“To teach them,” she said with a coy smile of her own. “As is my charge.”
He looked at her flatly. “Teach them what? Everything they need should be readily available here, and if it is not, all you need do is ask and I can send for it.”
“Do you not trust me?”
“This is not about trust.”
“It is,” she said, looking right at him, still smiling to herself. “I thought by now you would know me well enough to trust that I know what I am doing.”
She was teasing him, and he knew it. Poking and prodding, purposefully antagonizing because she seemed to enjoy setting him on edge. Just as he enjoyed it too.
“Just tell me what you are doing in London,” he groaned. “If you want me to come, the least you can do is –”
“I am taking the boys to the markets,” she cut him off. “While it is a simple thing to teach them basic mathematics in a classroom, I find it just as pointless. They need real-world experience, because rarely is it so easy as adding and subtracting in a stale room where everything is given to you and nothing might go wrong.”
“Go wrong? What could possibly go wrong?”
She shrugged. “That is what we will find out. Perhaps for a duke, it is a rare thing to be in a position where someone challenges you…” She looked at him suggestively, and he shook his head. “But in the local markets, stripped of titles and whatnot, you might be surprised how difficult it is to reach a fair price. As I said,” she winked. “Real-world experience.”
“I can’t help but feel that all this is you wanting to get out of the mansion for the day.”
“Well…” She laughed. “Maybe that’s just an added bonus.”
“Come, Father,” Aaron urged. “Please.”
He had so much work to do today, tasks that needed to be attended and could not possibly be put off. But in the face of his son’s pleading, and with the way that Miss Finch looked at him… Evander was only so strong.
“Fine,” he sighed with exaggeration. “I will come, just this one time.”
“Yay!” Aaron cried out with joy.
His son’s face… the smile he wore… that was enough to tell Evander that he had made the right decision. It helped too that Miss Finch looked at him with pride, because she knew better than anyone else how important this small gesture was.
“How about that pendant, Miss?” the shopkeeper asked greedily as he eyed the pendant that hung from Miss Finch’s neck. “I’d be willing to do a trade.”
“Oh, this…” Miss Finch’s hand wrapped around the pendant as if to protect it. “No, this is… we are not here to trade. We wish to barter.”
“Trading is bartering, Miss,” the shopkeeper pressed.
“I said no, thank you.”
“Oh, come now, don’t be like –”
“The lady said no.” Evander stepped beside Miss Finch and glared down at the shopkeeper in warning. “Either do as she asks or we will find someone else more willing.”
The shopkeeper was a middle-aged man who looked as if he had not showered in days. When he had assumed that Miss Finch was on her own, he stood tall, leaned over the counter, and tried to assert himself over her so that she might bend to his demands.
Evander had been standing back, not wanting to get too close. He was there to watch, to see Miss Finch teach his son, and to see just how well his son performed when there was nobody to help him.
In this instance, however, Evander felt his presence was necessary.
“All right, all right…” The shopkeeper leaned back. “I was only asking.”
“You asked, you were denied,” Evander said. “Now, are you going to help? Or do we need to go somewhere else?”
The shopkeeper clicked his tongue. “What was it you was looking at? I’ll do as fair a price as I can, but don’t be expecting me to do you no favors.” He glanced at Evander, shrank back further, and then focused on Miss Finch. “Come now, I ain’t got all day.”
Evander shook his head at the little man and took a step back, at which point Aaron and Henry stepped forward.