Page 17 of Hunted By the Guardian
Noah giggled. “Maybe I’ll be willing to share them with you!”
Jonathan was amazed at how quickly he seemed to have made a good impression on Noah. Perhaps Lady Violet had had a point yesterday about his needing to be a little softer with the boy. He couldn’t deny that that was exactly the approach he’d taken here, and it had worked wonders.
He looked over at Lady Violet to see how she was responding to his success.
The answer was not very well. Her gaze was fixed down at her plate, and she was scowling as though something she intensely disapproved of was happening.
She can’t be too angry, though, he reasoned. After all, I’m doing exactly what she wanted me to do. She might not be happy with the way it’s being done—I can understand that—but she wanted me to form a good relationship with the boy, and now I have.
The rest of breakfast passed in relative silence, but Jonathan was happy to see the smile on Noah’s face persist. He had never seen that boy smile, he realized. Every time he and Noah had crossed paths before now, he’d been met either with a look of discomfort or with an outright scowl of displeasure. That was gone now. This was the way a young boy ought to look—carefree, at ease. Happy.
So Lady Violet was right about something else. I suppose I do have a responsibility to the child.
Unlike Noah, Lady Violet wasn’t smiling at all. She finished her breakfast quickly and got to her feet. “Noah,” she said in a low voice, “I’m going to be in the conservatory for the next few hours, practicing on the pianoforte.”
“I didn’t know you played,” Jonathan spoke up.
She ignored him utterly. “If you need anything,” she told Noah, “you know where to find me. Or, if you simply want to come and sit with me for a while, that would be fine as well—I would relish the company.”
“Are you angry?” Noah asked her with a frown.
She smiled. “Of course I’m not angry with you, Noah.”
But that, Jonathan couldn’t help observing, had not been the question Noah had asked.
She left the table without so much as looking in Jonathan’s direction, which was as good as an answer—she definitely was angry. She just didn’t seem to want to say what had angered her—but it wasn’t that difficult to guess. Jonathan was no fool. After all, he’d set out today with the intention of disturbing her peace. Could he really be so surprised that he had been successful?
Then he was on his own with Noah.
He and the boy regarded one another for a moment, and the smile slowly disappeared from Noah’s face.
“You made her mad,” he said quietly.
That was perceptive—and unexpected. Jonathan sat back in his chair. “Did she tell you that?” he asked, taking a drink of his coffee.
“No,” Noah said, his tone surprisingly sharp. “She didn’t tell me. And she didn’t have to. Anyone could see it. And you might be a duke, but if you couldn’t tell she was angry with you, then you’re also a fool."
CHAPTER 10
Jonathan watched Noah carefully across the table, doing his best to assess the boy’s mood. He seemed unhappy, which was such a change from the way he had been mere moments ago that Jonathan felt staggered. Was it possible that the happiness had been a sham?
He had to know. “Noah,” he said. “I thought you and I were getting along a little better today. I thought we had really made some progress.”
“Well, we have,” Noah said intently. “And that’s why you two can’t be in a fight! Don’t you understand? If you and I are friends, and Violet and I are friends, you and Violet can’t be enemies! I can’t be friends with both of you if you hate one another.”
“We don’t hate each other,” Jonathan reassured him. “She isn’t my enemy at all.”
“Well, she thinks she is,” Noah said. “I think you’re smart, so I think you know that when someone doesn’t talk at you and doesn’t look at you and then walks out of the room you’re in without saying farewell to you, they are angry at you.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “What did you do to upset her?”
“Truly, I don’t think I did anything,” Jonathan protested, but he felt the niggling guilt in the pit of his stomach that came with a lie. He pushed that down. “She’s upset because the two of us are trying to figure out who owns this house. That’s all it is.”
“No,” Noah countered. “It isn’t that. Because you two have been trying to figure that out for days. And sometimes it makes her yell at you, but it never makes her go all quiet like she just did—so I know something else happened. Tell me what it is.”
In spite of himself, Jonathan was amused. “You’re rather accustomed to ordering people around, aren't you?”
“I’m accustomed to people doing the things I ask them to do without putting up a fuss about it, as you are,” Noah said. “And you should do the same. You should realize that I’m only trying to help you here, and you should allow me to do that.”
“How are you helping me, then?” Jonathan asked. “If I tell you what’s going on between myself and Lady Violet, what will you do?”
