Chapter 7
“Noah?”
Violet was pleased to see that the usual scowl was missing from Noah’s face when he looked up at her—but she was not happy to see an anxious expression there. He looked as though he had been caught in the act of doing something wrong. “What is it?” she asked him. “Is something the matter?”
“I wasn’t doing anything.” He had been lying on his stomach, but now he scrambled to his feet and took a quick step backward as though trying to distance himself from something. She looked at the place where he had been lying and saw a fat earthworm on the ground.
“Were you playing with that worm?” she asked.
The scowl began to creep back over his face. “What if I was?” he asked. “I’ve always been allowed to before. But I guess you think that’s not appropriate?”
“I wasn’t going to say anything of the kind,” she told him. “Earthworms can be very interesting creatures.”
His expression grew suspicious. “You mean to say that you don’t mind me playing with them?”
“Well, I’d prefer that you didn’t bring them into the house,” she said with a smile.
“I think the worms would probably prefer that too, truth be told. They like living outside. But it doesn’t bother me at all that you look at them out here.
That seems a natural enough thing for a boy to be curious about. ”
“Most ladies think that worms are dirty,” he pointed out.
Violet laughed. “They are dirty,” she said. “They live in the dirt. But there isn’t anything wrong with that. Lots of wonderful things live in the dirt—like flowers. Do you like flowers?”
“I like some flowers,” Noah said. “Not daisies.”
“Well, that’s all right. I don’t see any daisies here.”
“That’s because Madam Margaret didn’t like them either,” Noah said, looking down at his worm. “She said they were dull.”
“That’s right,” Violet said suddenly. “I do remember that. She used to say that to me when I was a little girl. She said daisies weren’t very elegant, and she was sure some people liked them and that was fine, but they would never be in her garden.”
Noah’s head jerked up. “She said that to you too?”
“It’s been a very long time,” Violet said. “She used to tell me that when I was no older than you are now. But I remember…you’ve just reminded me.” She smiled at him. “Thank you, Noah. It’s very special to me that you were able to help me call back a memory of someone I know you and I both loved.”
“I didn’t think you really loved her,” Noah said quietly. “I thought you just wanted to get her house.”
“I only want this house so much because I remember being here with her,” Violet said. “I have a lot of happy memories here. I’m sure you do too, don’t you?”
Noah nodded slowly.
“It’s very sad that she’s gone,” Violet said. “But you and I might be able to make some new memories together, if we’re both willing to give it a try. I’d like that very much.”
“Maybe,” Noah whispered. “Maybe we could.”
“In the meantime, would you like to come to the library with me?” She held out a hand. “I think I remember seeing a book about insects there. That seems like it might be of interest to you.”
Noah perked up. “Really? I didn’t know there was a book like that.”
“Maybe Aunt Margaret was saving it to surprise you,” Violet suggested. “It’s a mighty big library.”
“Yes,” Noah said, and to Violet’s surprise and delight, he reached out and took her hand. “I would like to see that book, please.”
She smiled at him and led the two of them into the house.
The book in question was waiting on one of the end tables—she’d spotted it and pulled it out before going to look for him.
Her conversation with Molly about his interests had made her believe that this might be just the thing to win him over, and it looked like she had made a good judgment.
It’s a very lucky thing Aunt Margaret had this book!
“I thought some quiet reading time might be a good way for us to spend a little bit of our day together,” she suggests. “I could read the book I’m in the middle of, and you can read that one. What do you think?”
“Oh…” Noah’s head dropped. “Well…could you read it to me?”
“Certainly, if you’d like,” she said, picking it up. She frowned. “I suppose I didn’t realize boys of your age still liked having stories read to them—but if it’s something you enjoy, we can certainly do that.”
His face was beet red. “It isn’t about…it’s not that I enjoy it,” he mumbled. “I don’t know how to read.”
She lowered the book. “You don’t?”
“Nobody ever taught me!” His cheeks blazed. “How could I learn when there was no one to teach me?”
“You couldn’t, of course,” she soothed him. “It’s all right, Noah. I know things were difficult for you before you came to live here. I didn’t realize you’d never had an opportunity to learn how to read, but that isn’t your fault, and I don’t judge you for it. I can read the book to you.”
He nodded slowly. “All right,” he agreed.
“Do you want to come and sit next to me so that you’ll be able to see the pictures?” she asked him, patting the chaise next to her.
He hesitated, but the lure of the pictures must have been too great to resist. He made his way over and sat down next to her. A moment later, he was leaning close so that he could get a better look at a drawing of a beetle. “I’ve never seen one that color,” he said.
“This one doesn’t live in England, so you probably never will,” she said. “This bright red type only lives in the jungle. We don’t have them here.”
“I wish we did!” Noah said, with more enthusiasm than he had shown for anything so far. “It’s so interesting!”
“Well, it’s probably good for us that they don’t live here,” Violet chuckled. “This beetle is poisonous. It bites, and when it does…”
“Do you die?” Noah asked, his eyes wide as saucers.
“No, not usually. But your hand—if that was where it bit you—would swell up this big.” She held her own hands up to demonstrate, and Noah gaped. “And it would hurt terribly. Best not to let such a thing happen to you at all.”
“How do you know all this?” he asked her. “Were you…were you bitten by one of them?”
“No, no,” she assured him. “Remember, they don’t live here—only very far away.
I’ll never meet one in my life, and unless you become a jungle explorer one day, neither will you.
I know because I’m reading about them in the book, that’s all.
” She pointed to the picture's description. “It tells me right here what they’re like. I’m just reading and telling you about it. ”
“Hmm,” Noah said.
“Margaret never taught you to read?”
“She said she would do it when I was ready,” Noah said. “But I always felt foolish. I thought…well, what if she laughed at me?”
“She would never have laughed at you for not knowing something, Noah.”
“I know,” Noah said sadly. “I should have let her teach me. Maybe now I’ll never know.”
Violet’s heart ached for him. She wanted to tell him then and there that she would help him learn to read.
But he looked too dejected. So much progress had been made today.
She didn’t want to risk pushing him away, and if she offered to help him learn to read, he might feel as if she were trying to replace Margaret.
For now, it was enough that he was willing to open up to her about Margaret—that they could discuss what Margaret had meant to each of them when she had been alive.
Even that was much more than she had expected to be able to share with Noah this early on in their relationship with one another.
Before she was able to say anything, though, the door to the library opened, and the duke entered.
He looked so severe that for a moment, even Violet felt nervous.
Was he going to try to find something to argue about here?
What if he told them that they shouldn’t have been in the library?
What if he insisted that this library was his and that they had no right to use it?
She would fight back if he tried such a thing, she promised herself.
He wasn’t going to tell her that she couldn’t be in here.
“Noah,” he said, ignoring Violet altogether. “Did I hear correctly? You don’t know how to read?”
Noah stiffened beside Violet, and Violet forgot the nervousness she had been feeling. She got to her feet, angry, and put her hands on her hips.
“How is it you know what we were discussing?” she asked.
“I overheard you,” the duke said. “I was walking past the door, and you weren’t troubling to keep your voices down.”
“Well, that’s a mistake that won’t happen twice, I can assure you,” Violet said sharply. “I didn’t realize I was going to have to worry about being eavesdropped upon in my own home.”
The duke showed no signs of remorse. “Did I hear correctly?” he asked again. “The boy doesn’t know how to read?”
“If you were listening to us so studiously, you ought to know the whole context of that statement,” Violet said. “He doesn’t know because he was never taught. It’s hardly his fault.”
“Fault doesn’t enter into the picture,” the duke said.
“The fact is that the child doesn’t know how to read, and that isn’t acceptable—that’s something a young man must know.
If he is to remain in this house and in our care, it falls to us to correct this oversight.
” He looked at Noah. “I’ll be hiring a governess for you in the next few days,” he said.
“She’ll correct the gaps in your education. ” He turned to go.
Noah was still frozen beside Violet, as if the entire encounter had frightened him.
To tell the truth, Violet couldn’t blame him.
It had been so abrupt, and it had been a forceful reminder that they were sharing this house with someone they had no guarantee was at all friendly toward them.
She thought Noah had gotten more comfortable with her today, but comfort with the duke was a much larger and more difficult proposition.
Neither of them had achieved that goal yet.
She rested a hand on Noah’s shoulder briefly, hoping he would take comfort from the gesture—that it would remind him she was on his side. Then she hurried toward the door as well.
“Keep looking at the book,” she called over her shoulder to him. “Pick out some of your favorite pictures, all right? We’ll talk about them some more later.”
He settled back onto the chaise, looking slightly more relaxed. Perhaps he trusted her to take care of things for him. If he did, she knew, it was quite a gift.
She went out into the hall and found the duke standing there awaiting her arrival, his arms folded. So his eavesdropping hadn’t ended when he had come into the room—he must have gone on listening. That was how he had known to expect to see her come out after him.
He is such a difficult man!
But she squared her shoulders and faced him anyway. Noah had trusted her. He was relying on her to talk to the duke about this governess idea.
She was not going to let Noah down.