Page 104 of The Governess and the Brooding Duke
‘Our father is dead,’ said West.
Luke chuckled. ‘Our father died twenty-four years ago. He has been dead a very long while.’
‘Yes. But now Irealiseit. Perhaps it did take the death of Jane. Just to deeply understand how permanent the state is. Because I feel sometimes as if I’ve been waiting for him to return. And I had to stand as a pillar against everything he was just in case. But I’m not him.’
‘No, West,’ Luke said softly. ‘You never were.’
‘This place is difficult for you too.’
‘Not so much now. But you had to live in it. When you were not in London. All these years, and it’s been yours. I can well understand why it has felt burdensome to you. Why you have never quite felt free of him. He haunts this place.’
‘Less and less by the hour.’
After dinner, Grace excused herself to go and tuck the children in, and Luke and West excused themselves to the parlour. West poured them both some brandy and had a seat.
‘Tell me honestly,’ Luke said, levelling his gaze at West. ‘The governess. She is a damn sight too pretty to be a governess.’
‘She is truly a governess,’ he said.
‘Nothing more? Only she looks at you as if the sun might rise and set on your every word. I watched you play with the children, but in part I watched her observe you.’
‘Luke...’
‘I am a married man,’ he said, looking mock-shocked. ‘Happily. You don’t need to worry about me, but if my older brother were having an assignation with an incredibly beautiful young woman I might like tohearabout it.’
He could not lie to his brother, not about this.
‘It is more than that.’
Luke cocked a brow. ‘Are you in love with her?’
His denial was swift. ‘Of course not. She’s a governess, Luke. She is not a lady and she is not...’
Everything in him fought against that idea.
Love.
He had already killed one woman with his version of love.
‘I understand the realities of the world, brother.’ Luke looked amused. ‘But youarescrewing her.’
He clenched his jaw tight. ‘Yes.’
‘And to what end?’
He let out a breath, long and slow. ‘I had the thought that I might make her my mistress. Openly.’
‘A dangerous game to play with a woman’s reputation. You would have to be prepared tokeepher. And pay her a stipend for the remainder of her life, because she would never find work as a governess again.’
Luke was saying aloud what he already knew. If he made Mary his mistress, in truth she would be his responsibility for ever. But he did not hate the idea.
He could not imagine wanting another woman.
‘I am prepared to do that.’
‘Adeepercommitment than marriage, some might say,’ Luke continued as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘For if she has your children, they will be bastards. You will be consigning them to a life of relative disgrace, all because you could not let go of a woman you should never have touched in the first place.’
‘I know that,’ he said. ‘You said that you wished to hear of my affair with a beautiful young woman, you did not say you wished to give me a lecture.’
