ME: Is your dad over that yet?
GABRIELLA: He will never be over it.
ME: Will you go alone if you can’t find anyone?
GABRIELLA: Not sure. I might check with Eva. I think she was going to come to see Addy anyway?
ME: Adelaide mentioned it. She was waiting to see about work, I think.
GABRIELLA: Let me find out. We can always take the twins between us.
ME: Not you as well.
GABRIELLA: What? What did I do?
ME: Ma has been on at me about taking Adelaide. She seems to think I’m harbouring desires of a relationship with her.
GABRIELLA: I don’t blame you if you are. She’s hot.
I rubbed my hand down my face, fighting back a laugh. I could always count on Gabi to make me smile.
ME: That’s not the point. I’m not. Taking her would only give her extra ideas.
GABRIELLA: So take Eva. I’ll take Addy.
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?”