“I wonder why we say, ‘I am’ instead of ‘I be.’ After all, the verb is ‘to be.’ Yet, when we conjugate it in the present tense, there is no ‘be’ to be found.” Kevin shrugged. “Although something similar occurs in most languages. Still, it begs for an explanation.”
“That is what has preoccupied you on this ride?” Nicholas asked. “I thought you were brooding over something of consequence. I will have to remember that sometimes when you look deep in thought your mind is wandering through the same kind of mental debris that mine does.”
They continued trotting through the Middlesex countryside outside of Town, passing fields showing early growth and trees festooned with blooms. The air smelled of spring as only April air did.
“Did you badger me for this ride in order to discuss linguistics?” Nicholas asked.
“Not at all.”
“Then why?”
“Perhaps I just wanted company and thought you could use some too.”
“Kevin, you never want company. I have never met another man so comfortable without society.”
“You, on the other hand, crave it. I am only thinking of you and being generous.”
“You are not being generous. You want something. But I am a patient man and can wait for it.”
He had to wait ten minutes. By then they reached a crossroad with a good tavern, and dismounted to refresh themselves.
“I could use some advice,” Kevin said once their ale sat on the boards between them.
“First company, now advice. You are full of surprises today. I can’t think of any advice you would need from me, unless you suddenly find yourself with an estate you can’t maintain due to lack of income. I’ve become the expert on that.”
Nicholas did not sound bitter, exactly. However, just as Uncle Frederick had disappointed Kevin in that will, so too had he left his heir in financial discomfort. Nicholas had inherited the title, and the properties, but insufficient money. The last months had required he apply himself to solving the dilemma.
“I have agreed to help Miss Jameson, but I have no idea how to do so. Worse, I have at most a week to find a solution.”
“What does she want you to do?”
“Find instructors and tutors who will engage her in a program of self-improvement. She thinks to complete a transformation very fast too.”
“Is there a lot of improving to do?”
Kevin almost insisted there wasn’t, but he considered it. His own interest in Miss Jameson might be coloring his view of things. He liked her the way she was, except when she became stubborn about the enterprise.
“She has been at it for some time on her own, I believe. Imitating the way others speak and dress and such. As Chase mentioned, she does not come off as a rustic. However, there can be moments when she reverts.” Charming moments. Moments of vulnerability in a woman who had made her own way for some time and who normally wore the armor of self-possession.You keep forgetting she is the enemy, you fool.
“I expect that will give the aunts something to cluck about next week.”
“Aunts?”
Nicholas called for more ale. “The dinner party. Aunt Agnes’s. We were all invited, and Miss Jameson was too. It will be a chance for us all to give her a good look.” He waited while the publican set down the ale. “You appear astonished. Weren’t you invited?”
“No.”
“An oversight, perhaps.”
“I doubt that.”
“Well, perhaps Aunt Agnes feared you would start a row with her, what with her getting half the enterprise. Picture the aunts discussing it, and envisioning your brooding and scowling the whole evening, glowering at your enemy from the corners of the drawing room. I wouldn’t have invited you either, come to think of it.”
“That isn’t why she did not invite me. She wants poor Miss Jameson there alone and helpless when their rudeness is visited on her.”
“Poor Miss Jameson?Poor?She probably has more money than I do.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
