The Duke Was Desperate Without A Translator — Until A Rejected Spinster Spoke 7 Languages

Chapter 2

She did not apologize. She did not soften herself. She had learned — in seven years of being dismissed — that a woman who begins with forgive me has already granted the room permission to disagree.

“Your grace,” she said, and her voice carried clear enough to reach the chandeliers, “the French clause does not grant you access to the northern locks. It cedes them. Entirely. To a company of private investors. There is no term of recovery and no rent for the water rights.”

A sound traveled the room. Not a laugh. Something with more fear in it than a laugh.

“Your grace,” Julian said, stepping forward with his glass still in his hand and his smile still perfectly in place, “surely we are not taking legal counsel from a woman who read the German margin.”