Isabel chuckled and shook her head.
“No, you don’t. If we were all the same, it would make the world very boring.”
She was right. And that was something far too wise for a little girl to say. Beth didn’t know what to say in response to that.
They carried on with their sorting through the vegetables. It was long, monotonous work, but Beth found it surprisingly peaceful. She was sat out on the terrace with a beautiful view and really good company. She could set herself going onto a steady pace, no need to rush.
Isabel kept the conversation going with many tales of what went over at the country estate and stories from the past regarding her family. Beth listened with awe. The Rossdale dukedom was certainly full of colourful characters and had a rich history. She loved history, and to hear about Isabel’s ancestors was intriguing. Isabel was a good storyteller, and Beth could have listened to her all day.
She was so engrossed with Isabel’s story that she didn’t realize that they weren’t alone. Not until Isabel looked past her and squealed in delight.
“Father!”
Dropping the potatoes into the box, Isabel jumped up and hurried around the table. Beth turned and saw Lord Rossdale walking towards them with a wide smile. Her pulse stumbled and made Beth feel a little light-headed. That smile was enough to make her weak at the knees. And when he looked at her over his daughter’s head while Isabel hugged him, the expression in his eyes had Beth forgetting how to breathe.
It wasn’t going to take much to bend to his will if he kept looking at her like that. She could feel it. Keeping her distance was beginning to get harder and harder each time they crossed paths.
“How are we getting on here?” Lord Rossdale spoke to Isabel but didn’t take his eyes off Beth.
“We’re doing well, Father.” Isabel beamed up at him. “We’re almost done.”
“Good.” Rossdale kissed her head. “I was thinking, Isabel, seeing as it’s a warm day and Rosamund’s been asking me to help, that we could go to the lake and go swimming.”
Isabel squealed and jumped up and down. Beth had to laugh at the girl’s excitement. With Isabel acting far older than her years, she kept forgetting that she was only eleven years of age. It was refreshing to see her behave the age she was.
Then Beth remembered something Isabel had mentioned before and frowned at Lord Rossdale.
“I thought Rosamund couldn’t swim. Who’s going to be teaching her?”
“I will.” The duke didn’t even blink. “I can swim, and I want to spend time with my children this afternoon.”
“You will?”
For a moment, Beth’s mind went blank except for an image of Lord Rossdale in the lake, up to his waist in water, and no shirt on. She could even see the water droplets trickling down his chest. Beth felt a shiver go up her spine and shook herself. Oh, God, not now. She needed to focus.
“Do you have a problem with me teaching my daughter how to swim?” Rossdale was watching her curiously.
“No.” Beth cleared her throat. “No, of course not.”
She was lying to herself. She did have a problem with it. Beth would be sitting on the bank watching the duke teach his six-year-old daughter how to swim, and she wouldn’t be able to take her eyes off her employer. The man with his clothes on was bad enough. With his clothes off …
Beth needed to find a way of getting out of this. She couldn’t go, not when she had a man she desired practically half-naked in front of her. That was not going to go well.
“Go and get into your swimming things, Isabel.” Lord Rossdale kissed his daughter’s head. Then he looked back at Beth with a glint in his eye. “Would you like to go for a dip, Miss Campbell?”
What? Beth shot to her feet.
“I can’t swim!” she protested.
“I can teach you as well.”
Beth’s heart leapt into her mouth. What was he trying to do? His mother had told Beth to keep her distance, and she was trying to do her best on that. But whenever she thought she was doing well, Lord Rossdale came back with something that completely threw her off. It was as if he was constantly finding a way to get her rattled. He wanted her flustered, and he was succeeding. Certainly now Beth could feel her face getting warm. She looked anywhere that wasn’t at the duke.
“I think I’ll just stay on dry land. If I come along with you.”
“You’re their governess. Why wouldn’t you come along?”
“You’re going to be with them.”
Lord Rossdale raised his eyebrows.
“I didn’t think you were uncomfortable around me, Beth. I thought we had come to an agreement on that.”
Did they? Beth didn’t know about that. But being around the man when he was going to be in a state of undress was not something she was comfortable with. Then Lord Rossdale sighed.
“All right, I’ll ask one of the maids to come along with us, if it will make you feel less uncomfortable. As long as you come with us?”
Beth took a deep breath. It wouldn’t make her less uncomfortable, but at least she wouldn’t be alone with him. She nodded.
“All right. I’ll come with you.”
The glint in his eyes seemed to glow even more as Lord Rossdale smiled.
“I hope you do,” he whispered.
Chapter 17
Beth had seen the place where the family went for private bathing on her first day. Isabel had pointed it out. And it was a perfect little place for them. Hidden from everyone else by trees and secluded. Just the right place to bathe without having anyone bothering them. She sat on the sand and watched as Hermia and Isabel splashed into the water and dived in.
Both of them were good swimmers, even with the ridiculous garments they had to wear for swimming. Rosamund was a little more nervous, holding onto her father’s hand as she stepped into the water and had to be coaxed in by Rossdale.
At least he wasn’t completely naked. He kept his breeches and his shirt on, a spare pair of clothes folded in a pile nearby. But Beth couldn’t stop herself from staring at how the shirt became wet and started clinging to his body. A body that left little to the imagination. She had to turn away and focus on something else. A persistent throbbing had started in her body, and Beth wanted it to stop. Especially when she was sat next to Millie, one of the in-between maids who had volunteered to come to the lake with them. She needed to maintain her composure. That was why Millie was here.
If only her body would get the same message.
Beth was jerked out of her thoughts when she was splashed. Isabel was in the shallows, splashing at her and Millie with many giggles. Millie gasped and attempted to scold Isabel, but she couldn’t stop smiling.
“You little madam, Isabel!”
“Why don’t you get in, Millie?” Isabel called. “It’s a lovely day, and the water’s warm.”
“No, I’m quite happy sitting here.” Millie flapped her skirts, dusting them over and smoothing them down again. “You enjoy yourself.”
Isabel looked at Beth, but Beth laughed and held up her hands.
“Don’t look at me. I’m happy to stay dry.”
Isabel pouted. But she went back to swimming, diving into the water. Hermia was a little further out, paddling away with no worries of drowning. Beth had to admit that the girl was a good, strong swimmer. Her strength and stamina was something to be proud of. Beth knew about the strength part.
Beth found her gaze straying back to Lord Rossdale and Rosamund. He was shoulders-deep in the water, holding Rosamund up so she was lying belly-down in the water. Rosamund was protesting a little and starting to panic, but her father said something that seemed to calm her a little, and she started splashing. It was a very sweet moment, and Beth had to smile at the sight.
“I’ve never seen Lord Rossdale like this before,” Millie said, making Beth jump. “He’s spent time with his children in the past, but nothing like this. Never teaching his children how to swim.”
“Didn’t he teach Hermia and Isab
el how to swim?”
“That was Lord Rossdale’s brother. He lived with the duke for a while a few years back. He taught Hermia and Isabel. Rosamund was too young to learn; she was only a baby.”
Beth hadn’t realized that. She had assumed that Lord Rossdale had been the one who taught his children, not anyone else. She stretched her legs out in front of her, leaning back on her hands.
“When you say the duke has never spent time with his children like this, do you mean he was never attentive towards them?”
“He was, but not very much. Lady Rossdale had to practically drag him along to join her and the girls.” Maisie sighed. “It’s how Society dictates, I’m afraid. Men are supposed to be hands-off with raising their children, women are the ones who do the raising and, even then, it’s passed off onto the various servants. Silence is golden and all that.”
“Out of sight, out of mind,” Beth agreed. “My father was always involved with mine and my sister’s upbringing. We did have governess until we were about twelve, but he and Mother were always there.”
Maisie grunted.
“Your father wasn’t a duke, was he?”
“He was in Society.”
“Things are a little different the further up the social ladder you go. Lord Rossdale has taken a lot of flak from other people in Society since he was married.”
Beth frowned.
“Why would that be? I thought his marriage was strong. No whispers of anything regarding infidelity or any kind of scandal.”
“There was none of that, and the marriage was strong. I couldn’t think of a stronger couple than the Duke and Duchess of Rossdale.” Maisie sighed. “But he never produced a male heir. Lord Rossdale has his three daughters in line to inherit his estate equally.”
Beth knew what that meant.
“That’s not done at all,” she murmured. “Only male heirs are meant to inherit an estate such as a dukedom.”
“Exactly. And the next male heir is supposed to be Lord Rossdale’s brother and then onto his children. But Lord Rossdale doesn’t want to do that. He wants his daughters to inherit in their own right.”
“And people don’t like that.”
“No.”
Beth had been in Society long enough to know that people went by a very strict set of rules. If you deviated off it, you were criticized and attacked for it. Flora had found that out the hard way when she followed her heart instead of the practicalities of Society. Lord Rossdale had decided to deviate from the rules as well to make sure his daughters were left with enough money to keep them comfortable for the rest of their lives once he was gone.
It wasn’t too much to ask to make sure his children were not left with nothing. But because they were the wrong sex, he was considered breaking the rules. Beth didn’t see anything wrong with it, but she wasn’t the masses.
“If it was my opinion, it’s not up to everyone else,” she said. “If he wants to help them in that way, it’s up to Lord Rossdale. Society has nothing to do with his decisions.”
“We’d like to think that, but everything is dictated by Society.” Maisie grunted. “Especially with the Prince Regent currently around.”
Beth almost burst out laughing.
“The Prince Regent? He’s considered nothing but a farce. He’s not one to talk, considering how many things he’s done that are not to Society’s tastes.”
“He’s a part of the royal family, so he would see himself in a different class altogether,” Maisie pointed out. “And you still wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him, would you?”
“I’ve never met him, and I hope never to meet him.”
Maisie laughed.
“If only everyone else had the same mindset as you about him.”
That was the problem. Everyone wanted to be bowing down to the Prince Regent, even with his antics and attitudes. The ordinary people made a laughing stock of him, but those in Society tried to keep on the right side of him because of his link to King George.
He was next in line to the throne, so everyone wanted to be remembered being on his good side so they would be recognized when he did become king. Beth found it ridiculous that people practically crawled on their hands and knees for a fat, pathetic man who thought he was above everyone simply because his father was the king of England.
In her opinion, it was best to keep on the fringes of Society and be left alone. It was certainly quieter.
She watched as Rossdale started to lift Rosamund out of the water, tossing her up into the air. Rosamund was squealing as she came back down with a splash, which had her father throwing her up again. Beth couldn’t help smiling at the sight.
“Lord Rossdale loves his daughters. That’s clear to see. But he shouldn’t be the topic of discussion because he wanted to make sure his daughters have something when he’s gone.”
“It’s how life works, sadly,” Maisie said grimly. “It’s very cruel on women, but there isn’t anything we can do. We just need to bite our tongues and get on with it.”
“Bite our tongues.” Beth shook her head. “Women have to bite their tongues because their opinions don’t matter at all.”
It was not fair. Men got all the freedom they wanted, and women had to fight to get the same thing. That is, if they weren’t dismissed out of hand simply because they were a woman. Women were the ones at fault when they were really the innocent victims. As far as Beth could gather, women had been blamed for everything going wrong with man since Adam and Eve. Men wouldn’t just not stand up and admit when they had done wrong when they needed to.
Beth had a feeling she would be long gone from this world by the time that happened.
Her legs were starting to get stiff. Beth rose to her feet and stretched her legs by rising up onto her toes a few times. Then she looked out over the rippling water. Isabel was in the shallows, sitting with the water lapping around her waist. Lord Rossdale and Rosamund were also in the shallows, Rosamund standing as she splashed water at her father. But there was no sign of Hermia.
“Where’s Hermia gone?”
“Hmm?” Maisie frowned as she looked out over the water. “I don’t know. She was in the water a moment ago.”
Beth began to panic. Hermia hadn’t drowned while they weren’t looking, had she? Had she been struggling and sunk under the water? She hurried to the edge of the lake.
“Your Grace, have you seen Hermia?”
“Hermia?” Rossdale frowned. He straightened up and looked around. “I thought she got out.”
“She did.” Isabel pointed up towards the hills to their right. “She went that way.”
Rossdale growled.
“For goodness ... I told her to stay here where we could see her.”
At least she hadn’t drowned. Beth could breathe a little easier now. She hadn’t been negligent to the point that a child had drowned. Hermia had just wandered off. She wouldn’t be surprised if Hermia had done that to make people think she had drowned to make Beth the guilty party. Beth sighed and headed towards the trees.
“I’ll fetch her.”
“Don’t take too long.” Rossdale was starting to get out of the water, his clothes sticking to him like a second skin. “We need to start heading back to the house. And I don’t want to deal with her tantrums this afternoon.”
What A Wicked Duke Demands (Historical Regency Romance) Page 22
