“Yes, yes, of course.I just don’t know the answer.I hadn’t thought of it.”
“You hadn’t considered commentary?Who better to do so?It is customary to explain your word choices and your interpretation of a classical work.Your notes are extensive, and it would be short work to reformat them into commentary.The additions and expansions you’ve made?—”
“We’ve made.The newer additions were your doing.Commentary is the least of it.I hadn’t considered publishing.”
“Why ever not?What on earth did you plan to do?Pack it away and take it out once a year to read in splendid solitude?You have an obligation as a scholar, my lady, to expand knowledge.”
Her brows rose in amused skepticism.“I suppose you would like me to commandeer a lecture hall at Trinity to present my findings?”
“Yes.No.”He laughed.“I suppose not.But they should be published.The Grande Dames may not let their daughters read them, but their sons would benefit from seeing what women can do and have done.If you hide them away again, you would be condoning the sin of neglect.Your work–”
“Ourwork,” she said.
“Yourwork,” he insisted.
“I couldn’t have gotten this far without help,” she returned.“Each fragment of text came into sharp focus when you added the background and setting.Until then, they lay slack.Any commentary would be as much yours as mine.”
Fire lit his eyes, but she didn’t flinch.“Stubborn woman,” he said.“Do you suggest that I publish a commentary without you?That is absurd.”
“No, I think not.”He is the stubborn one.“It took ten years of research to find the works we have, and to do the preliminary translations.I won’t give that up.”
She saw approval in his eyes and felt her confidence build, but niggling fears ate at her.Anxieties crowded up inside.“Publish?Where?How?Who would read it?”
“It could be done anonymously.Your family doesn’t have to associate you with it.”
He had read her thoughts correctly.It always came back to her family.A sudden vision of the Duke and Duchess of Sudbury’s reaction to such a book shook her, and she shuddered.It might be possible, however.Publishers often attributed popular works to “A Lady” who remained nameless.
“Critics will savage it.”She harbored no doubt on that point.
“Perhaps,” he admitted.“Will it surprise you to find that some elements of the scholarly community are fools?”
“No.”She smiled.“Your education gives you insights I will never have, and you have access to libraries locked to me.Even if I decide to publish, I couldn’t do it without you.It’s dishonest to pretend our relationship is one of tutor and student.It would be as much your work as mine.”
He looked dubious, but she thought he looked pleased—and perhaps even touched.“They are your ideas and your insights.It is your work, Georgiana.Yours!You don’t need to share it.”
“I already have.”She spoke around a lump in her throat when he used her given name.“And it has brought me great joy.It might be possible to prepare a manuscript for publication if I had a collaborator.As to whether a publisher can be found, I remain doubtful.”Her eyes sought affirmation.
He stood silently.Lending his name to this work might not enhance his own reputation.Surely he is trying to find the words to let me down gently.“You needn’t lend your name if you do not wish,” she said.“Or you too could be anonymous.”
“Collaborator.”He said firmly.“I like the ring of that.”
Georgiana’s heart caught in her throat.She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
He didn’t appear to notice; his carefully schooled voice remained proper.“Are we to consider all debts paid and begin a new relationship, my lady?”His emphasis onmy ladywas firm, and his meaning clear.
Oh Andrew, very well.I will keep my distance.
“Yes, collaborators,” she agreed and extended her hand to shake his.“Do we need a written contract?”
“I don’t think so.”He held her hand in his firm grip.“Partners it is.”
She left her hand in the warmth of his grasp and her gaze in the warmer grip of his dark eyes.“So, tell me, Mr.Mallet, how does one prepare a manuscript for publication?”
* * *
Andrew’s hand,poised over a sheet of clean vellum, shook.Insanity drove him to agree to any working relationship with Georgie.Madness was the only explanation.He wasn’t sure how he would manage this partnership when he could no longer hide behind the safety of a teacher’s authority and the ground rules he had set.Once again, Lady Georgiana Hayden, haughty, self-centered daughter of nobility, had looked at him with vulnerable eyes, and all his resistance fled.
His voice shook also, and that worried him.His new business partner needed a confident businessman, not a randy schoolboy.“How did you plan to organize the work?”He could see from her face, knotted in dismay, that she hadn’t considered it at all.She never planned to make her work public.How could she be so foolish about something she held so dear?
