The Duke Didn't Want Love — He Wanted a Practical Wife. Then Her Carriage Arrived 40 Minutes Late
Chapter 6
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As they returned toward the hall, Avery held the carriage door, but did not hurry her inside. "You once said you wanted your word to count," he murmured. "Today it did."Helena looked at the little cottage behind them. "I hope it will count when the answer is less comfortable."He said that it would. He meant it. Neither yet understood how much that promise would cost.Rain fell hard enough on Monday to make the roads shine like strips of pewter. By the time Avery returned to inspect the eastern passage and the nearest cottages, the clouds were breaking above Briarcombe.Helena had come with Lady Marian and stood under the broad covered porch while the estate men finished their measurements. The air smelled of soaked leaves and fresh earth."I used to believe a tidy column of figures proved that the world was orderly," Helena said.Avery glanced at her. "And now?""I believe it proves only that someone has written tidy figures."He smiled, then saw that she was not wholly amused. "You said little about your former employment in your letters.""There was little that recommended me in the telling.""I should like to hear it from you, if you care to tell me."She watched water drip from the porch roof before answering. Her father had taught in a small school and had filled their evenings with books and arithmetic. After his death, she had become companion and assistant with household accounts to a widow near York. The lady had been kind, but her son had taken increasing charge of expenses. One afternoon, he had placed inflated figures before Helena and instructed her to sign as though she had checked them."I refused," she said. "I thought it a simple matter: I would not certify what I knew to be false.""And he dismissed you?""His mother did, after he persuaded her I had become troublesome. By the time I tried to find another position, people had heard enough to be cautious of me."Avery regarded the wet stones at his feet. "He used your honesty to injure your reputation.""He used the fact that his word was easier to accept than mine."She had not intended the last sentence to sound accusing; he nevertheless heard its meaning."I was engaged once," he said after a pause. "Lady Octavia was neither a monster nor a fortune hunter, but her family regarded our marriage as permission to direct my household, my tenants, and eventually my decisions. I became angry at every kindness because I could no longer tell a gift from a demand.""Did Lady Octavia herself agree with them?""I did not ask her often enough."It was the first answer he had given that exposed a fault without hiding it beneath another person's conduct. Helena looked at him differently: she had imagined him made cold by disappointment; perhaps he had helped build the coldness himself.