ME: Why don’t you just come with me? It’ll save all the hassle. You can probably sell your seats. I think Charlie and Freya missed out.
GABRIELLA: Let me see what Dad’s doing and I’ll let you know.
ME: All right. Don’t take too long, though.
ME: And let me know what happens in this episode of The Magpie Wars.
GABRIELLA: He can text you himself. I’m sick to bloody death of hearing about those magpies.
I laughed and put my phone down on the desk. Gabi and Miles’s relationship had had a rocky start, but he and I had clicked the moment we’d met. Since they’d started dating, they’d gone from strength to strength, and he and I had become good friends.
Good enough to know that while he probably was battling magpies in the gardens of Arrowwood Estate, there was absolutely no reason why he couldn’t attend with her this weekend.
Well, I knew the reason. He was still adjusting to being romantically involved with someone who had a title. He’d opened up to me about his upbringing, and I knew our social circle was still foreign and alien to him.
Luckily, so did Gabi. She didn’t ever push him to do anything he was uncomfortable with, even if that meant indulging his ever-hilarious excuses about why he couldn’t put a suit on and pretend to give a damn about rich people shit.
His words.
Not mine.
For what it was worth, despite the fact that I myself was a duke, I was far more comfortable hanging out in the gardens with him than I was in a suit.
I couldn’t stand the fawning at the parties. The people who saw me as nothing more than a title—a means to an end, to societal standing, to fortune.
I was rapidly reaching a point where I was going to show up to these things with a fancy bow on my head so I looked like the prize these people thought I was.
“Papa! I’m done!” Olympia bounced into the living room with Adelaide hot on her heels. “Is Mrs. Berry here yet? I’m hungry. Did Mrs. Bell leave me lunch in the kitchen? Can I get a snack?”
She was full of beans today. It must have been a good lesson.
I laughed and patted the spot next to me on the sofa. “First, you can tell me about your morning. Did Adelaide make you run around the garden today? Wipe the cupboards? Sweep the floors? Or—shock, horror—clean your bedroom?”
Adelaide grinned as she sat down on the sofa opposite us.
Olympia giggled. “No, Papa. I read a whole chapter all by myself!”
“A whole chapter? Wow! Well done you!”
She beamed as though I’d just told her she was getting a puppy. “It was great. There’s a fairy called Olive and she has to save her fairy world from an evil witch!”
My jaw dropped. “An evil witch? Oh, no! That sounds awful and dangerous.”
Oly nodded solemnly. “It is. She’s very mean.”
“It sounds like a very good book. Is it on the Kindle?”
“Yes.”
“The new font is helping, I think,” Adelaide said, smiling at Olympia. “That and the fairies, at least.”
Her smile was so warm—and her eyes shone with something that looked a little bit like pride, and that made my own feeling of pride swell up inside me.
“And we did some writing, didn’t we?” Adelaide continued. “We also agreed that if she reads one chapter every day and does her writing practice, she can use the laptop to write a story of her own.”
My eyebrows shot up. “A story of your own, huh?” I wrapped my arm around Olympia and pulled her in for a hug. “That sounds like a lot of work.”
She nodded sagely. “But Addy is writing a book, and she can type very fast! It looks very easy! I want to try, too.”
I glanced at Adelaide.
She looked like she was going to throw up.
I patted Oly on the arm. “I don’t think it’s quite as easy as you think it is, princess, but that’s the spirit, I suppose. Right, Adelaide?”
“Mm. That’s the spirit.”
I almost laughed at her. “Now, to answer your questions,” I said to my daughter. “Mrs. Berry has the day off, so you’re stuck with me, I’m afraid. And no, there isn’t lunch ready, but I believe Boris just let Mrs. Bell in, so if you go to the kitchen and ask her very nicely, I’m sure she’ll be able to find you some dippy eggs.”
She gasped, then jumped up and ran out of the living room. Her footsteps thundered against the wooden floors, and the sound wasn’t too dissimilar to a herd of elephants stampeding.
At least, that’s what I imagined a stampeding herd of elephants sounded like.
I turned to look at Adelaide. “Now how on Earth did she decide she suddenly wants to write a book?”
CHAPTER FIVE – ADELAIDE
I sighed, running my hand through my hair. “I’m really not quite sure,” I admitted. “She was reading in the armchair, so I thought I’d open my manuscript and edit the first five chapters to get them to my agent for his opinion while she was busy. It must have taken me longer than I thought, because I found her looking over my shoulder.”
Alex chuckled.
“Thankfully, this one has no… inappropriate… language for her age.” My cheeks flushed lightly.
The last thing I wanted was for him to find out I didn’t just write young adult fiction.
He did not need to know that I moonlighted as a spicy romance author under a pen name, thank you very much.
Belle St. James would stay as my little secret. Amen, thank you, and goodnight.
“She asked me what I was doing, so I explained to her that I was writing a book. She asked if she could write one, too, and… Here we are.”
“I suppose it might keep her out of trouble,” he said slowly. “But she’s going to make me read it fifty times, isn’t she?”
I grinned. “Probably. But count yourself lucky—you’ll get an edited version. I’ll have to turn it into some lessons for her.”
“You have the patience of a saint, Adelaide.”
“Not quite, or I’d actually put my degree to work and be a real teacher.”
“One child is quite enough.”
“I can’t help but agree,” I mused.
“Are you done for the day now?”
I nodded. “Yes, I don’t want to overwhelm her. She’s making such good progress, and she’ll tell me when she’s ready for more.”
“What are your plans now?”
I motioned to the laptop on my thighs. “I was going to go out for some lunch and then write a few thousand words I’m sure to hate in the morning.”
His lips curled to one side. “You’re really hard on yourself, you know that?”
“All writers are. It’s part of our personalities.” I shrugged and crossed my ankles.
“Do you want some company for lunch? You can stay here, you know.”
“Oh, I know, but I realised yesterday I haven’t really explored the village much. I’ve hit a bit of a block, so taking a quiet walk through Whitborough might help me figure some stuff out.”