The Bookseller and the Earl (The Merry Misfits of Bath 1)

Lord Berkshire’s face lit up immediately. It amazed her how easily his mood could change, and how visible it was on his face. The man would never be a successful card player. But his honesty warmed her.

“He is a remarkable boy. As I told you the lad is deaf, but very smart. When he reached the age of three and was sti

ll not talking, I became concerned. Not that I wasn’t worried before then, but with his mother’s death, I thought perhaps that was the reason for his delay.”

There had been rumors when Lady Berkshire had died, but Addie had learned no more than she died under questionable circumstances. As curious as she was about his deceased wife’s death, it was too much of a personal question. Despite Lord Berkshire’s apparent attention to her, he still remained just one of her customers, a mere acquaintance. They hadn’t even risen to the ‘friends’ status.

Her attention returned as he continued. “Then I took Michael to several doctors. One in Paris specialized in children’s speech problems. It was there that I learned Michael is deaf. Since he cannot hear people speaking, he could not do so himself.”

He turned them in a semi-circle as they reached the corner of the room. “I blamed myself for not knowing that already.” He looked down at her, his face a mask in guilt. “How could a father not know his child couldn’t hear?”

Addie thought the better question was how could a mother not realize her child couldn’t hear, but she kept that to herself.

“Members of my family tried to convince me that the doctor was wrong, saying Michael was an imbecile.”

“I’m sorry, my lord, but I am not familiar with that word.”

He hesitated for a moment. “It means deficient in intelligence. Unable to learn.” He shook his head. “I refused to believe that, I still do. I have a lovely woman who lives with us who works with Michael, Mrs. Banfield. She says he is smart and is learning at a rapid pace.”

“So is that why you decided to have him learn sign language?”

“Yes. The same doctor in Paris told me of a school there that taught deaf children, Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris. It is where I learned about sign language. But I don’t want to send Michael to the school in Paris alone, and I cannot stay with him since I have business here that needs my attention.”

“Instead of buying a book on it, would it not be more practical to find someone who knows sign language and have them teach it to Michael? And I imagine to you, as well, if you are going to communicate with your son.”

They continued to walk, their feet moving, but Berkshire continued to stare at her until she felt the very familiar flush creeping up from her middle to her face.

“That is a wonderful idea!” The tension in his body seemed to leave him, and he smiled. “If you are not careful, Miss Mallory, I will make an inappropriate statement again and suggest I should kiss you for that.”

Grayson studied the flush rising on Miss Mallory’s face. She was such an innocent. Of course, having a man she barely knew suggest twice in their short acquaintance that he should kiss her might fluster any young lady.

He didn’t understand why he was so charmed by Miss Mallory. She was pretty, of course, and had a wonderful figure, but more than that it was her intelligence and kindness that kept drawing him in.

Much like Margaret had drawn him in before she destroyed his life. But her words had all been false. Sweet, kissable lips spewing lies. He’d sworn after his wife’s death, he would never again allow a woman to worm her way into his heart, only to smash it into pieces and scatter the remnants to the wind. And laugh while she did it.

No, he would not allow that to happen again, but he could still be friends with this woman who fascinated him so. “I admire how open and accepting you are of my son’s shortcomings.”

She studied his face for a minute, and then seemed to make a decision. “I have my own shortcomings, as well.”

Just then the music came to an end and the couples on the floor strolled to their seats. He did not want to give up her company, but didn’t want to keep her from her friends if that was where she preferred to be. He might want to spend time with her, but he had no way of knowing her feelings on the matter.

He decided to take the plunge, anyway. “Would you care to continue our walk outside, Miss Mallory? I believe I could use a bit of fresh air. We could walk the path from the church hall around the rectory and then return.”

It only took her a couple of seconds to smile and nod. “Yes. I believe I could use some fresh air myself.”

The sun had disappeared behind clouds since they’d entered the church hall and the air was a bit chilly. “Are you cold? We can return if you would like.”

“No. I’m fine.” She took his proffered arm and they began their stroll.

A few minutes passed, and then Miss Mallory said, “I have word blindness.” She didn’t look at him but instead continued to stare straight ahead.

He frowned. “You have a vision problem?”

She offered him a soft smile and looked up at him. “No. It’s something called word blindness. It’s a strange way to describe it, but what it actually means is that I see things—words mostly—different than other people.”

“I don’t understand. Do you mean like color blindness?”

She blew out a deep breath. “No, not like that. I’m afraid I don’t understand it very well either. All I know is when I read a book, I must go slowly because the letters switch around.” She looked up at him and shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it better. What you see as the letter ‘d’ for example, looks the opposite to me. But to make it more confusing, that doesn’t happen all the time. Sometimes a ‘d’ looks like a ‘d’ and other times it looks like a ‘b.’