Amelia’s gaze flew up, and she found him staring at her, his eyebrows shadowing his eyes. He had shifted his position and was now turned more toward her than before.
“Do you miss yours?” she countered, before she could stop herself.
Stephen blinked rapidly, as if she’d aimed a blow at him. For a moment, anger crossed his face, and she worried that he was about to snap at her. Instead, he simply said, “Yes.”
Just that. Justyes. Now it was time for her response.
“I do not miss my father,” she confessed. “I liked him well enough, but his visits weren’t as frequent as I would have liked. I think that, at the heart of it all, he was a good man, and I believe that he loved us. But any man who has a second family cannot be anentirelygood person, surely? We are suffering because of him. My mother missed him so very much, and I believe his death and our treatment afterward contributed to her decline. I miss Mama very much, indeed. I adored her, as we all did. But then, what family does not encounter tragedy? I suppose it was simply our turn.”
“Your turn?” he echoed thoughtfully. “Tragedies are inevitable, then?”
“Of course. After all, every story ends exactly the same way throughout history. All good things come to an end.”
He inclined his head in agreement. “Perhaps you are right.”
Was that it? Was that the end of the conversation?
He glanced away, seeming to lose interest, and an itch started up inside her. Shewantedhim to look at her. For heaven’s sake, if the man couldn’t pay attention to her in the confines of a carriage with nothing else to do, then the next few months were going todrag.
“I appreciate what you did for me today,” she burst out. “At the modiste’s, that is, but it wasn’t necessary.”
He glanced back at her, his eyes flickering. She thought she caught a flash of surprise before it was gone, tucked behind his usual wall of cool, calculating composure.
How long had he worked on that wall? How thick was it?
What made him hide his feelings with such determination? What on earth happened to him? Surely a duke must have led a charmed life. And yet…
“Not necessary? To what are you referring? To the dresses my grandmother insisted on buying for you, or the words I exchanged with your thoroughly unpleasant employer?”
Amelia flushed. “You did not have to be so unkind to Emmeline.”
“Did I? From where I stood, she treated you with contempt and even disdain. She scolded you in the middle of the shop as if you were a servant.”
“She has her flaws, but she is a decent woman,” Amelia insisted. “She can be kind.”
“Can she?”
“Yes, she can. She gives Marjory bits and pieces of work here and there, including running errands and taking deliveries to grand houses.”
“That is not kindness. That is paying a person for services rendered.”
“She let me take back pieces of fabric and such for the girls. It was invaluable when they needed new clothes.”
“Oh, heavens. She let you take pieces of material that could not be sold? The woman is the pinnacle of generosity.”
Amelia growled. “You are notlistening. She is not the finest employer in the world, to be sure, but I could be in a much worse situation.”
“One couldalwaysbe in a worse situation,” he retorted. “That means nothing. By that logic, there is one person in the entire world who is in the worst situation of all. Are none of us tofeel sorry for ourselves, then, on account of the plain fact that it couldalwaysbe worse?”
“Are you much inclined to feeling sorry for yourself?”
“Do you think that I am inclined to such a thing?”
Amelia pursed her lips, watching him. He was truly the most infuriating man she had ever met.
“You always have an answer to everything, don’t you?” she huffed.
His mouth twitched in amusement. “Why, yes. I do. Thank you for noticing.”
