smile or two."
"I don't want Rowanford," said Amy sharply, "and if you were to ask me again to marry you I would again say no. I do have thoughts other than marital!" She moderated her tone. "I just wish we could be more at ease."
"Why?"
Amy looked away. It was an excellent question. "I don't know."
They rode for a while in silence, then he said, "So it's to be the banker. You surprise me. Rowanford's nearly as rich, and there is no comparison in other respects."
"Sir Cedric is an estimable man."
"Yes," he said dryly. "He'd make you an excellent father."
Amy looked at him. "It is not unusual for there to be a disparity of ages in marriage."
"But not desirable. It will be a foolish match. He's not an old man in need of an heir, and I doubt he wants a new young family to add to his grown one. What have you in common? Ah, I forgot," he said with what could almost be a touch of humor, "you share an interest in steam engines."
Amy's lips twitched in response. "I'm afraid not." He was teasing her. Her heart swelled in response, and she only wanted to keep him here beside her in harmony. "Do you think there is anything in it?"
"Steam?" he said. "Assuredly. Steam pumps have been in use in mining for decades, and now steam carriages on rails haul coal at a number of mines. Steam boats are widely used in the Americas, and there is one on the Clyde, I believe. You must know this, however," he said with a distinctly humorous glance at her. "You were at Mr. Boyd's lecture."
Amy bit her lip. "I was present, yes. I did think," she added hurriedly, "that the powerful effect of steam was clearly demonstrated. I wondered if it could be put to domestic use."
"Cleaning, washing, and such like?" he asked, intrigued. "I suppose a steam mechanism could move a scrubbing brush backward and forward, or agitate washing. But steam engines are too large."
"Could they not be made smaller?"
"It should be looked into. It is a dangerous notion," he pointed out with a smile. "If machines do the cleaning, the servants will be idle, and you know what the devil does with idle hands."
Amy shared his amusement, but then had a disquieting thought. Their harmony felt as fragile as a cobweb, and she hated to break it with one of her gloomy, sensible predictions but she could not help it. "More dangerous than that," she said. "Would it not be like the new agricultural machines, and the power looms, which are throwing people out of work? If machines take over all the household work, what would the servants do? The poverty would be terrible."
He was not disgusted but nodded thoughtfully. "Good point. Perhaps we'd better not share our inspiration with the world, then. Poverty creates all kinds of havoc."
Amy felt the heat in her cheeks, but she did not look away. Did that refer to her and did he perhaps understand her predicament? "Poverty is terrible," she agreed. "It strips away dignity and leaves no time and energy for pleasure."
"Employment doesn't leave much time and energy for pleasure either," he pointed out. "Nor does it necessarily preclude poverty. Perhaps our machines would be useful after all if they made the servants' lives easier."
Amy was confused. Perhaps he hadn't been referring to her lack of money. Whatever his motives, she was entranced to find that he did not shy away from a serious topic, or appear shocked to find she had some thoughts of her own. "Some people expect their servants to work morn till night," she said. "If machines could do some of the work, they would simply hire fewer and expect more of the ones that remained."
"Is that what you would do?"
"No," said Amy with a sigh. "I would love to have the money to hire ample staff, and clothe and feed them well, and give them generous days off." She looked at him frankly. "A taste of menial labor would make us all better masters and mistresses."
He reached down to take her rein and stop her horse. "Miss de Lacy," he said somberly, "if you had accepted my offer you would have been mistress of a handsome estate, with yet greater to come in time. I would happily have provided ample funds for your generous rule. Did this not occur to you?"
"No," said Amy honestly, for such thoughts had not come into it that day. Had she