Page 9 of The Good Duke
Persephone’s mind raced.
Do not say art.Even as she would love that role. Don’t sayartbecause it would only remind Mrs. Belden of the reason she’d summoned Persephone here.
“Mrs. Forsyth?” the older headmistress said, a warning in her tone.
“As a mathematics instructor.”A mathematics instructor?Shedespisedmathematics.But you despise being hungry and houseless more, that silent voice of reason reminded her.
“A…A…”
“Mathematics instructor,” she again supplied when Mrs. Belden failed to get out the remainder of that echo.
“Given the nature of what you’ve been doing in your spare time, it is presumptuous for you to expect that you’ll haveanyemployment, Mrs. Forsyth.”
Persephone’s stomach dropped. She’d not managed to sidetrack the old shrew. It’d been optimistic to believe she could. And yet her papa had said she’d been born with sunshine in her eyes and the belief that good triumphed over all else.
The older woman leaned forward; her painfully thin frame caused not even a creak of the oak chair she occupied. “You drew the human form.”
“It wasn’t as bad as all that,” she said defensively. In fact, it had been one of her better renderings.
“Oh?” her employer managed to wrap that syllable in ice. The old headmistress withdrew another sketch and turned the damning page face-forward. Jagged along the edges from where it had been ripped from Persephone’s sketch pad.
And as she glanced down at the rendering with her initials dashed damningly upon the corners, her stomach dipped.
Ah, it was that the model was nude and his penis exposed.
The penis would prove her downfall…in every way.
It hadn’t been the first time that particular appendage had gotten her into trouble.
Thistime, however, it would be calamitous.
Refusing to give in to a rising panic, Persephone plastered a pained smile on her lips. “I—”
“Do not smile, Mrs. Forsyth. If you’ve learned anything in your time as an instructor, you should have at least gathered that smiling is garish.”
It’s the devil’s invitation.
“It is the devil’s invitation,” Mrs. Belden finished that oft-stated saying.
Persephone drew a small breath. “I can certainly explain.” Of course, she’d rather nothaveto.
The headmistress stared at Persephone. “Well?” she snapped when Persephone didn’t rush to speak.
I enjoy studying and drawing the human anatomy.
Persephone gave her head a tight, slight shake. No, that would not do. Her mind raced.
I’ve long been fascinated by the inner and outer workings of the body—both male and female.
Mrs. Belden reached for her cane.
Think. Think back to the scientific discussions and debates you would hold with your former neighbors, the Earl of Primly and his son, Simon.
Panic pulled a defense from her.
“The Greeks,” she exclaimed.
Mrs. Belden hovered with her hand over her cane. “What of them?” she asked grudgingly.
