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“Forgive the interruption, Your Grace,” she said, stepping into the room just enough to offer him a curtsy. “I do hope that I am not disturbing you during anything too important.”
Putting the documents he was holding to one side of the desk, he gestured the governess into the room and insisted, “No, Miss Percival. Please come in.”
The Duke noticed that as she did as he asked, she did not close to the door behind her, and Watson thought once more of how polite and professional she was and yet how unlike any of the governesses who had come before her she was.
“What can I do for you, Miss Percival?” he asked, gesturing her into the seat that sat opposite his desk.
“Thank you, Your Grace, but I would prefer to stand,” she told him with a twitching of the corners of her lips. “I do not wish to disturb you for long.”
Watson merely nodded in understanding and clasped his hands before him on the desk as he asked once more, “What can I do for you, Miss Percival?”
“Though we shared dinner together this evening I did not think it appropriate to give you a full report of the day in front of Lady Amy,” Miss Percival explained. “I do hope that I was correct in not doing so?”
“Yes, of course!” The Duke nodded in agreement. “I cannot imagine she would have liked us talking about her directly over the dinner table.”
He began to laugh a little at the image that conjured up in his mind and was relieved when he saw that the governess appeared to be doing the same.
“Please, Miss Percival, feel free to give me your report,” the Duke insisted, and he gestured to the seat again. “Please, sit, I wish to hear it all.”
Miss Percival looked reluctant for a few moments, but then she finally swept forth in the same beautiful duck egg blue gown she had been wearing for dinner. The colour of her gown along with the matching ribbon in her hair and the candlelight of the room caused her golden locks to practically glow.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” she said, blushing slightly as she finally took the seat he offered to her. Watson was more than a little relieved when she did, hoping to relieve some of the tension that seemed to be building between them.
“Was all well as you suggested it was at dinner?” Watson asked, feeling slightly alarmed, wondering if perhaps the governess had merely been offering a front while his daughter was there.Has she come to report that the day has been truly dreadful?He wondered, quite alarmed at the thought. He gritted his teeth, struggling not to blurt out several more questions.
“Oh, yes, Your Grace,” Miss Percival insisted. “All has been quite well. In fact, I was quite surprised myself at how well today has gone.”
“I confess nobody is more surprised than I, Miss Percival,” Watson said with a deep sigh of relief. “You have accomplished a miracle today.”
“Your Grace, your daughter is very bright and in some respects, I do believe that is her problem,” Miss Percival explained. She was playing with a loose thread on her gown’s skirt almost as if she were anxious to be speaking so openly about his daughter.
He could not say that he blamed her. He imagined that she’d had her fair share of noblemen talking down to her whenever she told them something about their own child that they did not like or believe or wished to otherwise ignore.
“Please elaborate, Miss Percival,” Watson urged, watching her intently, pleased that the governess had the nerve to come and speak to him where other governesses took it upon themselves to try and fix every problem without help.
“I do believe that your daughter has enjoyed my unorthodox ways of teaching today as the usual ways are quite simply boring to her due to how bright she is,” Miss Percival explained, and Watson instantly sighed in response. He dropped his gaze and shook his head silently for a moment before finally raising his gaze back to the pretty governess. “Is something the matter, Your Grace?”
“I fear you are right though I also fear that I have something to do with that,” he admitted, sucking in a deep breath before continuing, “My way of raising my daughter has never been very orthodox and I fear that sort of reluctance to follow the rules might have rubbed off on her.”
“The conventional way is not always the best way,” Miss Percival pointed out. “Nor is it always the most practical, especially as you are a single parent, Your Grace.”
At that, the governess started to blush and even in the dim light of the library, Watson could see her cheeks turning a pretty crimson colour that intrigued him.
“Yes, Miss Percival. I do believe that you are right,” he admitted with a nod and then sucked in another breath to prepare himself for his next words, “Which is why I am quite anxious at what I must ask of you.”
Miss Percival looked almost as anxious as he felt as she leaned forward slightly in her seat. Watson was instantly ashamed of himself the moment that his eyes automatically drew down to her ample breasts.
Though he looked at them for a mere second, he realised that when he closed his eyes to prepare himself to speak, he could still see them in his mind’s eye. The supple, pale fleshy mounds that peered out from the neckline of her dress caused Watson to feel something that he had not felt in quite some time, desire.
She is your daughter’s governess!he reminded himself scoldingly.Get a hold of yourself!
When he opened his eyes again, Miss Percival was staring at him intently, clearly waiting for him to speak up.
“I fear, Miss Percival, that I must ask you to try and fix what I have failed at,” he explained, feeling his stomach churn with guilt. “I must ask that you try to bring my daughter around to a more orthodox way of learning or she might never find her way in this world. After all, the orthodox ways are those followed by most of society and if she cannot fit in with society, then…”
Watson gulped past the sudden lump in his throat, feeling not for the first time that he had failed his daughter in some way, that he had practically set her up for failure and that everything that had happened over the last several years was his fault.
“Your Grace,” Miss Percival said the words carefully and slowly almost as if she were trying to think over her answer before she offered it to him. For a moment the Duke thought that she might try to argue with him. Then she nodded. “I will gladly try to teach your daughter however you see fit.”
