Page 24 of When She Was a Governess
“But Mother found out. She went to Eleanor directly, while I was away in London attempting to secure a special license. She told Eleanor I was only marrying her out of pity. That I’d confessed to being trapped, that I resented her, that I would come to hate her in time.” His hands clenched around the brandy glass. “She told Eleanor that if she truly loved me, she would set me free before I destroyed my life for someone so far beneath me.”
“No.” The word came out as a whisper. “How could she?”
“Eleanor believed her. As much as I loved her, Eleanor was not strong. Her father, despite the way he preened to his flock, was a cruel and overly critical man, which made it all that much easier for Eleanor to believe my mother’s lies. Or perhaps the combination of social ostracism, public humiliation, and my mother’s relentless psychological campaign simply broke her. I’ll never know.” He drained the rest of his brandy in one swallow. “When I returned three days later with the license, they told me Eleanor had walked into the sea. Drowned herself off the cliffs. The next morning, I found her body washed to shore.”
Sophia pressed her hand to her mouth, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I’m so terribly sorry.”
“My mother attended the funeral.” His laugh was bitter. “She stood there looking appropriately sorrowful while they buried the woman she’d murdered as surely as if she’d pushed her into the water herself.”
“And you…” Sophia could barely get the words out. “You’ve been alone ever since.”
“Yes.” He set down his glass with careful precision. “My uncle convinced me to stay here with him and my cousin, Charlotte. They tried to put me back together, but it was impossible. Then, we lost my uncle too. If not for Charlotte and her husband, I do not know what would have become of me.”
He returned to his chair but didn’t sit, instead bracing his hands on the back of it. “And now I’m bringing you into my mother’s path. You are a woman who has already suffered more than her share of cruelty. You should not have to endure more, but I fear it will not be easy with Mother. If she comes to you or writes to you, please tell me. We must be united in all things or she will find a way to destroy us.”
“I can handle your mother.”
“Can you?” His eyes met hers, dark and troubled. “She drove Eleanor to suicide. She is relentless, manipulative, and utterlywithout conscience when she wants something. And what she wants is control over me, over Amelia, over everything I hold dear.”
“I may look fragile, but I am made of steel. Or I became steel because of what I experienced.” Sophia surprised herself with the firmness in her voice. “You’re not twenty-three anymore, and I’m not some sheltered vicar’s daughter. I’ve survived the Langstons. I’ve survived my last employer.”
Something flickered in his expression. “What do you mean?”
Sophia looked down at her hands, her pulse suddenly racing. She hadn’t meant to say that. But if he’d shared Eleanor’s story, if they were truly to know each other, she should tell him everything.
“Before I came here, I took a post with a family in Sussex. Respectable, or so I thought. The mistress seemed kind, the children manageable.” She swallowed hard. “The master was… he made advances. Constantly. I rebuffed him, of course. Told him I would inform his wife if he didn’t cease immediately.”
Henry’s hands tightened on the chair back. “But he did not.”
“No. One evening, he cornered me. The family was out. Just him and the servants, and the servants had learned to make themselves scarce when he was in that mood.” Her voice shook despite her efforts to control it. “He tried to force himself on me. Pushed me against the wall, said I’d been teasing him, asking for it. That a governess with no family and no references was in no position to refuse him.”
“Did he—” Henry’s voice was deadly quiet. “Did he hurt you?”
“I fought him. Scratched his face badly enough that he bled. He was so surprised he let go, and I ran. Locked myself in my room until morning.” Sophia forced herself to meet Henry’s eyes. “The next day, he dismissed me. Told his wife I’d been stealing, that I’d made inappropriate advances toward him. Shebelieved him, of course. I was turned out with no references, no character, nothing. That’s why I gave a false name when I came here. And why I was so desperate for this position that I would have taken it under any terms. Regardless, had it not been for Mrs. Bromley’s keen intuition about me, I doubt I would have been hired. Did she ever tell you I cried during the interview? After she told me what had happened to Rebecca.”
“No, she did not mention that. But clearly she saw a compassion in you that would be good for Amelia.”
“She must have or I would not be here, sitting at this table with you.”
Henry stared at her, his face carefully blank, but Sophia could see the rage simmering beneath the surface—controlled, banked, but absolutely there.
“What was his name?” Henry asked finally, his voice soft and dangerous.
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“His name.”
“I cannot tell you. Please, you mustn’t make more of this and bring trouble to us? What would you do?”
“Fine. But I would love to call on him.” Each word was precise, clipped. “And make certain he understood that you are now under my protection. That you are to be my wife. And that if I ever hear of him approaching another woman in such a manner, I will make it my personal mission to ruin him.”
Sophia’s throat tightened. No one had ever offered to defend her honor before. Not like this, with such quiet, lethal sincerity.
“You can’t,” she said softly. “It would cause a scandal but I appreciate the thought. Very much.”
He moved around the chair and sat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, his gaze intense. “I may not be offering you a love match, but I am offering you my protection. My name. Everything I have. That includes defending you from anyonewho would dare hurt you—past, present, or future.” His jaw set. “Eleanor didn’t have anyone to stand between her and my mother’s cruelty. I let her down. But I swear to you, I won’t let what happened to her happen to you.”
Looking into his beautiful, troubled, fiercely protective eyes, she believed every word.
