A Gentlewoman Scholar by Sarah M. Eden & Michele Paige Holmes & Nancy Campbell Allen

Author:Sarah M. Eden & Michele Paige Holmes & Nancy Campbell Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Victorian Romance, Clean & Wholesome Romance, Historical Romance, Inspirational Romance, Regency Romance
Publisher: Mirror Press, LLC
Published: 2021-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Dearest Lady Parker,

I so enjoy my midday walks around the square and beyond. The hour for luncheon immediately follows Professor Lind’s literature class. I find that walking during this time allows me to ponder his lectures and digest them more thoroughly. What a treat they are!

John dismissed his last morning class, continuing his recently formed habit of bidding farewell to each of his students as they filed out—simply so he might have the opportunity for a few seconds’ interaction with the one who intrigued him the most.

“Good day, Miss Sessions.” He nodded as she crossed in front of him.

“Good day, Professor.” She favored him with a smile, and then she was gone, out into the hall with the others.

His gaze wanted to follow her, but he forced himself not to look that direction and instead continued his acknowledgement of each of his other pupils. When the last had gone, he closed the door, then strode to the window, hoping for a glance of Miss Sessions as she made her way to the boarding house next door. Most days he was afforded one. But today she did not appear, and after several minutes, when the trickle of students exiting the building had concluded, he left the window and returned to his desk.

He sat before a stack of papers waiting to be read and graded—another meal alone with only his students’ work to keep him company. Today he didn’t even have Miss Sessions’ essay to look forward to, among those he needed to grade. He had read her class’s essays first, saving hers for the last among them, so as not to set the bar impossibly high for her peers. Her ideas and writing continued to inspire him, and it was impossible not to recognize her slanted, uneven script—equally impossible not to remember her grimace as she’d clenched the chalk and worked at the board. How he wished he might do something to ease her discomfort. But even had he known of a surgeon able to help her, it wasn’t his place to suggest such a thing, and he didn’t wish to cause her more anguish by once again bringing attention to her disfigured hand.

He had noted that she was conscious of it and, when not writing, kept that hand tucked out of sight in the folds of her skirts. He’d never heard any of the other students say anything disparaging about her injured finger, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t. Whether they had or not, it seemed likely that Esther considered her hand just one more item on the long list that made her different from the other students at Bedford.

He unwrapped a cold meat pie and selected the top essay to read. As he leaned forward, reaching for pen and ink, his eyes fell upon a paper beneath the seat Miss Sessions had occupied. He stared at it a moment before deciding to investigate. John rose from his chair and walked to the third row of desks. He bent and reached beneath the one that was Miss Sessions’, retrieving a single sheet.

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