Silence fell. He gazed out the window, tapping his fingers impatiently, drumming a soft tattoo on the seat leather. He was restless—he probably would have preferred to ride and feel more active. George watched the long, strong fingers and thought about the unexpected sensations they had coaxed from her. A warm ripple of remembrance clenched her insides. He seemed to know her body better than she did.
“Why did you move Phillip away from all that was familiar to him?”
He frowned. “I didn’t—at least that wasn’t why I moved him. He should be away at school by now, but according to his tutor he’s delicate, and academically he’s not yet ready for school, so this place is temporary. Besides, the boy’s home brings in far more in rental than the small house he’s in now.”
“But he’s a small grieving boy.”
He looked at her, surprised. “I did it for the best. I’m doing all I can to ensure that by the time the boy reaches his majority, he won’t inherit his father’s massive debt. I moved him out of his family home because it’s a large house at the center of a huge estate—an estate that ought to be prosperous but instead is in debt. I’ve put in a new manager, made a raft of changes and innovations and rented out the house to a wealthy cit who has a fancy to live like a gentleman. And, yes, he wanted to buy it, but I’m determined to save it for the boy.”
She nodded. “I can see that, but what about Phillip?”
“What about him? I’m doing this for him.”
“He’d just lost his father.”
He shrugged. “I don’t suppose the boy knew his father any better than I did. Neither of my parents spent much time at Everingham Abbey, where I grew up. My motherloathes the country and only ever went there on sufferance. And, of course, my father indulged her.”
So both his parents had been more or less strangers to him, George thought.
He continued, “As far as I know Phillip’s father spent most of the time in London gambling hells or at country house parties. Besides, at that age, servants are the most important thing in a child’s life. But he was too old for a nanny, so I hired a tutor who would prepare him for school.”
“So he had nobody familiar?”
“What does that matter? As I said, he’ll be starting school as soon as his health improves, and there will be nobody familiar at school. I didn’t know a soul when I started there.”
“How old were you?”
“Seven.”
She was horrified. “Seven? But you were still a baby.”
He snorted. “Tell any seven-year-old boy he’s still a baby and he’ll hate you for it. I managed.”
“Did you like it?”
He thought for a minute. “Does anyone like school at first? I got used to it, eventually. Once I’d made a few friends there, things were a lot better.” He glanced at her. “Some of those friends are still my friends today—Sinc, for instance. Johnny Sinclair. We met on the first day, but it took us a while to take to each other. Sinc has a knack for making friends easily.” He grimaced. “I don’t.”
She could understand that. She was beginning to understand why he was so reserved and cold seeming. He’d grown up not being able to trust the people he should have been able to believe in, and he’d been raised by servants. Not by someone like Martha, who had loved George for herself and had stayed on even though there was no money, but by people who cared for a small boy only because they were paid to.
“You said you’d hidden away for several days when you were a child. Why did you do it?”
“A puppy. I was only found because he barked and gave us away.”
“A puppy?”
“I’d cadged a puppy from a nearby farm and hid with him in the attic.”
“Why?” Why would he have to hide?
“Mother didn’t like dogs, so I wasn’t allowed to have one.”
But he’d said that his mother rarely visited him in the country. What sort of people wouldn’t allow a lonely small boy to have a dog? A dog was the best companion in the world.
“What happened to the puppy?”
He glanced away and said in a flat voice, “He was taken away.”
The pup was probably destroyed. George stared out of her window and thought evil thoughts about the duke’s mother, and sad thoughts about a lonely small boy and a doomed puppy. It wasn’t exactly the privileged upbringing she’d imagined. She changed the subject. “When did you inherit the title?”
