by Ayles, Abby
Despite his modesty and wariness, Rodrick went to the ball at his cousin’s mansion with Noelle. They were delighted to see Rosalyn as well, and before long the two ladies had rushed off to sit and chat on a dais together. Rodrick smirked a bit as he watched Noelle excitedly go off to speak with James’s new wife.
It does make me happy to see her with another new friend. The two ladies were essentially cousins-in-law now and Rodrick hoped that they might end up being like sisters, as Noelle’s sisters all lived quite a distance away from her now. Rosalyn, the new Viscountess of Easton, didn’t come from a large family so she was quite pleased to have Noelle as a new sisterly friend as well.
Before long, several more guests arrived and the two ladies came back over to stand beside their husbands and help greet everyone. Noelle’s family was invited, obviously, and Rodrick appreciatively said hello to each member, starting with the duke and going all the way to Lady Beth. “You look well, sir,” the duchess complimented him with a smile.
Rodrick beamed a bit back at her. “Thank you, your Grace. That’s because I have this lovely lady in my life.” He turned his smile to Noelle.
“He always likes to flatter me,” she said with a soft giggle.
“As he should,” her mother replied.
James and his father had spared no expense for this ball. It was a bit like a delayed reception, so when the small orchestra arrived and set up in one corner of the ballroom, Rodrick wasn’t surprised so much as he was delighted. As soon as the music began, he and Noelle joined in a Scotch reel.
They laughed a lot and had a grand time at James and Rosalyn’s ball. It felt wonderful to be relaxed about such things. Now that they were married, they were free to be who they really were.
“I have to say, Mrs. Edwards, that not having to call you Lady all the time has made things so much easier,” Rodrick quipped as they strolled home together after the ball.
She surprised him by taking her slippers from her dainty feet and walking through the grass without them. “I never really thought that it suited me.” She smiled at him and scrunched up the bridge of her nose a bit as she did so.
Every time Rodrick looked at Noelle, he felt like he fell in love with her all over again. Surely this is the way that it’s meant to be.
“I think this life suits you, though,” he told her, leaning in as they strolled so he could give her a kiss.
The following morning, Noelle met him and his mother at the breakfast table with a proposition. “I haven’t seen my friend Lady Andrews in a great while,” she said. “Do you think that I can invite her here?”
Rodrick knew that Noelle had a lot of pride in her new home. She was always excited about showing the cottage off to anyone who came to visit, so it made sense to him that she wanted to show Wildhill to Lady Lydia. He smiled at her and nodded his head.
“It’s your home, my dear, you may invite whomever you like,” he replied. “But I appreciate you asking me.”
She smiled at him and took his hand. “This was your home first. That’s why I love it so much.”
There was a relaxed attitude to Noelle now and Rodrick really liked it. He’d adored her proper, ladylike manner, of course, but he felt that she’d really flourished now that she was living at Wildhill with him. It wasn’t as if she was a different person, but she was somehow more herself.
Likewise, Rodrick felt whole now that he was married to her. He was Mr. Rodrick Edwards, married to the love of his life.
Also it seemed strange to him but, in some way, his status in the ton had changed. He had not gained a title, but he had gained respect and admiration just the same. He didn’t worry about such things, but it was nice all the same to be given friendly smiles and nods as he walked by in society.
Lady Andrews came over to visit in the afternoon one day. Rodrick heard the knock at the door and watched as Noelle set aside her most recent drawing – of her sister Catherine with her ever-growing belly – and she went to answer the front door herself. Smyth didn’t even get exasperated about such things anymore.
The butler could focus on other matters such as introducing guests that they weren’t familiar with or helping them send and receive mail. Rodrick didn’t think the old butler would mind not having to open the door all the time anymore.
“My, this is a beautiful home,” Lydia complimented, gazing around Wildhill Manor. She smiled from Noelle to Rodrick.
He went to her and took her hand, giving it a polite kiss. He smiled back at her. “It’s lovely to see you again, my lady.”
Noelle and Lydia sat in the drawing room for a bit with a tray of tea. Rodrick sat with them but he didn’t bother them so they could gossip in peace. He almost wished that Lady Lydia had brought her husband with her just so he would have another gentleman to speak with.
I suppose that I shall always be surrounded by ladies, he thought. That’s not such a terrible fate.
“Would you like to tour the land?” he heard Noelle ask Lydia. “This really is a beautiful estate, even if I do say so myself. And we’ve got the best home on it.”
“I still find it amusing that she prefers this little cottage to my cousin’s mansion,” Rodrick said, standing up when they did so. He strolled outside with them while the ladies happily chattered away.
Lydia admired the foliage behind Wildhill and she smiled but she didn’t seem as impressed and delighted by everything the way that Noelle still was. Rodrick appreciated his wife the more he spent time with every other lady. And he appreciated her more and more besides.
“When you first met me, what did you think of me?” Noelle asked him that evening after Lydia parted with a promise to return the next time there was a ball at Westwood. That home still eclipsed his for everyone else but Noelle.
Rodrick looked at her as they sat together on the couch in the sitting room. His mother had already gone off to bed. “I thought that you were the prettiest lady I’d ever seen and that there was no chance in you ever wanting to talk to me, let alone dance with me at that ball.”
She giggled a little, her blue eyes sparkling as she gazed at him. “And what do you think of me now?” she asked.
He chuckled. “I think you’re the most beautiful lady I’ve ever seen and I ask myself every minute how I got lucky enough to be able to talk with you, let alone dance with you.”
Noelle blushed a little as she smiled at him. “It almost seems like you had that answer prepared.”
“You enjoy asking me about back when we first met,” he replied. “And I know that you won’t accept a weak answer just because you’ve asked so much.”
He reached an arm around her and pulled her in close to him so he could kiss the top of her chestnut-colored head. “Our story doesn’t change, it just becomes better written each time we reminisce about it.”
Noelle gave his cheek a kiss. “I think that you should have become a poet or a playwright like William Shakespeare. You certainly always find pretty ways to word things.”
Rodrick had never really thought that about himself before. He’d never really bothered to search himself for hidden talents. But if Noelle said that he could do something, then he believed he could.
They passed the rest of the evening like this, sitting together on the couch and watching the embers slowly fade in the fireplace. When they became sleepy, they went up the stairs together, tiptoeing past his mother’s room so they wouldn’t disturb her slumber.
Rodrick’s favorite time of night was when he and Noelle lay in each other’s arms, whispering conversations back and forth to each other until they fell asleep. Tonight was no different than any other night. He enjoyed the sound of her voice as it got softer and eventually turned into the quiet breathing of peaceful sleep beside him.
The Extended Epilogue
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A Message from Abby
Dear Reader,
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed every page and I would love to hear your thoughts whether it be a review online or you contact me via my website. I am eternally grateful for you and none of this would be possible without our shared love of romance.
I pray that someday I will get to meet each of you and thank you in person, but in the meantime, all I can do is tell you how amazing you are.
As I prepare my next love story for you, keep believing in your dreams and know that mine would not be possible without you.
With Love,
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A Mysterious Governess for the Reluctant Earl Preview
“Lord Grimshaw, you must understand that this is very unorthodox.”
“I can’t imagine how that could be,” Sebastian Blackburn, the Earl of Grimshaw, stated with a huff of irritation. “I am certainly not the only one to come and seek a governess through you.”
“Of course not, my lord,” the solicitor replied, pushing the spectacles up his nose. “That is the main purpose of our establishment, of course. I only mean that asking various governesses here to be interviewed by you personally is very unorthodox, and quite possibly not possible on such short notice.”
“Well,” Grimshaw said, doing his best to keep a steady voice. “How much time would you find sufficient if you cannot procure prospects today? Would tomorrow give you a sufficient amount of time?”
“A week would be more reasonable, Lord Grimshaw.”
“Well I don’t have a week!” Grimshaw said, standing up in the room.
The solicitor sat back in his chair in response to Sebastian’s physical presence in the small office room.
“It is your fault I find myself here. I asked you to procure me a governess and in less than a year she goes and elopes. I obviously can’t count on you to pick a proper candidate so here I am to do it myself. This trip to London has already been inconvenience enough. I want to be done with the whole thing in no more than three days’ time.”
The solicitor moved the glasses on his nose once more. He didn’t particularly enjoy being reprimanded in his own office but nothing could be done for it. Many young ladies would take up these governess jobs only long enough to see themselves properly wed. Though a resignation in less than a year was unusually quick, it was a common occurrence for a governess to give up pupils for marriage.
“I am very sorry that Miss Watts left your service…”
“How about you tell my two girls how sorry you are? In the last two years they have lost a mother and now their governess. Perhaps if you will not furnish me with candidates to interview myself, I will just take you with me back to Brighton Abby so that you may look into their doe eyes and explain why they have had no womanly figure to support and guide them these last four months.”
“I assure you that won’t be necessary, Lord Grimshaw,” the solicitor said, shuffling papers on his desk. “I am sure that I will be able to find several candidates ready for your approval by tomorrow morning.”
The solicitor was feeling rather terrified from the Earl’s commanding presence and was willing to do whatever it took to pacify the man.
Lord Grimshaw nodded in approval with a grunt before turning to retrieve his beaver fur hat and cane.
“Then I will arrive promptly tomorrow morning at nine o’clock and I expect to have several options to choose from,” he announced in a less harsh but still demanding voice.
“Of course, Lord Grimshaw. It is our passion to make sure all our clients are pleased in every way with any employment they need filling,” the solicitor said, standing and reciting the business motto.
Sebastian stormed from the office and building onto the busy streets of London. He looked either direction at the various people walking along the road before donning his hat.
“Need a cab, m’lord ?” a small voice called up to him.
He looked down to inspect the eyes of the dirty orphan waiting expectantly. Sebastian expected he hoped for a penny in return for his aid in procuring a carriage for hire.
“Alright, sure,” Sebastian said as he studied the boy.
The small child’s face brightened to finally get an affirmative answer. Sebastian had no doubt it was one of the few he had gotten all week. The child was scarcely a skeleton.
Despite his malnutrition he donned his own ragged cap and ran out to the muddied and filth-filled street to hail a carriage.
It only took a moment for the yellow carriage pulled by a single horse to be called over by the boy. Sebastian had to admit he was quite proficient at his job.
As the carriage pulled to the side of the raised sidewalk so as to keep the Earl from soiling his leather boots in the street, the boy opened the door and removed his hat, bowing in respect.
“For you, m’lord,” he said.
Sebastian reached into his pocket and pulled out a sixpence to give the child. He supposed the boy had held out his hat for the money, not expecting someone of his class would be willing to put it directly into such a dirty hand.
Instead of placing the coin in the hat, however, Sebastian knelt down to the child’s level. Grabbing the boy’s dirty thin hand with his own white gloved one, he placed the coin in his palm.
“I would hate for it to fall out of the hole in your cap,” Sebastian said, motioning to the worn headpiece.
“Thank you, m’lord!” The boy was so overcome with excitement at the money he could scarcely breathe.
Sebastian ruffled the boy’s matted brown hair and smiled at him before raising himself back up and entering the carriage.
“Where to, guv’nor?” the driver called from his high seat in front of the box.
“Grand Hotel, Covent Garden,” Sebastian responded without fanfare as he settled back into the carriage seat.
He was vastly irritated to spend even one more day in London, but there seemed to be nothing to do for it.
He had trusted a solicitor once, though he wasn’t entirely sure if it was that exact man he had met today as he had accused, to procure a governess for him. If there was one thing that Sebastian Blackburn, Earl of Grimshaw, had learned in life, it was that if he wanted something done properly he was going to have to do it himself.
The following morning Sebastian walked into the employment office satisfied to see a row of ladies seated and patiently waiting.
He could easily already mark several of them off his list of candidates as they were far too handsome to look upon. He wasn’t about to allow his future governess to catch the eye of a local gentleman again.
His girls had suffered enough without the loss of yet another motherly figure in their life. He would settle on a lady that would not only excel as a tutor but also one that looked so demure as to never risk leaving again.
Sebastian was shown into the same solicitor’s office. He spoke rather nervously as he shuffled through his papers and made room for the Earl at the desk.
“I have a list of all qualified ladies. All are in need of employment and able to travel as far distance as is necessary. I have assured all of them that this governess position is not a temporary one and dedication is required.”
Sebastian nodded his head in approval. He was aware that he could be a quite severe-looking man so he attempted to soften his look. It wasn’t easy when he was in such a sour disposition already. He nev
er liked traveling to London. There were far too many people.
“Please do send the first one in,” Sebastian said, taking his seat in the solicitor’s chair behind the desk.
The man only hesitated for a moment before nodding and leaving the room. A few seconds later he returned with a lady in tow. She was one of the seated misses he had singled out at once as far too beautiful for his position.
“Thank you, I am sure you are very skilled,” Sebastian said before the woman even fully entered the room, “but I am looking for something else in a governess. Good morning.”
He kept his thick arms on the table with his fingers interlaced. She looked up in shock between the Earl and the solicitor before the latter finally shooed her out of the room and returned with another.
“This will do fine, please have a seat, miss?” Sebastian said, taking control of the room as was his habit.
“Miss Mary Prescott, sir,” she said as she took her seat.
Sebastian spent the next several hours interviewing one miss after another. Some like the first were dismissed right away. Others were given the opportunity to answer a few questions but quickly were found wanting.
Sebastian was just beginning to lose hope when Miss Hannah Jacobson made her way into the room. He looked her over, finding her features very satisfying to his needs.
Her dress clearly stated that she was of a lower class. Not only was it extremely plain and not of the fashion he had seen as of late, but it was also altered along the edges. He could scarcely make her face out between the large white cap she had completely covering her head and the wide brim spectacles that obscured the rest of her face.
“Miss Hannah Jacobson,” the solicitor said before leaving the room.
