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It was not until Watson turned back to say a final farewell to her that he realised just how closely they were standing. Lowering his gaze to meet hers, he realised that had she been taller, they might have been standing nose to nose. Heart racing, Watson forgot himself, and in a moment, he was leaning downward. All words of farewell lingered on his tongue even as he pressed his kiss passionately against her rosebud pink lips.
What am I doing?Alarm bells rang in Watson’s head and yet he could not bring himself to stop. Instead, he lifted his hand to the governess’ cheek, holding her there for fear that she would try to break the kiss.
At first, he felt the tension in her body, felt her leaning back as if to get away from him. Then, in an instant, everything changed, and she kissed him back. The passion with which she did so, placing her hands upon his chest and pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, caused Watson’s head to spin.
Then, in the next second, everything changed again. Miss Percival quickly broke away from him and shook her head with her fingertips covering her lips, she quickly dropped into a curtsy.
“Good evening, Your Grace,” she said quickly and even before he could respond, Miss Percival had turned and was hurrying away down the hallway from the study, away from him and his aching heart.
Chapter 9
As Matilda suspected, Lady Amy was not at all impressed with the invitation to tea. The girl had looked quite gleeful at the news that her father would be home for most of the day. That was until Matilda had dropped the bomb that he had requested their presence along with Lady Florentia and her mother.
“I know that it is abhorrent to you that your father would be close with this woman but in my experience being petulant about such things only causes people to do something you dislike even more,” Matilda had told Lady Amy as the two of them sat on the end of the little girl’s bed. “Besides, you might find that you actually end up liking the lady.”
Lady Amy had scoffed at that and the spark of wisdom in her eye told Matilda that it could not be further from the truth. The governess suspected that no matter what, Lady Amy would never like Lady Florentia, and she could not help but agree with her. Though she could not quite put her finger upon it, there was something that she disliked about the woman, more so than her usual wariness of young and ambitious ladies.
“Do not ask me to like her,” Lady Amy had insisted firmly with quite the harsh tone. “For I never shall.”
“I am not asking you to like her, merely to give her a chance, for your father’s sake,” Matilda told the girl, laying a hand upon her shoulder for comfort, “Think of it this way. If today goes well then you never know, your father might take to working from home more often.”
Seeing the way the girl’s face screwed up, Matilda had grown concerned that she might have said the wrong thing. Maybe the girl might have taken her to mean that it was her fault her father worked away so often. Luckily for her, Lady Amy had finally sighed deeply and nodded her agreement with a simple vow, “I will be on my best behaviour, but I will never like her.”
And for the most part, Lady Amy kept her promise. She was absolutely on her best behaviour, greeting Lady Florentia and her mother politely and sitting quietly in the drawing room while they all shared tea. Yet the longer they spent together, and the more Lady Florentia and her mother talked, the more Matilda sensed a dark cloud growing over Lady Amy’s head.
They did not speak of anything in particular, more the weather and a few matters of gossip as was the usual for ladies, and yet Lady Amy’s face darkened with every word that came from Lady Florentia’s lips. Matilda had to admit that the lady’s tone of voice was often quite off-putting, speaking as if she was wholly above everybody else, and then there was the fact that the woman was looking at her as if she had no right to be there every time the Duke was not looking.
She even thought once or twice that the ladies were whispering about her when the Duke disappeared for a moment to collect a specific book or some other such item for them to look at together. Several times Lady Florentia’s mother leaned over from where she sat beside her daughter and whispered into the woman’s ear before they both turned scathing glances momentarily on the governess.
Lady Amy appeared to notice also because as her father reappeared in the drawing room with a gift of several books from his library for Lady Florentia to take home with her, the girl leaned over to Matilda and whispered, “What is their problem?”
“Amy, did you say something, sweetheart?” the Duke said, turning around to look at them both from where he had just handed the books to Lady Florentia. Matilda noticed out of the corner of her eye how the woman gave the titles a cursory glance and although she thanked the Duke whole-heartedly, there was a darkness in her gaze that suggested to Matilda she had no intentions of actually reading the books that they had just had a lengthy conversation about.
Matilda felt all too well that she had met such women before, women who were willing to say or do or act any way they needed to in order to get what they wanted from wealthy and powerful men.
It is not for you to judge!Matilda reminded herself. Besides, she had her own problems to worry about, especially the fact that this was the first time she had been in the Duke’s presence since he had kissed her the night before. The entire ordeal had felt awkward and painful and part of her wanted nothing more than to drag him to one side and demand to know what it all meant.
He is my employer and nothing more!she reminded herself, thinking that it might just be best to forget all about it and go on as usual. Yet whenever she caught herself thinking about it, thinking about how wonderful it had felt for him to kiss her, she realised that her lips still tingled as if he had only just kissed her.
“No, Papa,” Lady Amy responded quickly to her father, sitting up straight with her hands clasped on her lap and looking as if butter would not melt in her mouth. She smiled sweetly and Matilda’s stomach clenched at the look Lady Florentia gave to the young girl, as if they were the bitterest of enemies.
Matilda’s heart longed to fix things, to make everything right so that all involved could be happy and yet she could not quite see how to go about doing so. Somehow, someone was going to get hurt, she could feel it. And she could not help but feel there was a very real possibility that she might be one of the injured parties.
“You are looking quite tired, Lady Amy. Are you feeling quite well?” Lady Florentia commented even as the Duke returned to his seat close by the woman.
“I am perfectly well,” Lady Amy responded with her head held high, meeting the woman’s gaze unflinchingly and Matilda had to admit that she was more than a little proud of the girl when she added, “Thank you for your concern, Lady Florentia.”
“Of course, how could I not be concerned for the daughter of one of my closest companions?” Lady Florentia smiled back at her, and Matilda felt more than saw the way Lady Amy tensed. They both did so the moment that Lady Florentia leaned over to illustrate her point and placed her hand upon the Duke’s where it sat upon his lap.
Bile rose in the back of Matilda’s throat as she thought of how the night before she too had touched that hand and it had been warm and welcoming beneath her palm. Now, she felt as though she could not be further from the Duke and whenever she felt his gaze upon her, she felt silly and out of place and wanted nothing more than to run away.
Her cheeks blushed now even as the Duke looked at her and Lady Amy. Matilda held her breath as she waited for the Duke to make some comment or even slip his hand out from beneath Lady Florentia’s. Instead of doing so, he placed his free hand on top of hers and seemed to squeeze her fingers before he said, “Lady Florentia, your concern for my daughter is commendable.”
“Perhaps this afternoon our daughters could take a walk in the gardens together while you give me a tour of your beautiful home, Your Grace?” Lady Florentia’s mother, Lady Denby suggested, and Matilda knew that Lady Amy had reached her breaking point.
“I would rather stick pins in my own eyes,” she heard the girl mutter under her breath and Matilda quickly glanced across the room to be sure that nobody else had heard.
“I do believe that would be a wonderful idea!” Lady Florentia added quickly while the Duke looked slightly doubtful.
