Dagger smiled at her, a great deal less forced now that Lam was out of his eyesight, and also put an arm around her waist before kissing her temple.
"Any invitation you extend is fine," he told her, knowing that she only consorted with nobility nowadays. "I\'ll find us some help that I trust having in this house soon, I promise." It was a promise he\'d started to extend to her for a few days now, and decided he would choose the best out of what options he had if it got to the end of the week and he still couldn\'t find anyone he properly liked.
He knew, in the back of his mind, that he was really looking for Lewis and Irene in others. The couple had been getting older though, and he\'d started feeling guilty about them being in his employ but he\'d grown so used to having them around. Not trusting them to keep his secret was justification - they wouldn\'t tell anyone, but they would\'ve fussed at him in his private hours, likely when Mia was out. They\'d already given him meaningful looks when he\'d announced he\'d proposed to her, and he\'d seen the many future comments in their eyes - likely more from Lewis than from Irene. So he\'d sent them away, appeasing both his conscience about their age and telling himself it was to protect a secret they would talk about. Yes, they\'d talk about it. With him.
"Come, Mia, let us read together in the lounge." His request was dominantly one of tutoring. She would read something from his collection and he would listen. She was getting better, but she still struggled with certain words, and he wanted her as confident with reading as she could get. She thought she was good at writing, and she was, but her script was like that of a child\'s, and he had to teach her the flourished script of a noblewoman, like one who had grown up with a quill in her hand. With her he was patient and understanding, and he liked who he was when she was near, for without her at his side, he was still impatient and rude to others - and he\'d never sought to change that in himself.