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He had already heard his father saying goodnight to his mother, promising to follow her to bed shortly after he had spoken with him. Even with the study door set ajar, he had been clearly able to hear them both and had even heard his mother pleading with his father to broach the subject carefully. Though what the subject was, Philip had no idea. He was sure he was soon to find out.
Harold Radcliffe, still finely dressed in his evening attire, crossed the study to sit in the armchair opposite his son and gazed into the roaring fire for several moments before he finally turned a smile on Philip.
“Philip, do you remember the Duke of Balfour?” his father asked, but as he opened his mouth to say yes, his father continued, “I am quite certain that both you and your brother have met him several times.”
“Yes, Father, I have met him on occasion both with you and at Oxford,” Philip admitted. He was only mildly curious about what could be so important about the duke that it needed to be brought up at such a late hour. “Is he well? I do hope that something awful has not happened.”
For a moment, he wondered whether perhaps the duke had suffered some kind of accident or maybe even passed away entirely. Yet his father did not look grief-stricken. In fact, he looked quite pleased with himself as though he were about to drop something magnificent at his son’s feet. Philip didn’t like that look one bit. He and his father rarely saw eye to eye, and he was certain that wouldn’t change in the next thirty seconds.
“The duke is very well.” His father nodded, and his smile widened as he added, “And so is his daughter.”
So that is what this is about!Philip thought with bile rising in the back of his throat. As the second son, Philip had been praying and praying that he might be immune to his father’s desire to see his eldest son settled with a wife and children ready to continue the family line and the earldom.
After all, Philip was not quite so important as his brother. Yet here he sat, his father clearly about to announce that he had set up some form of occasion for them to begin courting.Of course, he would choose the daughter of one of his closest friends!
There was only one relief for Philip. Though he had never actually met her face to face, he had heard from more than one source that Lady Daisy Lockhart was quite beautiful.What if he is talking about the second daughter?Philip thought. He had heard that the second daughter was much plainer than the daughter the duke shared with his first and late wife.A second daughter for a second son!Philip cringed at the idea.
“Oh, Father, please do not tell me that you have finally fallen for mother’s insistence on matchmaking!” Philip exclaimed, searching his father’s gaze for any hint that he might have hit the nail on the head. Yet both his father’s expression and his gaze were entirely unreadable.
“Oh, no! It’s nothing like that,” the earl finally scoffed once he had given Philip the fright of his life in remaining silent for so long. Even when he heard his father’s words, Philip couldn’t quite bring himself to feel relieved. There was a stone in his gut, a deep sense that whatever his father had come to tell him about Lady Lockhart, he wasn’t going to like it. “Lord Balfour has expressed a wish for his daughter to receive extra education.”
“And what, pray tell, does that have to do with me?” Philip asked, trying his hardest to keep calm. Yet his father’s expression, the beaming smile on his face, left him feeling more uneasy.
“Well, my dear boy, you will be her tutor!” Lord Elgin announced, throwing his arms wide in celebration as though he had just offered his son the most marvellous news in all the world. Philip’s heart sank immediately. For an instant, he imagined that marrying the woman would have been far better than having to try and educate her.
You must be joking!Philip thought angrily.A lady of the ton would never take any education I could give her seriously!
“What could I possibly have to teach her?” Philip scoffed. All she would care about was dresses and gossip and maybe, if Philip were lucky, animals. Because animals were by far more interesting than many young ladies of the ton and at least then he could pretend to be half-interested in whatever hairbrained scheme his father had got him into.
“Oh, I do not know!” his father responded, shaking his head and looking quite amused. “But from what George says, the young lady has got it into her head that she wishes to go to university.”
Oh, yes, and tomorrow she will wish to be a dressmaker and the next day a sailor,Philip thought, rolling his eyes and offering his father a huge huff of exasperation. The young ladies of the ton often had many fanciful ideas, switching and changing whatever they set their minds on several times a week, some even several times a day.
“His Grace is a good and honourable friend of mine, and he is greatly worried about his daughter,” Philip’s father admitted, and for just a moment, in the blink of an eye, Philip shared the duke’s concern. It was gone in an instant, remembering how much he loathed the prissy, posh young ladies he had been forced to entertain throughout his lifetime.
With each passing year, they seemed to grow worse, and he had hoped this year he might focus on his final periods of university before finally being released out into the world. “From what he says, this is not some passing whim. She has become quite rebellious in her desires, which is where you come in. Lord Balfour wishes to give her some of what she wants without causing a scandal.”
Ahh, wonderful!Philip thought grimly. Just what he needed, a lady who fancied herself the rebellious type. He was all but certain she would not thank him for getting involved if it was truly her wish to actually go to school.I have never heard anything quite so preposterous!
“Father, I have far too much to keep me busy with my own studies,” Philip protested, picking up the book he had been reading once more even though he really had no intention of continuing. He rather hoped he might be able to encourage his father to bed before he could strongarm him into anything. “I have exams coming up, and I must prepare.”
“Philip, do you believe that I am so against your taking up medicine that I would not take up an interest in your schooling?” his father demanded. The tone of his voice suggested that he was quite insulted with his son’s lie. “I know very well that you do not have any exams coming up as I have spoken with the headmaster myself, and he has informed me that as of late, your professors have noticed your attention slipping.”
Philip opened his mouth to protest, struggling not to curse his professors out loud for not simply keeping their mouths shut until he could get this mysterious young lady out of his system.
The smallest curiosities had always been able to distract him, yet his interest in the strange woman was growing larger and larger by the day.I must simply meet her and ask her what she is doing on the university grounds and then that will be an end to it!Philip thought.I can get back to my studies and never think of her again.
But something tugging at his insides told him that wasn’t exactly the case. Simply closing his eyes brought about her figure, her long flowing strawberry blonde locks and the pale green, silver, or brown gowns she so often chose to wear, simple and elegant yet beautiful.Ahh, strange beauty, you distract me once more!
“Philip, are you listening to me?”
His father’s scolding tone caused Philip to jump, and his head whipped up as he realised his father had risen to his feet.
“I … umm …” he stammered, trying to think of any excuse he could come up with for being so distracted. The mysterious young woman had got to him even more than he realised.I have to meet her and put an end to this!he realised as his father began to speak once more.
“Philip Radcliff, you will do as I have asked, and you will tutor this girl,” the earl announced, looking quite uninterested in any protest Philip had to give. “You will do so because I have already promised the duke that you will, and I will not be seen to go against my word. Do you hear me?”
“Father, I …”
