“If I could show you one property,” he said, “it would be Ambledown. My grandmother used it as a dower house, and my sisters and I ran wild there with the neighbor children. My parents liked for us to be near them in London—Ambledown lies in Surrey—but not underfoot at the town house.”

His smile had grown so wistful, Ellie paused in her note-taking and indulged in a single personal question. “How did your grandmother feel about having young children underfoot?”

“We were the curse of her old age, the tribulation she had to endure for sins committed in past lives. She told us that regularly, while making certain we had good tutors, sound ponies, and other children to run amok with.”

Oh, to have had a grandmother able to tease her grandchildren like that. “When did you last look over the books from Ambledown, Your Grace?”

He propped his chin in his hand. “Who ran amok with you, Mrs. Hatfield? When you were a little girl in pigtails, much smarter than your brothers but not yet confined by the strictures of decorum, who tempted you to climb trees, roll down hillsides, and play pirates in a punt tied to a stump?”

The first part of the question—Who ran amok with you, Mrs. Hatfield?—might have been flirtation or worse, an announcement of male interest. Except that the rest of the duke’s question, about a little girl in pigtails, was genuine. He regarded Ellie in some puzzlement, his blue-eyed gaze roving over her as if trying to discern who she reminded him of.

“I had not the luxury of running amok, Your Grace.” Her family had done more than their share of that. “My upbringing was most humble. Tell me more about Ambledown. Any tenancies?”

Ellie pretended to study the notes on the page while she reminded herself why her upbringing had been so humble. Humble and perilous.

“Six farms,” he said. “Possibly five. I’ve asked the land steward to look for a buyer for one of the farms. The tenants decamped for America and failed to apprise the steward of their plans. Neglect resulted.”

Ellie set down her pencil. “No, neglect did not result. You employ a steward, and his job is to ensure your resources are well cared for. An entire family leaving a district for foreign shores doesn’t happen in the dead of night. Livestock must be fed and watered. A milch cow cannot go for more than a day without attention. Chickens must be let out of the henhouse to forage for daily sustenance or they soon die. No farmer worthy of a ducal tenancy would simply walk away from his animals unannounced.”

Elsmore studied her from the place at her left hand. No smile lightened his expression, and though he wore a small bouquet of violets and lilies of the valley on his lapel, Ellie had the sense that even without his rank, he’d be a formidable man.