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He chuckled. “I think so. And look, I can switch out the nibs if I like.” He produced a pouch from his pocket and extracted from it a broader nib than the one he had been using.

He waited for her to ask what he was writing, and he was prepared to show her, but she did not.

“I must confess,” she said, “that I am feeling rather guilty for displacing Lord Harcourt for the evening. I told him I’d had a lovely break this morning, while you read to his mother, but he insisted.”

“What did you do with your time this morning?” Simon asked, though he thought to add, “If you would like to answer.”

“I am rather embarrassed to admit that I did nothing of import. I walked into town, and I looked into shop windows.”

“Did you see any ribbons?”

“Yes, but none of particular note. So I’m afraid my outing proved unfruitful.”

“Perhaps the outing itself was the point, rather than any fruits it might have yielded.”

“Yes, I think you’re right. It was a holiday.” She smiled. “A holiday from my holiday.”

“I am not sure two hours can properly be considered a holiday. And I am not sure you are even on holiday at all.”

“What do you mean? What do you call this?” She gestured vaguely around the room.

He tried to think how Olive had explained it. “I call this, this exact moment, a brief respite from your duties, which—and mind you, I am not suggesting you bear any resentment toward Lady Harcourt—have followed you here. If you are on a holiday, it is a mere shadow of a holiday.”

She didn’t speak for a moment, just looked at him and blinked. If he thought for a moment that she might be fighting tears, he must have been mistaken, for she said, “I did take a proper holiday, once. Two summers ago.”

“I remember.”

She furrowed her brow; he had confused her.

“I remember because Archie was feeling particularly guilty about leaving his mother for our Earls Trip that year, and in the course of discussing it, he mentioned that you’d taken a holiday and he’d covered for you, so he supposed you could do the same for him.” He paused for a moment, as if considering whether to say more. Curiosity won out, for he asked, “Where did you go?”

“For the first part of the holiday, I went to Barbury, a town not too far from Mollybrook. It’s where I grew up and lived my whole life until I came to be with Lady Harcourt.”

“Visiting old friends? It can’t have been a trip to see family, for you told me you had none.”

“No. Well, I visited my sister’s grave, which I suppose in a way amounts to visiting family. I went to see her every day. Beyond that, I took a room at an inn and read novels and embroidered and did all the things I generally do in Lord Harcourt’s household, but I did them by myself.” Her eyes danced. “And I stayed up terribly late at night and laid in terribly late in the morning.”

“Was it refreshing?”

“It was.”

“And what did you do for the second part?”

Something shuttered in her face, but she recovered quickly. “I went to another town nearby and … did much the same thing. Which is to say, a whole lot of nothing.”

She had spoken cheerily enough, but he hadn’t missed that slip in her facade, the brief dimming of her brightness. He was very much afraid he had been the cause of it, with his questioning.

“It was very kind of Lord Harcourt to allow me to join you this evening,” she said with a gaiety he clearly heard as false, “but I should—”

“You won’t dislodge him,” Simon said. “He will have settled in for the evening and won’t countenance your reappearance this soon.” He searched her face. “You needn’t stay here with me, though, if that was your attempt to extricate yourself. But if you have been worried that I will speak to anyone about … the night we both lost our minds, you needn’t be.” He made an attempt at humor. “I know I am not meant to reference it at all. We need a code word.”

“We most certainly do not,” she said, but warmth had returned to her eyes. “If you’re not talking about something, you don’t need a code word.”

“As long as you promise me you do indeed have the … matter in question sorted out.”

“I promise.” She tilted her head and regarded him. “You want to ask me how I have it sorted out.”

He dipped his head in acknowledgment.