Conversation continued over breakfast.
I patted my lips with the napkin. “I thought that today I could arrange a team to work with you on your business idea.” I tried to sound nonchalant. “But perhaps we can go through the sort of team you’ll need.” I was surprised to see her eyes cloud with caution.
“I don’t think I need that yet.” She sounded careful. “I’d like to try and do it myself. But I don’t have a computer and internet. That’s why I go to the library.”
“Well, that’s easy enough to sort out today.” I thought I knew why she was being cautious. Many, many people wrote to me with ideas for apps, ideas that were so precious to them that they wouldn’t even tell me about them unless I contracted them. I didn’t buy a single one. In my experience, the idea was the easy part.
“What programs do you need? PC or Mac?” I wasn’t quite ready for the signs of confusion on her face.
“Well, I’m not sure. If you really do mean to help me, there’s a program that will make it easier, but I was going to have to learn a free program, because the other’s too expensive for me.”
I got up and went around to her chair. “Toni. I promised to help you develop your idea. And I will. But I do need to know what we’re dealing with here. Is it a manufacturing thing we need to do? Or a design thing? Or technology?”
I waited for her answer.
She shrugged and said, “Well, I’ve been planning an app.” She looked up at me, grinning mischievously. “When you first gave me your card, I thought you’d somehow discovered about it and wanted to steal it. That’s why I was so confused when you suddenly talked about my grandmother.”
I found myself grinning back. “So coincidences do happen.” I got serious again. “I’m glad you felt you could tell me. But I want to ask why you want to learn to code it yourself? Because it’s really not easy.” I dropped into the chair next to her. “The skill is in the idea, making the user able to make use of it easily. Knowing how you want it to look, how you want it to work, now that’s yours.” I leaned forward and tapped her forehead. “But, making the app work, coding it, making it stable, that’s technical work. It could take you years. But if you like, I can allocate you someone from my company. I trust them all, and they can do the drudge work and get your app up and released to the world much more quickly than you can imagine.”
I watched her face light up. I didn’t tell her that there wasn’t a chance in hell that her idea was any good. Even my creative team was having a hard time coming up with new stuff. There was so much already available, and people who’d read that apps would make you rich quick usually found their idea was already implemented.
I stood up. “All right, we’ll go with that. But now, if you’re ready, I want us to go up to your sitting room and discuss the rest of the day.” I wanted to discuss the day all right, and I didn’t want to do it in front of my staff.
* * *
I had my excuse when we entered her rooms. I had no idea how it was possible to be so untidy with so few belongings, but she’d managed it without trouble. I stared around, let my face get serious.
“Antonia. Did you find living in one room was difficult if you didn’t tidy up after yourself?”
She went pink. “Of course I kept everything tidy.” She bit her lip and looked around. “It’s just… I was angry. I’m going to choose where I put my own things.” She tipped her head up defiantly. “It’s my stuff, and I’ll decide where it belongs.”
“I can tell you this, young woman, nothing belongs on the floor!” My hand grabbed her arm before she saw it coming, and I drew her to stand in front of me. Close, so she had to tip her head back to look up at me.
She was angry, but I could see that her breathing was also increasing by being so close to each other, and a slight flush had appeared on her cheeks. I thought of her ass cheeks with a becoming pink flush and felt myself hardening at the thought.
“We’ve agreed that I’ll teach you how to become an appropriate person to become an English Countess.” I looked intently at her face. “Untidiness is not becoming. I think you need to learn a lesson here, and I think that you need to go over my knee and get a proper punishment.”
Her gasp was enough to send me wild.
“But I’ve never been … you mean you’d spank me? Nobody’s ever spanked me!” Her eyes flashed defiance, but I could see a glitter of rising excitement there too.
“Then it’s about time you learned what consequences are, Antonia.” My grip on her arm was firm enough to be able to draw her with me over to the upright chair in her bedroom. It was out of sight of the windows, and I used my free hand to pick up the untidy pile of clothes from it and dump them on the floor.