Page 17 of The Governess and the Brooding Duke
‘Yes, it was.’
‘Tomorrow, shall I report back to the same place?’
‘Yes.’
‘Your Grace...’ She took a breath. ‘I have not been given a room.’
His brow lifted. ‘I had not decided if you would stay.’
‘And now?’
He appraised her, swift and stark. In a way that made her feel peeled of all her layers. It was no different than the way he had appraised her earlier in the day, but perhaps because of how long the day had been and how deeply it had tried her emotions, she found she had no defence against it.
He stood up from behind the desk, and she fought the urge to shrink away.
He was not the sort of man she had the need to be afraid of, but there was something imposing about his presence all the same. It was... A shock to her senses. Because it was entirely foreign to her. The way that he made her feel. There were men who made her feel hunted. Men who made her feel ready to scratch and claw and bite.
She kept a knife in her corset. And there were men who made her feel as if she might need to retrieve it.
He was not one of those men.
There were men who put her at ease. Men who did not set off alarm bells in her soul.
They were strong, yes, and large, but they were not the sort of man who had any use for testing that strength against others. This was something else altogether. His presence seemed to fill every corner of the room.
His presence seemed to reach inside of her and lift her lungs, her heart, her stomach, straighten up her posture. It seemed to fill her. Consume her.
She could not look away from his face. The masculine lines there, deep grooves between his eyebrows, bracketing his mouth.
And then there was his physique. His shoulders were broad. He was impossibly tall, making her feel small.
He made her heart beat faster.
And not from fear.
God in heaven, how she wished it were fear.
He was, she had the feeling, the strongest and most physically fit man in most rooms. And perhaps that was why he seemed so uninterested in testing that strength. He had no need.
He rounded the desk and came to stand in front of her. And for some reason the intensity of his gaze made her want to lower her eyes.
She found her gaze fluttering down to the floor.
‘I shall have Mrs Brown accompany you.’
She looked up from beneath her lashes. ‘That won’t be necessary. If you can simply give me directions.’
‘You will not be able to find it. This place is labyrinthine.’
She was suddenly deeply aware that they were alone. And yet she had the sense that he would only ever protect those in his care. She did not know why she had that sense. He had not been kind to her, not especially, nor was he warm to his own children.
There was, quite honestly, no reason to assume such a thing about him. And yet she did.
When her gaze met his, there was something hot, banked fire in the blue, and it made her throat go dry.
‘You did well today.’
There was something about the assurance that felt as if each word had released something within her. A contentment rolled through her body, relaxing everything that had lifted a moment before.
