It wasn’t like my writing was getting me anywhere, either.
After all, if it was, I wouldn’t be here, tutoring Lady Olympia Winthrop-Bentley for some extra cash, would I?
Not that I minded—not exactly. I’d discovered quickly into my teacher training that I was not a fan of trying to wrangle a large number of children into doing what I wanted them to do. Dropping out at that point seemed futile, and I hadn’t wanted to disappoint my parents, so I’d completed the training.
Through it, I’d learnt that I did enjoy tutoring individual children. Especially those who had extra needs, and Olympia was most definitely one of those. She was dyslexic and would soon be assessed for high-functioning autism.
And she was quite possibly the best little girl I’d ever met in my life, never willing to let anything get her down.
Well, anything other than the dippy eggs her dad refused her because she didn’t wake up on time.
Her dad.
Alexander Winthrop-Bentley, The Duke of Worcester.
Sigh.
If I had one more dream about that man, I was going to lose my mind.
I shut the door to my bedroom and leaned against it, closing my eyes.
I was one week in.
I could do another five.
Couldn’t I?
CHAPTER TWO – ADELAIDE
“I can’t do it!” Olympia shoved the tablet away from her and slumped forwards on the table. “The words don’t make sense!”
I took the tablet and, after bookmarking her place approximately halfway through chapter one, pressed the button on the side to shut it off. I put it back into its place inside the padded cotton sleeve and sat back in my chair.
Speaking to her now wouldn’t help. She was tired and overwhelmed, and nothing I could say would make her feel better.
So I would wait.
I would wait until she felt better and wanted to talk again.
Several minutes passed before Olympia raised her head and looked over at me. Her large blue eyes, so like her father’s, were hesitant and a little afraid.
“Are we feeling better now?” I asked gently.
“You…” Her voice was tiny. “You aren’t angry?”
“Whyever would I be angry with you, Olympia?” I slumped down on the table so I was eye-to-eye with her, although she was staring decidedly at a point over my shoulder.
“Because I can’t do it.”
“Well, you’re perfectly wrong about that. Just because you can’t do it today, doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s hard today, and that’s all right. Lots of things are very hard at first. Dancing, playing football, writing, even walking. It takes babies a long time to learn to talk and walk.”
“I’m not a baby.” Olympia shifted in her chair.
“No, you’re not. You’re quite right. But you are trying to learn something that is very difficult for you, and it isn’t going to happen immediately.”
“But I want it to.”
“I’m sure you do, honey, but that isn’t how it works.”
“How do you know?”
“Well, I had to go to school for a lot of years to be a teacher. All the normal school, two at college, and then four at university, and there was some training after that, too.”
She frowned. “That’s a lot of school.”
“It is, but it was worth it. It was very hard at first,” I said, looking at one of the paintings on the opposite wall. It was of dogs having tea and biscuits while wearing hats and, honestly, the most random thing I’d ever seen, but it was nice to focus on something without making Olympia feel uncomfortable. “I had to learn an awful lot and it didn’t all come at once. Some things were easy, but some things were very, very hard and took a long time for me to learn them.”
“Like the words.”
“Like the words,” I replied gently, reaching over and touching her shoulder. “I know many things can be very difficult for you, Olympia. I will never be angry with you for trying your hardest even when you’re struggling.”
“You won’t?” She looked at me for a second. “Granny gets angry sometimes.”
“Oh, I’m sure she doesn’t. Sometimes adults can seem angry when they’re really upset or frustrated with themselves because they don’t know how to help. You know your dad struggled with words, too, when he was a little boy?”
“He told me.”
“Your granny didn’t know how to help him when he was a little boy, and Gabriella told me that was very difficult for her. I think she finds herself in the same position with you, honey. She gets rather upset with herself, not with you.” I let my hand fall to take her little one in mine. “Wanting to help someone and not knowing how can be very tough sometimes.”
Olympia looked down at the table and fidgeted with the edge of a piece of paper, flipping it back and forth between her fingers until I worried that she was going to get a papercut. “I want to try again.”
“Reading?”
She nodded. “I want to finish that chapter.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m sure.”
I unlocked the tablet and slid it back over to her. It was open to the page she’d left off on. Olympia picked it up, then paused, and got up and walked over to the armchair. She tucked herself into a little ball in the chair by the window and gripped the edges of the tablet so that her knuckles turned white, and I watched her for a moment before turning away.
If she was more comfortable reading there without being watched, then she could carry on.
I opened my laptop and updated our plan. Maybe a whole chapter book by the end of the summer was too ambitious, but then again, maybe she just hadn’t found the book yet.
Everyone had the book. The one that made them fall in love with reading.
Maybe she just needed to find hers.
“I finished it!”
I turned around and grinned at her. “See? I told you. I knew you could do it.”
The sparkle in her eyes matched the brightness of her smile, and I held out my arms to hug her. She giggled and squeezed me tightly.
“What do you think of the book?”
“Um.” She leaned into me. “I don’t know.”
“Would you like to try something else tomorrow?”
“I think so.”
“Okay.” I checked the time. “We still have to do some writing practice, but I think we can take five minutes to search for a new book.” I pulled up the e-book store website on my laptop as Olympia pulled a chair over. “Let’s see… what about this one?”
“What’s it about?”
I read the sumFlorence to her, and she shook her head, but I added it to a list just in case. We went through several books until one about fairies in a far-off land caught her attention, and after I’d checked to make sure it was appropriate for her reading level, I purchased it using the card Alexander had given me for her supplies.
I was a little jealous of her book budget.
“Are we done now? Is Mrs. Berry here? Can I see the bunnies?” Olympia asked, fidgeting.
“Nope.” I slid her the handwriting workbook and a pencil. “Mrs. Berry won’t be here for another thirty minutes. Until then, we’re doing some work on your penmanship.”