Page 48 of Duchess By Condition
“I’ve never seen him before in my life. And he didn’t give me his name, either. I don’t know who he was. You didn’t know him?”
“No, but…well, I’m not surprised a man tried to get close to you,” Jonathan admitted. “You’re the most beautiful lady here tonight.”
She looked at him, startled. He had said it so matter-of-factly, as if he were commenting on the scenery. And even now, he didn’t seem to indicate that there was anything surprising about what he had said. He walked on with no reaction.
She hurried to catch up. Perhaps he hadn’t meant anything very much by it. Maybe he had just been trying to remark on the dress he’d bought for her. It might have been a compliment intended for himself, in that way—he might be saying that he had outfitted the most elegantly dressed lady here, and that, of course, such a dress would draw attention. If that was what he meant, she wouldn’t even disagree—but she wouldn’t embarrass herself by reacting to him either. She hurried along, saying nothing.
He looked over at her. “I’m glad you’re all right,” he said. “And in the future…you can yell. Even if it makes someone angry, yell, and I’ll come and fend them off. He was out of line.”
She sighed. “Thank you,” she said earnestly. “Thank you for coming when you did. I don’t think that anything inappropriate was going to happen, but hewasmaking me uncomfortable, and I’m very grateful to you for putting a stop to it, Jonathan. Truly.”
He cleared his throat. “It wasn’t a problem.”
As long as they were getting awkward thanks out of the way, she decided to bring up the other thing that had been on her mind. “I’m also grateful to you for talking to Noah the other day,” she said. “After he ruined my gowns. It meant a lot to me that you did that.”
Now he did look at her. “I thought you might wish I had stayed out of it.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “It was clear after that happened that I wasn’t going to be able to compel him to behave himself, so perhaps your involvement will accomplish something mine couldn’t. I can’t say for sure. But what I do know is that ha came to me to apologize for the damage he had done. He seemed truly remorseful about it.”
“I’m glad,” Jonathan said. “I did tell him that he owed you an apology after what he did, and he seemed rather stricken by that. I think that when he did what he did, he expected that you and he would laugh about it together. He thought it was the sort of antic you’d find delightful. I don’t think he really even considered the fact that he was destroying something that meant a great deal to you.”
“He’s a child,” Violet murmured. “I can’t expect him to have fully thought through the consequences of his actions all the time.”
“No, but that is a skill he needs to begin to learn,” Jonathan said. “He needs to understand the harm he might do behaving like that. Because you and I are able to forgive these things and to give second chances, but when he gets a little older…he might try to do this to someone who doesn’t have the patience we have. We wouldn’t want that to happen.”
“No,” Violet agreed. “You’re right. And I’m glad you spoke to him—and glad you weren’t too harsh.” She thought of her own father, her own upbringing. “I’d just hate to think of a scoldingbeing so fierce that he didn’t know we still cared for him. But based on the way he spoke to me, it didn’t seem to me as though that was what he felt.”
Jonathan stopped walking and turned to face her. “You know,” he said quietly, “it’s all right that you didn’t have it in you to give him that scolding. It’s all right that that isn’t what you’re good at. Relying on me for that sort of thing…that’s all right to do.”
She bit her lip and said nothing.
“I know this is complicated,” he went on. “But I was thinking that…that there are things you do better than I do when it comes to Noah. And that’s all right. And it’s all right for me to be better at some things as well.”
She looked at him. “Because he has both of us, you mean?”
“Well,” Jonathan said, “he does for now, at any rate.”
He left that hanging, and Violet was sure they were both thinking the same thing—He won’t always.
But Jonathan was right. Today, right now, Noah had both of them, and they couldn’t help but have different skills. There was no avoiding that. Of course, each brought something unique to Noah’s life. The best thing they could possibly do—for Noah and for themselves—was to accept that fact.
That didn’t mean they had to talk about it. She took a breath. “You know,” she said, intentionally shifting the topic, “I’d be willing to bet that there are many things I do better than you do.”
To her relief, he seized upon the new subject. “Is that so?” He raised his eyebrows and grinned. “I would be interested to know what some of those things are, and then we could determine whether or not you’re right about that.”
“You think I’m wrong?”
“I think it’s a bold claim.Manythings?”
She laughed. “I’m better at making a picnic than you are.”
“And better at throwing rocks into rivers than I am,” he said. “That much I grant you.”
“It’s that easy? You’re not going to insist on a rematch?”
“No, I know when I’ve been bested,” he told her. “You beat me at that fair and square. Though I wouldn’t take that as evidence that you’re more skilled than I am at anything else.”
“It’s not evidence one way or the other,” she agreed. “But can you play the pianoforte?”
