Page 40 of The Governess and the Brooding Duke
‘It was inappropriate of me to enter without knocking.’
He ignored her words, and instead subjected her to that brutal, wordless appraisal of his. ‘You do not look well.’
She swallowed hard. ‘It has been a difficult day. I will be very honest with you. It has been difficult.’
He made her feel both discomfited and deeply vulnerable. She had, yet again, the deep need to move closer to him and keep her distance all at the same time.
Perhaps that was the issue with the man himself. He seemed like a well of intensity. And yet there was a wall up around him so high, she did not know if anyone had ever scaled it.
Are you so different?
Yes. They were different.
He was a man. He was a Duke. He had nothing to protect himself from. She, on the other hand, had erected her defences out of sheer desperation. Necessity. She was not able to simply live because she would be torn asunder if she did.
If she did not protect herself, nobody would.
All the world protected a duke.
It was different.
He had no right to this.
It wasn’t fair. Here she was, caught up in the burning flames of all this, and there he sat.
‘Michael had another very difficult day.’
‘I will speak to him.’
She was taken aback. ‘You will?’
‘He is not to treat you with disrespect.’
‘I do not wish for Michael to be punished. He is a little boy and he has experienced a great loss...’
‘It is no excuse for treating his governess poorly.’
‘I do not care for how he treats me. I am an adult, and I can bear it. The problem is his pain. If you wish to speak to him, Your Grace, then do so, but not to punish him. He does not deserve that. He needs someone to come alongside him and offer comfort.’
‘I will consider it.’
She bit her tongue. He would consider offering his son comfort.
Was he, in fact, entirely made of ice?
He stared at her, and she felt a growing heat in her stomach that made a mockery of what she had just thought.
‘I...’
‘Will that be all?’
She steeled herself, prepared now to broach the topic of the babe.
‘No. That is not all.’
‘What, then?’
‘There is the matter of the wet nurse. I believe that she is being lax in her duties.’
