“Simeon Volkov is another one of the firsts of our kind, and he was planning to visit Max later that same year. After the epic fail with Concepcion, Max realized that making me book smart would not be enough to sway anyone’s opinions, so he pulled me off of my studies to teach me something else.”

“What?”

“Manners.”

Ruby’s smile overtook her face, and in a blink of an eye, she was sitting up with the sheet puddled in her lap. “Oh, my God. He turned you into a little lady, didn’t he? Just like in the movies.”

Bennett scrunched up her face. “Honestly, woman, look at me. I’ve been this height since I hit puberty, and as for the lady part, Max set his bar a smidge lower.”

“Why?”

“Because I was a lanky woman whose stride was long and whose hips were narrow. I wasn’t demure. I certainly wasn’t dainty, and—”

“But there’s nothing wrong with not being any of those things.”

“And that’s exactly what Max thought. He didn’t want to turn me into something I wasn’t. He merely knew he needed to smooth several of my jagged edges before Simeon arrived.”

“What kind of jagged edges?”

Bennett snickered, and falling back onto her pillow, she ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, let’s see. Um…how to use utensils properly instead of stabbing at things like they were trying to skitter off the plate. How to eat with my mouth closed, and sit with my knees together and my ankles crossed rather than looking like I was holding an invisible watermelon between my legs, and how to use a napkin to dab at the corners of my mouth instead of wiping the cloth across my face as if I were trying to remove a layer of skin. Don’t put my elbows on the table while eating, don’t reach for something, but rather ask that it be passed, don’t slurp your food or burp at the table…and the list goes on.”

“You did all that?” Ruby squeaked.

“What part of ‘I was an illiterate peasant’ don’t you understand?”

Ruby giggled. “I’m sorry. It’s just hard to imagine you like that.”

“And don’t you dare imagine it took only a few short months to smooth all my rough edges either. Thankfully, though, Max ground them down quite a bit by the time Simeon visited. So much so that when we were introduced, the braggart kissed the back of my hand.”

“Wow. You must have really impressed him.”

Bennett’s eyes sparkled. “It was my first attempt at being charming. Unfortunately, the bloom quickly fell off the rose.”

***

England – The Autumn of 1630

Simeon jumped to his feet and shot a deadly look in Bennett’s direction before turning his contempt on Max. “Are you saying I kissed the hand of a bloody slave?”