Though her lips remained unsmiling, the corners of her eyes crinkled, and her silver eyes seemed to brighten. “I am your teacher. You are my student.” Miss Fernsby pointed to a cane. “I have even walked with a rod of correction.”
Colin found himself chuckling at her sense of humor.
“Now, let us begin,” she said primly. “I have sorted out the most scandalous of your siblings by their newssheet mention. I know that all the reports might not be true, but I thought whatever is mentioned in the clippings might provide me an idea of what needs to be worked on for each person. You have eleven siblings in total, is that correct?”
“It is; you will meet them all in due course.”
“Certainly,” she said brightly, once again jolting him with her loveliness and her eagerness to help. “It will be very important for me to meet each person and have an honest discourse. I’ll also need to understand how they feel about everything to better know how to approach their lessons. We shall begin with you. I would like to know your reasons for wanting to learn more about attaining a proper decorum.”
“Why do my reasons matter, Miss Fernsby?”
“You see, propriety is an art.”
He lifted a brow. “An art?”
“Oh, yes. It is taught to us girls and even gentlemen from infancy. We learn it through our parents, from our governesses and tutors. Some of us even go to finishing school. It is a vast landscape that can be daunting. With the clips I discovered, I have formed some ideas of the areas your sisters might need working on or help to improve the areas society are keenly scrutinizing.”
Miss Fernsby reached for the clips, and he noted her cheeks slightly pinkened.
“The few mentions of you are about…well…I am assuming they are of you.”
“They are of me,” he said flatly.
Bright eyes ensnared him. “You were recently engaged in a secret duel over…over a woman?”
Colin espied no judgment in her steady gaze; in truth, Miss Fernsby appeared as if she admired that bit of scandal. “Yes. However it was a brawl in a gentleman’s club. Brooks.”
Her lips pursed. “A respectable establishment. What happened?”
“Another gentleman referred to a lady friend in a most disrespectful manner because she refused his favor for mine. I defended her honor.”
A soft smile touched her mouth. “I see.”
“It was thought offensive by many that I would stand by a lady because of her dubious background.”
“I think it is admirable.” She tapped her fingertips on the book. “Is this the same lady who kindly escorted you home a few days ago.”
“It is.”
She made another note, and he wondered if she wrote that he was an unredeemable libertine.
“Did you not consider how this…brawl would sully your reputation?”
“No.”
“You are no longer merely Mr. Fairbanks, a country gentleman who owns lucrative mines. I daresay in the country where the society is less…sophisticated, some behavior might be allowed with your family receiving little rebuke. It is why wealthy heirs are sent to schools like Eton, Harrow, Rugby, and Winchester. And then onto universities. Where were you educated?”
“At home. My father was able to afford a tutor.”
Surprise lit in her eyes. “You never went to Cambridge or Oxford?”
“There was no need. I always knew I would inherit from my father as the eldest son. I started to learn everything there was about managing the mines and land from my father as a lad of nine years.”
“You will need to study beyond land management,” she suggested.
“The old dragon has already recommended several political tomes, and I have subscribed to a few gentlemen’s magazines and political registers.”
“The old dragon?”