“That would be wonderful, thank you!”
“It shall be my pleasure,” he bowed, “now hold on and I’ll lead Miss Judy around a bit.”
When Lizzie got used to being in the saddle, Talbot got on his own horse and, holding both sets of reins, rode next to her towards the town.
“And what is that?” Elizabeth asked for what felt like the tenth time in the thirty minutes they’d been riding.
“That is the cabin the gamekeeper stays in during hunting season. It’s empty in the summer.”
“Does he live at the manor the rest of the year?”
Talbot shook his head. “He prefers to live in the town. His wife’s father runs the inn, so she and the children help him out.”
“Do the children get any education?”
“I think the church provides some lessons.”
“And it’s not part of your duties as the duke to see to that?”
Talbot looked up at the sky as he pondered his answer.
“It hasn’t been. That might change if I determine that educating children might benefit my estate.”
“Why wouldn’t it?”
“Ah, wife, your naiveté shows. A boy who reads books about adventures and explorers or heroes who fight dragons and overthrow tyrant kings is not likely to grow up into a man who would be satisfied with ploughing my land all day. Not tomention already silly girls getting their heads turned by even sillier ideas from novels.”
Elizabeth took a moment to digest his words.
“So you are a proponent of apprenticeship?”
Talbot nodded. “They never should have abolished the compulsory apprenticeship system. Give the people a craft, a skill, a job to keep them busy. Leave literature, poetry, art, and philosophy to those with a proclivity for it.”
“But what if one of the village children has a proclivity for it?”
“They cannot afford to,” he said, and she knew only too well how right he was.
“Is that the church?” she asked, squinting at what looked like a bell tower in the distance, and when he confirmed, she asked, “Why do we never go?”
“Do you have a habit of attending services?” he replied with a question of his own.
“Growing up, we never did. But Mrs. Barlow and Jane taught me the importance of faith. God is everywhere, so even without going to church, I am able to pray and worship Him.”
“Do you?”
“All the time.”
“We can go next Sunday if you wish. The local vicar is close to retiring, so I cannot promise an engaging sermon.”
“My cousin Andrew is actually looking to go into the clergy after Oxford,” Lizzie said, trying not to sound as hopeful as she felt.
“Is he? When we return to London, I can meet with him and see if he would be a good fit to take over this living.”
Lizzie beamed with happiness, and Talbot shook his head.
“This is a compulsion I am too weak to fight.”
“What is?” she asked, nonplussed.
