted her head, though what she seemed to be considering was, yet again, her gloves, straightening each fingertip with precision. She smelt of lavender, which was nice, and something medicinal, which wasn’t. Belatedly, he realised it was probably some treatment for her hands. They’d been sore last night, hadn’t they? Turpentine, he thought she’d said. But still. He hoped Caroline would take her to buy nicer gloves. If not, he’d do it himself.
“I wasn’t entirely without society at my aunt’s. We often had visitors.”
“Oh?”
“A great many relatives. All wishing to…to further their acquaintance with her.”
“And get in her rather large will, if I’m not mistaken?”
Min smiled, showing a rare dimple, still teasing each fingertip into place. “Yes. That is what she believed. It was about the only entertainment I had, listening to my aunt rant about each and every one of them and how much she despised them all. And I confess, I found it quite an interesting study of human nature, observing each visitor and the different tactics they employed. It was…educational.”
Jack laughed. “I bet. So you’ve developed a fine eye for encroachers and flatterers, have you?”
“I suppose I have.”
“At least that’ll be of use to you in London. But Min…” He quizzed her with a teasing smile. “Don’t tell me you’ve become cynical?”
“I don’t think I am cynical, Jack. But I… I am wiser than I was. I am older.”
It was said in her usual quiet, serious way, but it made him pause. He looked at the grey eyes, fixed now on the fireplace across the room, very grave, at the soft slope of the pale shoulders and the rich brown curls now framing a neckline that used to be higher—a girl’s neckline, when he’d last known her, now a woman’s. With a woman’s fullness, and generously so.
Very generous. He shifted his snagged gaze before it became a stare and, for the first time, found himself wondering what she might see when she looked athim.
For a moment, they both sat and studied the fireplace, though his mind was turned inward. She’d always been observant. A quiet figure in the background whenever they had company, watching the world with her keen artist’s eye. What if she looked at him and…and found him paper thin?
“A cynical Min,” he said with a slight laugh. “I can hardly believe it.” He laughed again—it sounded strangely nervous—and stood up. “You are older—of course you are! What a thing to say, you goose. It’d be strange if you were not. I’m sure time moves in Northumberland just the same as anywhere else.”
She smiled. That rare dimple again. “No, I’m sure it moves much slower. Or certainly feels it.”
He grinned back and crossed the room to lean on the mantel, idly twiddling the heads of some dried flowers in a small, shell-work vase, the work of some bored woman, fifty years or more ago. What a finicky, tedious job. He grimaced at the thought. What a life.
“Wemustteach you to dance,” he said. “And you owe poor George one. I can’t have my closest friend dying of despair over you.”
“Mr Simmons?” Min coloured slightly. “He…he seemed a very considerate young man. Very polite.”
“Oh, Min! Those are killing words for a man. Don’t ever let him hear you say so.”
“But I did like him,” she protested. “He was very kind.”
Jack clutched a hand to his heart. “Poor George! First Nell calls himdear little,now this! Am I to be the one to let him down for you and tell him he has no hope?”
She gave him an annoyed look. “I see you still talk as much nonsense as ever.”
“And you as much sense!” He moved from the fireplace and sat back down, taking a chair across from her this time. “And he is very sensible too. You’ll do very well together.”
