The Duke's Marriage Mission by Deborah Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

“I am certain you are very clever and I am an excellent teacher, but there is far more to know in the world than I could teach you in twenty years.”
    She perched on the right-hand side of Kit’s bed...where Hayden usually sat. “I am not certain even your wise father knows everything .”
    Was the impudent creature teasing him? Part of Hayden was inclined to take offense. But another long dormant part actually enjoyed it.
    * * *
     
    Her young pupil had been right about one thing, Leah decided a few days later. A year could be a very long time. Especially a year at remote Renforth Abbey, with so little to occupy her.
    The duke had decided his son needed at least two days of rest before any instruction could begin. Even then, he would only permit her two hours a day with the child. His Grace had given her strict orders not to tire or overstimulate his son. Did he not realize that half of Kit’s trouble stemmed from being understimulated for so many years?
    Difficult as it was for her, Leah managed to stifle an impudent reply. She did not want to antagonize the duke for fear he might further restrict her time with Kit. Instead, she resolved to make the most of each hour, so he would see how much good her lessons did the child.
    “So tell me,” she asked Kit as she sat beside him on the bed for their first lesson, “can you read any words at all?”
    Before the boy could answer, the duke spoke up from his chair on the opposite side of the bed. “He does not need to read for himself. He has me to do it for him.”
    Leah’s hand ached to pluck a pillow from behind her back and hurl it at Lord Northam. Much as she chafed under the other limits he had imposed upon her, she most resented his insistence on being present during his son’s lessons. How could she do her job properly with him sitting there glowering at her, providing disagreeable answers to the questions she tried to ask his child?
    Reminding herself not to antagonize him, she turned a deaf ear to his words. She spoke to Kit in an even brighter tone, which she sensed annoyed his father. “You would like to learn to read, though, wouldn’t you?”
    “Yes, I would,” Kit answered quickly, before the duke had an opportunity to express a contrary opinion. “Very much.”
    She glanced down at him and they exchanged a grin of mischievous conspirators.
    Then his expression grew anxious. “How will you teach me to read, Miss Leah?”
    “Your father has already made a fine start.” Leah took care to speak loud enough for the duke to hear.
    “He has?” Kit’s eyes widened in surprise and his brow creased, perhaps wondering whether she might be joking. “How?”
    “By reading to you.” Leah hoped a dose of approval from her might lead the duke to relax his suffocating vigilance. “In my opinion it is the very best way to start. Now I reckon you are ready to take the next step.”
    “What is that?” The boy’s eyes fairly glittered with hunger to learn.
    A good number of Leah’s previous pupils had viewed their lessons as a disagreeable chore, undertaken with the greatest reluctance and shirked at the slightest opportunity. She had been obliged to exercise all her powers of invention to interest them in learning anything at all. This little boy, whose world was so much more limited than theirs, seemed to recognize the many doors an education might open for him.
    “You will see,” she teased, to whet his curiosity. “Tell me, what is your favorite story? The one your father has read to you most often. One you practically know by heart. Is there a book like that?”
    The child gave a vigorous nod. “ Gulliver’s Travels . It is the book I always choose if Papa asks which one he should read.”
    “An excellent selection!” Leah reached for his thin hand and gave it a squeeze. The waxen coldness of it chilled her. “That is a favorite of mine, too. I like to imagine what it must be like to visit all those fantastical lands. Which would you most like