Page 16 of Her Lord's Law

Charles shook his head in an attempt to clear it and said, “She is doing very well, sir. I believe she will pass her exam; both today and tomorrow. She has worked extremely hard.”

Edward nodded and smiled. “I’m glad to hear that. It’s nice to know our girl is quick to learn her lessons. I’ll allow you to continue. I need to attend to my wife, but I will return shortly and Lucy may take her test.” Charles simply nodded, not knowing how to respond. Both he and Lucy watched him climb the stairs before they turned to each other.

“Do you need another break, Miss Furniss?” Charles asked quietly seeing the flush on her face that was an exact image of the one that had colored her twin’s cheeks just a few moments earlier.

“No, sir,” Lucy said, shaking her head, her eyes already dropping back to the paper on the table.

Charles nodded and they were soon going over another set of equations. As she worked through the problems, Charles found himself listening for any sounds of distress from upstairs, but other than the sounds of servants moving about the house attending to their duties, he heard nothing. While Lucy’s pencil scratched along the paper, Charles allowed his mind to drift and consider how Lady Wintercrest had appeared even younger than she had when he was her professor. While still extremely beautiful, he found that he would describe her more as fetching or even sweet. She had looked years younger than her twin sister.

Charles considered himself an educated man, but he was discovering there obviously were some things he knew nothing about. He glanced over at his student and smiled seeing her concentrating on her paper, her tiny teeth nibbling on the end of her pencil. Her feet were crossed at the ankles and swinging slightly back and forth, a few inches above the floor. The women were both very tiny things weren’t they? While his student was an adult young woman, he suddenly found himself wondering how he would feel seeing Miss Furniss dressed identically to her sister. Once again he felt his face heating as a part of his anatomy twitched. He looked up the stairs as if he wished he could follow the lord and lady of the house and discover what was truly happening inside Wintercrest Manor. He might not be a lord or ever be thought of as a man of the world, but his earlier suspicions about Lord Wintercrest were growing. His musings were interrupted when Lucy spoke.

“I’m done, sir.”

Lucy’s voice had his attention returning to the reason why he was at Wintercrest. He saw she’d made a mistake and quickly reminded her of the proper order in which to solve complex equations. When she’d corrected the error, he praised her, “Very well done, Lucy… I mean, Miss Furniss. As I told your guardian, I truly believe you have nothing to fear.” He watched her relax and quickly made sure he had everything ready for her next quiz. Charles felt momentarily guilty when he found himself half hoping she’d miss at least a few problems. He instantly berated himself for his thoughts, knowing that if she did, her bottom was likely to pay a harsh price. Thinking of her bottom caused his face to flush and it was still red when Edward rejoined them.

Tactfully ignoring how flustered Charles was, Edward asked him to give his ward the test exactly as he would at the school the next day. Charles agreed and soon had Lucy sitting up straight in her chair, her pencil flat on her desk and her hands folded in her lap.

“You will have exactly one hour to take the exam. You will not be allowed to leave the room until the exam is over. I will remind you of the time remaining to you during the test. Remember to do the easy ones first and then tackle the harder ones. When you are done with the problems, check your answers if time permits. But most importantly, Lu… umm, Miss Furniss, remember to relax. You’ve worked very hard over the past few days. You know this material. Don’t panic. Simply work out each problem bit by bit.” He was pleased to see a bit of the tension dissipate as she gave him a nod and a shaky smile.

“Ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

He placed several sheets of paper face down on the table. Moving to a chair across the room, he pulled his watch from his pocket. He waited until the second hand moved to the twelve o’clock position and then said, “You may begin and good luck.”

* * *

Lucy turnedher test over and began to scan down the list of problems. She began to fill in her answers as she went through the pages. She found several easy to solve and relaxed a little. She continued to quickly work through the problems until she began to run into harder equations requiring the proper sequence of work before arriving at a final solution. She heard Professor Lloyds tell her that she had half an hour left but still didn’t panic. Most of the problems had been answered, but several remained. She only began to feel antsy when she heard she only had ten minutes left.

She’d erased her answer to the last question only managing to scrawl her new answer as she heard, “Time is up. Put down your pencil and turn your test face-down on your desk.” Lucy obeyed and then sat back, flexing fingers that were suddenly aching from clenching her pencil. She watched as her test was removed. “You may stand and stretch your legs, Miss Furniss. I’m sure you must be exhausted.”

“Thank you, professor,” she said quietly but sincerely. She knew she would have failed miserably if he hadn’t patiently worked through the equations time and time again. Rising from her chair, she walked around the table and only then became aware that Edward was watching her.

“I’m sure you did well, Lucy,” Edward said, giving her a smile. “You studied hard and I’m sure I will be pleased. Go now and refresh yourself while Professor Lloyds grades your exam. I shall send for you when I am ready.”

“Yes, sir.” Surprised but very pleased at his words, she gave him a small smile and then walked up the stairs and into her room. She sagged against the door and, after doing her necessary, climbed upon onto the window seat. Drawing her knees up and clasping her arms around them, she leaned against the window and looked up at the clear blue sky praying that she had done well and, in praying, remembered the service earlier in the day. She wondered why she had never truly thought about the many secret lives that must exist all around her. She had never suspected that her sister’s marriage was anything other than what society accepted. Suddenly, a new thought had her sitting up.

Who decided what society accepted or what they condemned? If her own sister lived a secret life, but one that was obviously shared by others, then who was she to judge? Leaning her head against the cool glass again, she smiled and her fear of hurting her sister lessened a little. While she would probably never understand her sister’s choice of this type of life, she would make sure Louisa knew she still was very much loved by her twin. She was almost asleep when a knock sounded on her door. She rose and went to the door, opening it to find Molly.

“His lordship asks you to join him in his study, Miss Lucy.”

“Thank you, Molly.” Lucy’s heart stuttered at the request, which she felt was surely a sentence. Her bottom clenched even as she tried to appear calm. Evidently she wasn’t quite able to pull off the act, because as soon as she entered Edward’s study, she felt she was going to collapse. Her attention was caught and held by her guardian. She tried to discern how many problems she must have missed, but his face gave her no clue. She found her eyes flick to the cabinet that held his choice of implements to use on naughty girls but the doors were closed and she returned her gaze to Edward.

“Lucille, you did very well,” Edward informed her, his voice soft and pleasing.

It was only when she exhaled that she realized she’d been holding her breath. About to thank him, she saw him shaking his head.

“You did miss a few, my dear.”

“Oh…” She said, her bottom clenching and her fingers twisting in her skirts. “Ho… how many, sir?” Edward smiled and stood, holding out the test. Lucy walked forward and took it, her eyes dropping to the papers, shuffling through them.

“Only one was answered incorrectly though you skipped another altogether,” Edward provided before she had time to look at the final two pages.

She felt a surge of happiness rush through her but it only lasted a moment. “I-I did? I’m… I’m sorry, sir. I-I tried really hard. You aren’t going to… to punish me are you? Not for just one… I mean two mistakes.”

He looked down at her. “Your score would be a passing one, Lucy, if this had been your true test. Missing two is a remarkable improvement over yesterday’s score. I know how hard you have been applying yourself.” He paused for a moment. “However, I find it very interesting that you still feel the need to question my duty to punish you. I am not a man to renege either on his word or in his duties. Don’t you think you need to be punished, little one?”

“I… I don’t know. I tried so hard but…”

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