“Exeter, Littleton, and I assisted each other when we were courting. Littleton’s not here yet, but Exeter and I will do what we can to help you.” Turley gave John a sharp look. “Yet you must first tell us what the problem is.”

John blew out a breath. “After last evening I am almost certain she thinks I am an idiot.”

Exeter frowned. “Why would she believe that?”

“Because I took St. Albans’s advice.” Both men looked confused. “Let me start from the beginning.” He told him how he thought he’d wanted a rather dim wife, and what St. Albans suggested, and that he’d thought he’d found what he wanted in Eleanor.

Exeter and Turley almost went into whoops. “I do not know what is so humorous.”

Turley put his hand on John’s shoulder. “Do you not know that this is the family who agreed to support one sister’s desire to study at the University in Bologna, Italy?”

Surely John had not heard his friend correctly. He shook his head to clear it. “What did you say?”

Turley’s eyes twinkled with humor. “Augusta, now Lady Phinn, was allowed to travel with her cousins to Europe. Phinn was determined to marry her and followed them. She was equally determined to complete university before marrying. To make a long story short, she and Phinn married, and she did indeed get a diploma stating that she had graduated from the University of Bologna.”

“How many offers did she refuse?”

Turley rubbed his chin as if thinking about it. “At least twenty.”

“Must have been something like that.” Exeter nodded. “But we digress. No one in that family, certainly not the ladies, is at all dim, as you put it.”

“Oh my Lord.” John wiped a hand down his face and groaned. “She’s right. I am an idiot.”

Turley narrowed his eyes a bit. “Yet she is allowing you to dance attendance on her.”

She was, wasn’t she? “What does that mean?”

“Lady Eleanor has obviously found something else she likes about you,” Exeter explained. “That said, it is high time you find a way to show her your wits aren’t lacking.”

“I did engage her in a discussion about her opinions on the less fortunate.” And that had not worked at all.

Exeter frowned. “What did she say when you told her what you have done or the projects on which you are now working?”

“I didn’t tell her. I listened to her.” By the dumbfounded looks on his friends’ faces, that had not been the right course to take. “I had changed my mind about my requirements for a wife and was attempting to ascertain if she was more intelligent than I had originally thought.”

Turley heaved a sigh. “Ergo you gave her the impression you would happily stand back and allow her to do what she wished.”