Page 72 of The Governess and the Brooding Duke
And her whole body felt like it was ignited with need.
She had admitted that she desired him, for what little she knew of desire.
She knew about sex.
She knew about the most base, quick, clinical interpretation of it. But desire, that she knew nothing about.
It was so dangerous. He was so dangerous.
But the consequences for her would be...
Yes, she knew there were ways to prevent pregnancy, but there was always a risk. Look at his wife. If anything, it was a reminder. She was dead because she had given birth to the child of her lover.
Undoubtedly, she had not intended to conceive that child.
Why would she wish to compromise her position in society? She wouldn’t. The woman was undoubtedly not an idiot.
She pressed her hand to her chest, felt her heart throbbing there for a moment. And she reminded herself that she was more than this.
She was Michael and Elizabeth’s governess. She was... She was helping care for this infant.
And while it had felt like a deep wound at first, it was beginning to feel like balm.
She got up and got dressed. And ushered the children into the nursery.
‘We’ll go for another walk in the woods?’ Elizabeth asked.
She had enjoyed that.
‘I think we should.’
‘Will Father join us this afternoon?’ Michael asked, his voice hopeful.
And she decided that she was going to have to speak to the Duke at teatime.
There. She had thought of him correctly then. Being around his children helped.
It helped remind her that he was her employer. Not her...
She had begun to think of him as somebody that she knew. And that was not right.
He was not a friend.
And it was easy for her to convince herself that perhaps they knew one another. Perhaps she could speak to him with honesty.
She had certainly spoken with him more intimately than anyone else in her life.
She’d had trouble making friends at boarding school, for they had all known where she had come from.
If they had known that at the time she entered the classroom it had been four months since she had given birth, they would’ve ostracised her.
Thank God they had never found out.
They did their morning lessons, and when the children took their tea she found herself heading to the Duke’s study.
He was not there.
‘His Grace is shooting,’ said Barrows.
