The Duke and The Governess

by Lyndsey Norton

  ‘Why are you smiling, Daddy?’ Elizabeth asked and made John jump.

  ‘I was thinking about a ball, like the one that’ll be held tonight.’

  ‘Will I be able to go to the ball?’ Elizabeth asked innocently.

  ‘No, pigeon, it’s for the adults only.’ He jerked in the seat as the coach turned into an ornate gateway. ‘Well, it looks like we’re here, pigeon.’

  ‘Ooh!’ Elizabeth breathed as her head turned to look out of the window at the scenery. ‘It’s a big park, Daddy.’

  ‘It’s not quite as big as Charlecote Hall, but not far out.’ John said admiring the presentation of the grounds. It was another five minutes before they could see the house in the distance.

  Slowly the coach pulled up in front of the gothic manor. The house was a capital E, turned on it’s side. The largest suites would be at the front and he knew looking at it, the middle wing was probably the nursery wing. The steps at the front were wide and made of some sort of buff local stone and the balustrade was ornate in a Roman style.

  A footman was waiting to open the door and a group of footmen were standing by for the luggage. Plunkett was at the top of the steps and greeted the Duke formally.

  ‘Your Grace. Welcome to Little Malvern Manor.’ Plunkett said and bowed. ‘If you will follow me, I will show you to your suite.’

  Both the Viscount and Viscountess came into the hall to greet the Duke and his daughter. John Farrington’s heart almost leaped out of his chest when he saw Jessica Gordon standing behind them. He was shocked at the standard of her gown, she looked almost like a pauper. The gentry chatted amiably for a few minutes and then Elizabeth decided it was her turn. She pulled her hand away from Mrs. Beaton and walked straight up to Jessica.

  ‘Are you the Governess?’ she asked deliberately.

  ‘I am indeed, Baroness.’ Jessica answered evenly.

  Elizabeth extended her hand. ‘I’m Lady Elizabeth Farrington and I’m pleased to meet you.’

  Jessica tried to hide her smile at the precociousness of the child, but she couldn’t. She put her hand forward, taking Elizabeth’s small hand carefully. ‘I’m Miss Jessica Gordon and it’s my pleasure to keep you entertained while your father drinks brandy, plays cards and dances the night away.’

  Elizabeth beckoned Jessica down to her level, so Jessica crouched down. ‘Is that what he’s going to be doing all week?’ she asked indignantly, making all the adults laugh. No. Jessica thought, but I can hardly tell you that most men drink, gamble and fornicate, now can I?

  ‘I think so. Most of them do.’ She smiled. ‘Would you like a tour of the nursery wing, Baroness?’

  ‘That would be acceptable.’ Elizabeth said with all the aplomb of a Duchess, making the adults laugh even more. Jessica took Elizabeth by the hand and they started for the stairs, with Mrs. Beaton trailing after them followed by their luggage.

  ‘Would you care for some brandy, Your Grace?’ the Viscount asked. ‘Or would you prefer to go to your suite to freshen up.’

  ‘I think I’ll freshen up first and maybe I’ll have some brandy later.’ The duke said and followed Plunkett up the stairs to a large suite with a sitting room and two bedrooms with a connecting door.

  ‘I have locked the connecting door, Your Grace, as The Earl of Dean is sleeping in there, but you’ll be sharing the sitting room, if that is acceptable?’

  ‘Yes, it’s fine.’ John muttered as he watched Masters opening his trunk. ‘I could do with some tea. I’m really parched.’ He asked and Plunkett nodded his head and left.

  ‘I must say this is a fine establishment.’ Masters said as he looked out of the window. ‘Plenty of green to walk on.’

  ‘Do you miss the country, then, Masters?’

  ‘I do, Your Grace.’ Masters said and pulled three pairs of boots from the trunk.

  A maid arrived with the tea and John sat at the table, poured out some tea and tried to relax. He was thinking about his daughter when he heard her voice.

  ‘Are you sure he’s in here?’ she demanded and suddenly the door was opened and in marched his daughter, accompanied by the Right Honourables. ‘So! Here you are Daddy, we came to find out where you are staying, in case I need to come to your rooms.’

  ‘Well this is a shared sitting room and that’s my bedroom,’ he pointed to the open door where Masters was still unpacking, ‘but I don’t see any need for you to look for me.’ He smiled indulgently. ‘Are you going to introduce me to your friends?’

  Elizabeth introduced the Viscount’s children without making an error in their titles, both boys bowed and Susanna bobbed a curtsey in deference of his title. ‘Come on, Daddy. I have to show you the enormous nursery they have, so that you’ll know where I am!’ and she grabbed John’s hand and tried to pull him out of the chair.

  ‘Do you see this, Masters?’ he asked as his valet appeared. ‘No respect for your august father, eh?’ He asked Elizabeth and she shook her head. Masters smiled and winked at Elizabeth.

  ‘Come on, Daddy! You’re wasting time. Miss Gordon already said we only had a few minutes.’

  John dutifully climbed to his feet and followed his daughter into the Nursery wing. Elizabeth took him straight to her room and he was happy to see Mrs. Beaton had finished unpacking. There were more children already and a few screamers by the sound of it.

  Suddenly he heard Jessica raise her voice and the silence was profound. Susanna looked at James and sighed. ‘I’m glad that’s not my backside.’ She muttered as everyone in the wing heard a distinct crack followed by a wail.

  ‘Does Miss Gordon slap you a lot?’ the Duke asked in surprise.

  ‘No, Your Grace.’ James answered timidly. ‘After you’ve had the first slap, you don’t want another one.’

  ‘She’s just giving her something to cry for.’ Susanna said and smiled sweetly.

  ‘I hope she doesn’t slap me.’ Elizabeth whispered looking towards the door with trepidation.

  ‘If you do as I said and behave yourself, she won’t need to discipline you at all.’ The Duke said and stroked Elizabeth’s head. ‘Anyway, I need to have a word with Miss Gordon about your Uncle Edward.’

  ‘Yes, Daddy. We have to return to the school room anyway.’ And Elizabeth led the way, holding rigidly onto her father’s hand.

  ‘I’m going to tell my mummy!’ spat a little girl viciously, who was sitting at a school desk.

  ‘Do so!’ Jessica said firmly. ‘I told all your parents that I will not tolerate bad manners or rude behaviour from any of you. At your age you should have a little decorum, otherwise you will just end up bullies and thugs when you enter society and then nobody will want to marry you.’

  ‘I don’t want to get married!’ the precocious child snapped.

  ‘Then you’ll end up firmly on the shelf and nobody will want to know you. You will have no friends and no parties!’

  ‘No parties?’ the girl asked and wiped her eyes. ‘Why wouldn’t I have any parties?’

  ‘Rude people are not tolerated in the haute ton. If you make enemies by your bad manners, you will receive no invitations and nobody will attend your functions. So a little decorum goes a long way.’ Jessica stood still and looked at the girl.

  Suddenly she smiled and said. ‘I’m sorry to be such a nuisance, Miss Gordon. I promise to do better.’

  ‘Excellent. And to show me how willing you are, I would like you to go and wash your hands and face.’

  ‘Yes, Miss Gordon.’ The girl said and ran from the room.

  The Duke stood with his palm over his mouth, trying to keep the laughter inside at the sudden capitulation of the child. ‘See?’ Susanna said. ‘I told you, nobody ever comes back for seconds with Miss Gordon.’

  ‘You should go and play, I need to talk to Miss Gordon privately.’ The Duke said and stroked Elizabeth again.

  ‘Come on, Lizzie! The Play room is through here.’ Susanna said and grabbed Elizabeth’s hand and led her through another door into a long room filled wit
h shelves and shelves of toys. The boys followed more sedately.

  ‘Does the Baroness have a particular doll that she likes?’ Jessica asked softly from right beside the Duke, making him start. ‘If she’s brought any of her own dolls, I’ll have to sew her name inside them.’

  He turned his head and looked down into her face and was shocked at the changes life had wrought upon it. Gone was the innocence and in it’s place a tired acceptance of the harshness of life. But her beauty was still undeniable. Her eyes were just as blue in her oval face and her sable hair was just as glossy. His heart pounded in his chest and he saw a blush creep up her cheeks, just as it had the night he asked her to dance. They held each others gaze for what seemed like a lifetime. He could see emotions moving in her eyes, loneliness, sadness and desire. It shot through him like a bolt of lightening as he recognised desire burning in her eyes.

  ‘Jessica....’ He whispered and was in the process of lifting his hand to stroke her cheek, when she stepped back.

  ‘Your Grace. Do you need something?’ She deliberately averted her gaze, as she saw his heated expression and concentrated on the children in the play room.

  You! His brain shouted, but he couldn’t get the word passed his lips. He took a deep breath as he looked back at Elizabeth and said softly ‘I need to explain about my brother-in-law.’ He blew out the breath in a long sigh. ‘He’s a gambler and I ignored the problem. Now he’s up to his neck in debt and just last night he demanded that I help him.’ He looked down at Jessica. ‘I never loved her mother, but Elizabeth is so precious to me and I was afraid he would try to snatch her for a ransom. I was filled with such terror that I went straight to the nursery and took her, still asleep, back to my room and kept her in my bed with a footman on the door.’ He sighed again. ‘I just wanted to make you aware of it, in case he suddenly arrives here and tries to make you release her into his custody.’ He turned to face her. ‘Edward Asquith is no longer welcome in my house, nor is he permitted to take my daughter anywhere.’

  ‘I understand, Your Grace.’ Jessica said evenly, not betraying the fluttering of her breath or the pounding of her heart. Just one look had set her emotions roiling. ‘The Nannies will have a get together tonight, so that they can become acquainted and I will make sure I’m on duty in the hallway. You have my word that nothing will happen to her here.’

  ‘Thank you.’ he said softly and opened his mouth to speak again, but was over rode by Anthony Carruthers.

  ‘Jessie! So this is where you’re hiding!’ Anthony bellowed.

  ‘Yes, Anthony. I’m actually doing my job. How can I help you? Are you lost?’ she said facetiously.

  ‘No, I just wanted a chat.’

  ‘This is the Duke of Warwick,’ she indicated John, ‘and this is my brother-in-law, Anthony Carruthers, the Earl of Dean.’

  ‘Your Grace.’ Anthony said formally and shuddered. John looked at him quizzically. ‘Just realised that I’m standing in a nursery!’ and he shuddered again. ‘I remember my father constantly telling David he had to fill one of these!’

  ‘My mother did me, as well.’ John laughed. ‘It seems that our parents are obsessed with us filling a nursery and yet when we get the chance, we make the wrong choice.’ He patted the Earl on the shoulder. ‘Take some advice. Make sure you can stomach her presence before you allow anybody to push you into marriage, because the only way out is death!’

  ‘I think I’m aware of that, Your Grace.’ Anthony said with a sideways glance at Jessica, whose face remained calm and placid.

  ‘I was sorry to hear of your husband’s death at Badajoz.’ The Duke said softly. Jessica blinked with surprise that the Duke even knew of her marriage, although she shouldn’t have been, everybody in the ton had talked of nothing else for weeks.

  ‘It was no great loss for me, Your Grace. I only had the misfortune to see my husband twice. The first time was when he appeared out of the bushes with Lady Saddleworth at Lord Devon’s ball and the second time was at the church when my father married me to him.’ Anthony coughed and shuffled his feet. ‘He didn’t even stay to consummate the marriage, but I’m sure he had to say goodbye to Lady Saddleworth before he sailed to Spain to avoid his creditors.’

  ‘How did you know about that?’ Anthony asked indignantly.

  ‘Did you think I was a stupid little ingénue?’ she asked him pointedly, looking him squarely in the face. ‘I learned my lessons at my first ball, when the Duke paid me the greatest compliment and asked me to dance.’ She sighed. ‘I’d already heard about your brother’s gambling debts and it was common knowledge he was trying to get Lady Saddleworth to release her funds for him.’

  ‘Why didn’t you argue about the marriage, Jessie?’ Anthony asked for the hundredth time and he reached out to take her hands. Jessica stared down at them blankly as they rested in Anthony’s grip.

  ‘I did. But I was wasting my breath. Not even my mother believed I was innocent of the charge, because I had the misfortune to be in the garden at the same time as your brother.’

  ‘Why were you in the garden?’ he asked and Jessica squirmed. ‘You never did tell me why.’

  ‘I had just heard some sad news and went out into the garden for a weep.’ Jessica said and looked directly at the Duke as Anthony prodded her for more information. ‘I had just been told of the death of the Duchess of Warwick during childbirth and I was upset. I sobbed into my handkerchief for about ten minutes and then I saw Lady Saddleworth emerge from the bushes, followed not a moment later, by David Carruthers.’ Jessica gulped back a sob of self pity. ‘By the time I returned to the ballroom, I was vilified as a whore who had been caught with her skirts around her waist and my father wouldn’t listen to reason. He locked me in the attic until he frog marched me to the church and only released my arm to give me to your brother.’ She shrugged, ‘the rest you know!’

  Suddenly a plethora of children arrived, complete with their nannies and the Duke and Earl excused themselves to hunt for some brandy.

  Down in the drawing room, John cornered Anthony Carruthers and glass in hand asked about Jessica.

  ‘I felt so sorry for her, really.’ Anthony said, ‘but I wasn’t in a position to do anything about it. My father wouldn’t have listened to me anyway, he could be very stubborn as all the elderly are. But poor Jessie he treated like a slave. She had to nurse him, right until the day he told her of David’s death.’ He sighed. ‘I don’t think he even told her how he died, he had her packed and out of the house by the four o’clock mail coach. By the time I got home, after hearing about his demise in London, she was gone.’ He laughed suddenly. ‘I did accept this invitation because I thought I might offer her marriage, but I’m not sure she would accept me.’ He looked down in his brandy, ‘we became more friends than anything else and would comfort each others woes.’

  ‘Actually I came for the same reason.’ The Duke said and smiled softly. ‘I met her on her first ball and I did dance with her, twice. I’ve never been able to get her out of my mind since that night, even through my marriage and out the other side.’ He sighed deeply. ‘I hope to be able to persuade her.’

  ‘I wish you luck, Your Grace.’ And then the Duke of Norfolk arrived and the talk turned to politics.

  Chapter Seven

  All the children were in bed and the nursery floor was quiet. All the Nannies were having wine in the play room and Jessica was patrolling the landing. She could faintly hear the music from the ball, but it didn’t cover a querulous cry coming from one of the rooms and she went in to attend to the baby crying. ‘There, there.’ She said carefully lifting the infant and cradling it in her arms. ‘I’m afraid I’m not your wet nurse, so I can’t feed you.’ But fortunately the child was just disturbed and was soon asleep in her embrace. ‘Yes, that’s right. You go back to sleep. You’ll be quite safe here.’ She gently laid the sleeping baby back in its cot and patted its back for a few moments before covering it up and tucking in the bedclothes.

  Jessica started from
the beginning again and checked every child and as she looked at the bed that Elizabeth Farrington was supposed to be in her heart turned over and thudded in her chest in panic. Where the hell was she? Jessica checked all the rooms again and then she went to Mrs. Tabb. ‘Elizabeth Farrington is not in her bed. Now I don’t want to alarm the household, but I need to go downstairs and see if Plunkett has seen her, so will you watch the rest?’ Mrs. Tabb nodded her flushed face and sat in the chair.

  Jessica hurried for the stairs and ran down them as fast as she could. As she hurried around the last turn, she spied her quarry crouched down on the staircase looking through the bars at the ladies swirling about the floor in the ballroom. She sighed in relief and calmly walked down to crouch beside Elizabeth on the next stair down so that their faces were level. She adjusted the fine silk of her gown, she had emptied her trunks when the children were napping and had selected one of her more colourful gowns.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ She asked the small girl.

  ‘I wanted to see a ball.’ Elizabeth said innocently as she held the bars like a prisoner. ‘The ladies are so pretty. See look? Daddy’s dancing.’ She was quiet until John Farrington swept passed the open doors again. ‘Who is that he’s dancing with?’ Jessica was shocked to see them waltz passed the door. She’d expected a country dance or cotillion.

  ‘I believe that is Lady Greyston.’ Jessica whispered, ‘and you are in terrible trouble for leaving the nursery wing.’

  ‘I know.’ She said sadly. ‘But I’ve never seen a ball before. Daddy’s never held one.’ She turned to Jessica. ‘Will you dance with me?’

  ‘Yes, but we can’t dance here. We should go back to the nursery.’ Jessica put out her hand.

  ‘All right.’ Elizabeth said in agreement and threw her arms around Jessica’s neck. ‘But you promise to dance with me?’

  ‘I promise, Baroness.’ Jessica stood carefully, not wanting to either tear her gown or tumble down the stairs and straightened up. She settled Elizabeth on her hip, lifted her skirts with her other hand and started back up the stairs. She did not see John Farrington appear at the bottom of the stairs, nor see the mischief on his face as she turned at the top.