AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Heath and Timothy glanced at each other as if they had noticed his reaction, yet he was pleased when they did not try to question him. Together, they sat while Heath gestured over the nearest man for service. “Two more bourbons and another for the Duke, my good man,” he told the man the moment that he arrived with a bow of his head. “Thank you.”
The man hurried off before Watson could even begin to argue that he did not feel like drinking. In fact, it was a rather rare feeling nowadays that he did not feel the need for a single drink to numb the stress of everything going on in his life. He could not help but smile once again as he realised it and the fact that it was all thanks to Miss Percival.
“So, Watson, how goes things?” Timothy asked, adjusting himself in his seat and pulling on the front of his waistcoat as if he were finding it quite uncomfortable.
“I think perhaps he has come to beg me to teach Lady Amy another thing or two,” Heath joked with a roll of his eyes. “We both know that is the only reason he ever comes to join us at the club nowadays.”
Watson gulped past the lump in his throat. His best friend was not exactly wrong. “My daughter is not the only reason I come to the club to see you.”
Heath looked at him pointedly and asked, “Then why are you here if not to make some request for further tutoring?”
Again, Watson gritted his teeth and reached into his breast pocket to grab the list that Miss Percival had surprised him with just before breakfast that morning. He still remembered the interaction well, how she had called out to him even as he approached the breakfast room to share a meal with his daughter before leaving for the daily business.
“I apologise for disturbing you, Your Grace, but Mr Burns said you were going into town this morning, and so I thought I ought get this to you before tonight,” she had explained, handing him the list of books that he had not been expecting until later on during their arranged report meeting.
Watson had taken the list from her and upon doing so their fingertips had brushed. It had been only a momentary touch, but it had been more than enough to send a spark of lightning bolting right up his arm and into his chest. Luckily for him, Miss Percival had dropped her gaze seconds before she could have noticed his shocked expression.
“Watson?” Timothy’s concerned voice startled Watson from his thoughts and he blinked, lifting his gaze as he realised that he had begun to stare at the table. Quickly, running his fingers through his dark hair, he cleared his throat and shook his head in an attempt to clear it.
“This is quite the extensive reading list,” Heath said as if he had said the words multiple times already. “This cannot possibly be for young Amy.”
“It is,” Watson responded with a firm nod. After all that Miss Percival had already done in the short time that she had been with them, there was no way that he was going to question her choice of reading materials for his daughter. He had given it the once over all the same and had not seen any problems with it himself.
“Does the new governess plan on teaching these books?” Heath asked, combing over the list once more. “I think perhaps there might be a benefit in my attending such lessons.”
“Though I am sure Miss Percival is quite capable of teaching from books, I am sure she would not deny the help,” Watson said, trying not to show that his friend’s comment toward the woman’s intelligence had rubbed him the wrong way.Miss Percival might be the brightest woman I have ever met,he thought, unable to stop from thinking just how easily the governess had managed to work Amy around to the idea of learning.
“We all know what a handful my niece can be,” Timothy chuckled, a spark in his green eyes and Watson sighed, knowing he was right. He could not argue the fact.
“Perhaps you could bring a few of the books and offer some of your expertise?” Watson suggested, “Though I do ask that you do not go and insult my new governess. She appears to be the first to have actually gotten through to Amy.”
Both Heath and Timothy looked gob smacked at that, glancing at each other as if they both could not believe what they were hearing.
“Has it gone so well?” Heath asked and Watson started to nod even before he had finished the question. “Well, I will be damned. I never thought I would see the day!”
Nor did I,Watson thought, unable to say the words aloud for fear that he would be admitting just how terrible his daughter’s behaviour had been of late.
“Heath, do you believe that this success has anything to do with what we heard in town?” Timothy asked, looking quite mischievous with a twitch in the corner of his lips and a raised eyebrow. He smirked across the table at Heath who shrugged his shoulders and shook his head.
“I am unable to say for sure,” Heath responded, sounding almost mocking and Watson could not help but feel that his friends were mocking him. A churning in his gut made him unsure as to whether he ought to even ask the question that popped into his mind.
“What have you heard?” he asked finally when he realised that he could not stop himself from asking.
“It is said that Miss Percival is far too beautiful to be a governess,” Timothy chirped with amusement. “They say she is perhaps one of the most attractive women in town.”
“Oh, yes, and we should not allow Florentia to hear such rumours!” Heath exclaimed, glancing at Watson out of the corner of his hazel eye as if he were trying to judge the Duke’s response. Watson tried his hardest not to react at all to the mention of the woman who he had beencourtingfor several weeks now. That is, people might suggest it was so though he was not sure it was anything so serious, especially with all his responsibilities at home to deal with.
“Miss Percival is quite attractive, though I would not have said so bewitching that news of it would get through town quite as fast as this,” Watson said. He was sure that he could feel his cheeks flaring even as he spoke and wondered if either of his friends would notice. It appeared that they did because they both turned to look at him with raised eyebrows and roguish smiles upon their faces.
“I rather think that I would like to see this rare beauty for myself!” Timothy exclaimed, looking practically gleeful. “She must be the purest of the pure if even you have noticed, Watson.”
The Duke’s gut clenched at his words, and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from snapping a retort. Heath was nodding in agreement with their friend and Watson was certain that if he responded too quickly, he would only encourage them.
“Miss Percival is our governess,” he said firmly. “Whether she is beautiful or not is of little consequence.”
“You must be able to admit that a woman who is easy on the eye would be much more amenable to obey than some of the states that have come before her,” Heath pointed out and he visibly cringed. Watson knew what he was going to say next even before he opened his mouth. “I mean, you must remember Mrs Stretson!”
Even Watson cringed at that. Though he could not fault the old governess for her dedication to her work and the fact that she was still dedicated to her craft well past the time when most retired, he could not help but think of the coarse white hair that had grown from the mole on the woman’s wrinkled chin and her bushy white eyebrows as well as the sagging skin around her stern, cold eyes.
