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Her lips pressed together in a disapproving line. “A young lady hasn’t much need for debating.”

Young lady? Since when had his little fairy become a young lady? “She’s not even ten. She has plenty of time to learn about balls and fashions.”

“Mark my words, Mr. Kinney. You keep her here all alone and she won’t be fit for society.” Her voice was sharp, insistent. Unrelenting.

Fit for society. Fit for assemblies and gossip and a world of artifice that he’d come to despise.

James’s hand clenched around the handle of his coffee cup as he lifted it to his lips.

A drop of dark brown liquid sloshed over the edge, landing with a plop on the elegant carpet of twining roses Amelia had ordered all the way from France.

He let out a long breath and lowered the cup.

“I’m not going to send Evie away to school. ”

Her chin quivered. “Mr. Kinney. To think I would make such a suggestion to a man in your position.” James suppressed a smile.

He’d yet to see anything that would come between his redoubtable housekeeper and speaking her mind.

“However, I’ve often said young ladies need someone to show them how to get on in company.

Why, Charlotte Cooper’s engaged a governess for her daughters, one come all the way from England.

” Mrs. Hobbes crossed her arms with a meaningful lift of her brows, and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

“Not everything that comes from England is all it—” He paused.

“Charlotte Cooper’s hired a governess?” His fingers drummed a rhythm on the table.

James hadn’t been inside Cooper’s Inn for a decade, not since Andrew had steered him away from the ramshackle lodgings at the wharf and introduced him to the comfortable, well-ordered respectability of Cooper’sInn.

“I wonder if Evie could join in the lessons.” His words came faster as the idea took shape.

“I could take her on my way to the courts and fetch her on my way home.” The next few months promised to be eventful.

Dangerous, even, if the rumors of rebellion were to be believed.

Lessons would keep Evie too busy to ask questions. “Capital idea, Mrs. Hobbes.”

Mrs. Hobbes opened and closed her mouth without a sound. James grinned. He’d solved Evie’s boredom and silenced Mrs. Hobbes in one go. He rose, eager to put his plan into action. “I’ll speak to Mrs. Cooper today. With any luck, Evie can start by the end of the week.”

“No, Papa!”

James and Mrs. Hobbes turned to the figure in the doorway. Evie stood, her brown eyes huge in her pointed face, her hair sticking out in all directions, staring at him with a mixture of accusation and fear.

“I don’t want to have lessons with those girls. They don’t like me.” She crossed her skinny arms over her chest. “You can teach me everything I need to know.”

James’s stomach tightened, just as it did when an opponent brought forward an unexpected argument in the courtroom.

Usually, the challenge put him on his mettle.

He waited for his whirling mind to stop and the perfect counterargument to click into place.

Nothing. Apparently, his analytical skills deserted him when it came to his daughter.

“Nonsense, Evangeline.” Mrs. Hobbes bustled over to Evie’s side and put an arm around her shoulders, smoothing down the flyaway strands of hair with her other hand. “Don’t you want to learn to be a fine lady?”

“I want to be a barrister, like Papa. I have a legal mind. Papa said so.”

Mrs. Hobbes sent James an accusing glance over his daughter’s head, and he quickly turned his attention to Evie. If he could face Allan MacNab across the courtroom, then he should be able to handle one little girl. “Wouldn’t you like to play with the Cooper girls?”

“I’m fine here. I like helping Mrs. Hobbes.”

“Fine, are we? Why don’t we tell Papa what you were up to yesterday?”

Evie froze. Her eyes darted to Mrs. Hobbes with a look of entreaty.

“What happened?” James stepped closer, his heart sinking.

Mrs. Hobbes crossed her arms over her chest and gave Evie a hard stare. Evie took a breath and straightened her shoulders. She wasn’t short on courage.

“I went to the livery to see the puppies.”

The tension drained out of his shoulders. Little harm could come to her in this neighborhood where everyone knew her by sight.

“And?” prompted Mrs. Hobbes.

“And Sproule’s.”

“Sproule’s?” James repeated, his heart pounding. The store was on the other side of town. “By yourself?”

Evie shrugged. “It wasn’t hard to find. I remembered it from the last time we were there.”

“You can’t be running around Toronto on your own. It’s not safe!” James knelt in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders. “What would possess you to go so far?”

“I thought they might have new books. I needed to find out what happened to Ivanhoe,” she said in a small voice.

“Uncle Andrew said he’d bring you the next volume.”

“It’s been weeks . I think he forgot.” Her wide brown eyes sent a prickle of guilt through him. He’d been so busy, he hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed. “I’m sorry, Papa.”

James struggled against the pull of those eyes and the instinct to gather her close and assure her all was forgiven.

But such deliberate disobedience required consequences.

He cleared his throat. “ Ivanhoe will stay on my shelf until I feel you can be trusted again.” He met Mrs. Hobbes’s eyes over the top of Evie’s head. “And you’ll start lessons this week.”

“No! I won’t go. You can’t make me.”

Her vehemence startled him. She’d never refused his bidding before.

His eyes skittered over her head to land on the maple in the yard, its leaves a burst of bronze and gold in the morning sun.

The tree was the reason Amelia had chosen this house.

Gives an air of stately elegance, don’t you think, James?

He hadn’t thought any such thing, but he’d bought whatever kept the sparkle in her eyes.

He looked at Evie, suddenly seeing her as Amelia might: arms akimbo, hair sticking up every which way, chin tilted at a defiant angle.

His stomach clenched as he acknowledged the truth in Mrs. Hobbes’s warning.

He delighted in Evie’s sharp mind, but a young lady as a barrister?

She’d be a social pariah. Amelia would have been horrified.

“It’s time you learned to be a young lady.

” He should have approached the idea gradually, planned his arguments and counterarguments, but it was too late for nuance.

“It’s what your mother would want.” Although he didn’t raise his voice, the words seemed to float in the air between them, echoing in the sudden stillness.

Evie slowly raised her eyes to his. “My mama?” There was a note of longing in her voice.

“Your mother was every inch a lady.” He forced the words out past the tightness in his throat. He’d tried to be father and mother to her, but he still felt so inadequate to the task. Show me the path forward. Help me to do what’s right for her.

Evie chewed her lip, a sure sign she had doubts. It was time to push his advantage. “It would’ve made her proud.”

Evie was silent for a long moment. “All right, Papa. I’ll go.”