There was certainly a lot to digest in her answer, which was far longer than he had been expecting. If she was trying to play coy or deceive him, brevity would have been the order of the day, which meant these must have been her earnest thoughts — or else that she was more duplicitous than he had given her credit for, and was playing the innocent too well for him to read her. But he didn't want to entertain that possibility, and certainly not while she was offering him such compliments. She'd started with facts or neutral observations but had quickly moved into magnetic; effortless. The praise made him want to touch her, even though they were in such a public setting that it would have been considered vulgar even if they'd been man and wife.

She was no blushing debutante, though; she was a widow and a mature woman, and perhaps it wouldn't be so scandalous for him to touch her in some subtle way if they were courting. He could have stood with her arm on his, perhaps, or reached out to touch her elbow when he made a joke, or maybe even slipped his arm around her waist for a moment as he whispered something in her ear — if they were courting, if if if.

"You could never disappoint," he said, with a smile that turned towards a chuckle as he continued, "And I'm inclined to apologize for disappointing your father with my competence, but really. I've been doing this for long enough he ought to have expected a little better of me, I think."

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