Page 22 of The Secret Life of the Elusive Governess
Moses’ eyebrows arched, “And where did you get that rhetoric, Lavinia? From your father, perhaps?”
The tight look on her face said it all, her thinned lips and pale coloration. Moses shook his head as tiredness he had never before felt consumed him. “Just let matters be. We do not need your father’s machinations in our home.”
Going back to his bedroom, Moses removed his clothes and tugged on his nightclothes and a robe. He faintly heard when Lavinia joined him inside the room but did not have the strength to look at her.
He liberated a bottle of brandy, measured out a portion in a snifter, and quickly swallowed it. The robust liquor burned his throat and his stomach, as he had not eaten a thing in over five hours, and the little appetite he might have had was gone when he heard about his wife’s scheming.
I am going to be gone for long hours in the next few days.Moses wracked his mind, what can I do to protect Miss Robins while I am not here? I need to keep her safe but what can I do?
“Moses?” the Duchess called faintly, “Are you coming to bed?”
“Not yet,” his words were succinct.
Pouring another drink, Moses sat and nursed it as his worry took him deep into the night. Even when he went to bed the worry plagued his mind. Upon waking with the dawn, he sat up with the apprehension that he might have to go to the town that day instead of stay at home.
However, he knew leaving off from his duty was not possible. Casting a look to the lady who was lying beside him, Moses hoped she had enough sense to not try anything foolish, as not even one day from his warning had passed.
Removing the covers, Moses went to prepare for the day. More talks were going to be had with his workers and just as it had been for the past few days, he was certain that the day was going to be a long one.
* * *
She had not slept, not even for a moment of the night before. The dark hours had passed with Caroline’s eyes open, both dark orbs staring blankly at the shadowed outline of the sparse furniture in her room.
Despite the Duke’s request to not worry, Caroline had passed the night in the throes of anxiety.
He cannot protect me all the time,she had reasoned with a grimace.No matter how powerful he is, he cannot keep a watch on me and keep me from her retaliation.
Sitting up, Caroline captured her bottom lip with her teeth and worried it a bit. The Duke last night had been…wonderfully strange. His concern for had reached down deep inside her, touched her spirt, and had only enhanced the emotion for him, that she knew she had tried hard to suppress. The fierce protectiveness she saw in his eyes and in his tone had warmed her.
No one has ever protected me before…not even one person.
“I am slowly falling in love with him,” Caroline whispered to the air around her.
The feeling of his palm on her face, the concerned look in his eyes, and the righteous anger she could feel coming from him in waves—anger aimed at protecting her—only deepened the feeling.
A feeling that was doomed to never be realized. The bare truth was that she was a governess, a woman stuck between two worlds. She was higher than the other servants but one rung under the family and therefore had no solid place. And Moses was a married man. Her emotions for the Duke were taking her on a road that could only lead to destruction.
There was no conclusion she could come up with that ended with her having good standing in this debacle. The Duke would never look at her the way she wanted him to, he would never leave his wife or family for her, and she would never become his mistress. Her own code of honor forbade it.
Caroline had seen the anger in the Duchess’ eyes and knew that her summons was not coincidental. Something had spurred the meeting on and she wondered if it was something the Duke had said or done the night before to prod such a vicious attack from the Duchess.
If so, what was there to stop it from happening again? The odds were that the Duke’s chivalrous actions to defend her just might spur up more vicious reactions from the Duchess. Who knew what she would cook up just to discredit her?
But his eyes, I have never seen someone look at me like that, as if they actually see me instead of my position. He pledged to secure my position, but I need to protect him…from the risk of a scandal.
“I need to stay away from him,” Caroline decided. “I must stay away from him to save him.”
Chapter 10
Nine days had passed and there was a peace in the mansion, but to Moses, it felt forced. His wife was placid, too subservient and too quiet for his liking. There were some fleeting times when he feared that she was falling back into despondency, but the clarity in her eyes disproved his suspicions.
“Moses,” the Duchess said calmly from her place on her favorite daybed, “Perhaps we should take a carriage ride this evening—you, I, and the children. The afternoons are so calm and the scenery is so beautiful in the countryside. Don’t you agree?”
The Duke frowned momentarily.This is strange…Lavinia hates the outdoors, much less the countryside.“Are you sure?”
Her placid gaze met his, “Of course. Have you never felt the need for fresh air?”
“I have,” Moses replied easily, with one hand in his pocket and the other swirling a glass of sherry, “But in my experience, you do not.”
