Mr. Gibbs produced an unhappy sort of laugh. “Yes, but such an elevated position has certain expectations attached to it. My sisters, for instance, cannot make their debuts without having different gowns for each event. And only the very best gowns, mind you. To say nothing of riding habits, shoes, bonnets, hats, gloves, reticules, shawls and…well, the list does go on.”
“It sounds dreadful,” Uncle James mused.
“It is,” Mr. Gibbs said. He popped his vanilla biscuit into his mouth and chewed, then brushed a few stray crumbs from his mouth with the back of his hand. “Papa did a much better job of it than I have managed so far. He was a clever man who possessed an instinctive knack for investments and figuring out where to save and where not to. His death caught me completely off guard. I wasn’t prepared. So rather than embrace my new duties, I ignored them, and here we are. I may be a duke, but only in name. As far as accomplishments go, I’m completely inept.”
“I doubt that’s true,” Ada said, hoping to cheer him. Surely it couldn’t be quite as bad as he let on.
“The important thing,” Uncle James added, “is that you’ve acknowledged your mistake and that you are now prepared to do better.”
“Which is incidentally part of my reason for stopping by today,” Mr. Gibbs said. “The others being your exceptional company and these wonderful biscuits.”
Ada smiled, catching his gaze just long enough to send her pulse racing. Ah, this man. If only he weren’t so perfectly unattainable. This was the sort of man she might envision herself marrying.
Good lord. Now there’s a line of thought that has to end this instant.
The shop bell chimed to let everyone know a new customer had arrived. Uncle James stood. “Please excuse me. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Ada almost protested the closing of the door when Uncle James left, but since she’d no desire for the customer to spot her with Mr. Gibbs, she chose to frown at it instead. Being alone with a man was the one thing all young ladies were told to avoid, yet here she was.
“I brought these,” Mr. Gibbs said as though undaunted by their situation. “It would please me greatly if you’d take a look.”
She tore her gaze from the door and saw that he held a pile of paper toward her. “What’s this?”
He shoved it closer to her. “You should probably take it before I change my mind.”
Amused and curious, she set her teacup aside and did as he asked. A bold script adorned the front and back of each page, of which there were possibly thirty in total. At the top of the first page was written, ‘Chapter One’.
Intrigued, Ada proceeded to read, allowing herself to become engrossed in a story that featured a wealthy earl with an interest in horses. And, possibly, a lady of equal station, whom he seemed inclined to marry.
“Well?” Mr. Gibbs asked once she was finished reviewing what constituted three chapters.
“Um…” She sent him a hesitant look.
“That awful?” He’d visibly slumped on his stool with his forearms resting on his thighs while he stared at the floor with a frown.
She offered him the tin of biscuits and he happily took a chocolate one this time. “It’s not awful. The descriptions are good, but I’m struggling to care about what happens next. The hero’s life is charmed, as is the heroine’s. They have no obstacles in their way, so why not have him propose to her on page one and be done with it?”
“Because then there’d be no story,” Mr. Gibbs told her as though she were daft.
She grinned. “Right, but for a story to be compelling, there has to be conflict. In a romance novel, which is what I presume this to be, there must be something keeping the hero and heroine apart. For instance, the hero’s family might have a long-standing dispute with the heroine’s, like in Romeo and Juliet. Or maybe the heroine is already engaged to another man – perhaps to the hero’s best friend.”
“That would be nearly impossible to untangle.”
“Yes, but finding a way to do so while leaving the reader guessing will produce the page-turner every author hopes to write.” She handed the pages back to him. “I trust you wrote this?”
He nodded. “My friends and I desperately require a steady income, so when you mentioned a need for more books of this nature, I thought it might be a good opportunity.”
Warmth filled the space surrounding Ada’s heart. It was uncanny how much it pleased her to know that Mr. Gibbs hadn’t merely chosen to heed her advice, but that he’d come to seek her opinion on the first few chapters he’d written.
“And it is,” Ada said since she firmly believed this to be true.
“Maybe for someone with greater skill than what we possess.” His brow was creased by serious lines. “To be honest, I knew it wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t imagine feeling as though we’ve wasted the last three days working on this.”
Ada understood him. “I realize my critique might be dissuasive, but I’m hoping you don’t give up trying because of what I’ve just said.”
“I told my friends we could have the first draft completed within a month if we worked together, with an aim at publication a couple of months after that.” He expelled a weary sigh. “Perhaps this time would be better spent trying to find other means of earning an income.”
“Is your situation truly as dire as all that?” She was struggling to believe it.
