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“I am not—!” His eyes flicked up and met her own, fire in them both, but he caught his tongue and stilled his temper. Another deep breath. “I am not apologizing. I am simply asking that we put that moment and the last few days behind us. For Isabella’s sake.”

And it was done. Frederick breathed a sigh of relief, for he had done what he needed to do and said what he needed to say. Now, all that was left was for Miss Dowding to accept his words as they were, and he could leave without doing anything rash or… well, dangerous.

He forced himself to look at Miss Dowding, hoping that she might see his desperation and accept it. Surely, she did not want him in this room with her any more than he wanted to be? Acceptance was what he needed to see in her eyes—anything other than that fiery temperament that he yearned for so much.

Her arms were still crossed, her expression set into an angered rictus as she stalked forward and deeper into the room; the way her arms were crossed pushed her breasts up higher, as if she was doing so to purposefully tempt him. Frederick did his best not to look, stealing a quick glance before again looking past her.

“For Isabella’s sake, is it?” she asked.

“That is why I am here,” he replied. “It will not do for her to see the two of us fighting.”

“And you care that much, do you?”

He frowned. “Of course, I do. Everything I do is for Isabella.”

“Including hiring a new governess?”

That had his frown deepening, forcing him to look at her for the first real time. She was still angry at him, that was clear. But there was something else there, a look behind her eyes that spoke to how upset she truly was. For all Frederick’s assumptions that she had been upset with how he had spoken to her, was it possible that he had been wrong this entire time.

“You are… you are upset that I am replacing you?”

“What? No,” she said quickly and dismissively. “I never wished for this role in the first place.”

“Yet you are clearly upset that you are being replaced. Even if you do not want this role.”

“I—” She moved to argue but caught her tongue. “I know that replacing me makes sense,” she said carefully, her eyes looking over his shoulder as if on purpose… likely for a similar reason that he was doing the same thing. “It is just that…” She sighed. “Isabella is turning into a woman.”

“I know that…” A smirk. “No thanks to you.”

She ignored that. “It has only been a week or so, but I am already seeing her grow before my eyes in a way I never…” She bit back the statement and swallowed. “After you dismissed me, and afterI spoke with you, I suppose I just realized how much I am going to miss her when I am gone.”

“You are?” Frederick tilted his head, feeling a strange tightening in his chest that for once had nothing to do with attraction.

“Of course, I am,” she snapped. “And while I might have made my peace with it, being shouted at by you for reasons that were nobody’s fault save your own rush to judgment didn’t make it any easier.”

Even that rebuke didn’t put Frederick on edge like it might have. Still, he could not get past the way she was speaking about his daughter, almost… almost as if she was her mother.

“You really care that much for Isabella?”

“I just said I did!” she snapped again, her anger rising to boil. “You do not listen so well, do you!”

Again, the remark was one that should have set Frederick on edge, had him feeling the desire to respond in kind, even stepping toward her and attempting to intimidate her as he so often did—to remind her that he was in charge here, and she needed to see it. Only…

He could not get past the way she was speaking about his daughter. The love in her eyes, the warmth in her voice, and the hope in her heart. More than a governess. More than temptress.For the first real time, Frederick dared to see her as his grandmother had been so insistent upon him doing.

“I hadn’t considered that,” he said softly.

She scoffed. “I am not surprised.”

“I…” He almost didn’t say it. Words that he couldn’t recall ever saying before in his life. But with how upset she clearly was, with all that had happened between them, Frederick knew that for once it might not be taken as a sign of weakness. If anything, the opposite was true. “I am sorry.”

She baulked. “Excuse me?”

“I am sorry,” he said again, stepping further into the room and toward her. No longer avoiding her gaze, he met it instead, hoping that she might see the truth of his words. “I am sorry for shouting at you. I am sorry for not considering how you felt about Isabella. And I am sorry…” He chuckled lightly. “I am sorry for treating you like a stranger in this house when I see now that the opposite is true.”

She leaned back, brow furrowed as if searching for the lie. “You are trying to trick me.”

“I most certainly am not.” He reached where she was standing, forcing himself not to reach out and stroke her arm.