Page 22 of The Governess’ Unlikely Suitor (The Dashworth Brothers #2)

He didn’t move. Her reaction was over the top for what had occurred and it reminded him of what he was like when confronted with something that unnerved him.

He liked things to be straight. When they weren’t, it was like there were ants crawling beneath his skin.

Those feelings were about order and the deep-seated uneasiness he experienced when that order was changed or removed.

‘Kate.’

Ignoring him, she leapt up and began to push the table to one side to get to the rug beneath.

‘Kate.’

It appeared she could not hear him, because she knelt once more to finish rolling up the rug.

‘Kate. Stop.’

‘I am nearly done.’ The rug squelched as she came to the damp patch. She winced but carried on.

He reached out and lightly touched her elbow. ‘Kate, what are you doing?’

She turned to him, her eyes wide, lashes spiky and cheeks wet. ‘I am rolling the rug to take it to my room and make it as good as new.’

‘Do you even know how to clean something like this?’

‘No, but I…’

‘I am telling you it does not matter. It is highly unlikely the duke had anything to do with the decoration in this room. The blue seems to be a thing of amusement for us all, but none of us are passionate about it. If the rug is beyond repair, no one will be cross, because it was an accident. Do not worry.’ She managed to get the fabric into a wide roll.

‘Why can you not hear what I am saying, Kate?’

‘He will be angry.’

‘Who? Who will be angry, Kate?’

Her whole body stilled; he wasn’t even sure she was breathing.

‘The Duke of Glanmore,’ she said eventually.

‘I promise you he will not.’ A quick dip of her head was the only sign she had heard him. ‘But I do not think you were referring Tobias. Is there anything you would like to talk about?’

Knowing what it was like to fear someone, he wasn’t going to push her for an answer.

It had been a long time for him, but he had not forgotten what it was like to be under his aunt’s control, knowing she could punish him for a misdemeanour he had not even been aware he had committed.

It was why he liked things orderly. If things were meant to be in a certain place, then that is where they should be to avoid any harm befalling him.

It did not matter that he had not lived with Miss Dunn in years; things still had to be just so for him to relax.

Slowly, her shoulders released their tension and she sagged until she was sitting on the ground.

‘My last employer was not very pleasant. I found it wise to avoid drawing attention to myself.’ She shuddered and Edward suppressed a primal urge to hunt this man down and kill him.

‘For a moment, I forgot His Grace is not the same.’

‘No one here will hurt you, Kate. I promise you.’

She looked up at him; the whites of her eyes were pink but no longer glassy. ‘I know. You have all been very kind. I do not know what to do about this though.’ She gestured to the roll of carpet.

‘I am going to ring for Mrs Bishop.’

‘But I should…’

‘How would you feel if we took this off to your room and you spent hours cleaning it only to make it worse?’

Staring at her handiwork, she shuddered. ‘Terrible,’ she admitted at last.

‘Exactly. Let us ask Mrs Bishop to take a look.’

When Tobias had gained his majority, he replaced the indoor staff who had served them while the brothers were growing up under the strict rule of Miss Dunn.

He either pensioned them off or offered them the opportunity to go and work under Miss Dunn in the country pile to which Tobias had her moved.

Edward hadn’t given the replacement of the staff much thought; he had been busy living his own life and not thinking of Glanmore House any more than absolutely necessary.

When he had moved back in, he had noticed that the servants were far more pleasant than those he had been used to, but he still hadn’t pondered the fact a great deal.

Watching the way Mrs Bishop talked to Kate, the way the older woman reassured her that she knew just the thing to make the carpet as good as new and the mess wasn’t the disaster Kate thought it was, he was incredibly grateful to his older brother.

The previous housekeeper would have made Kate feel awful about the damage, with pursed lips and endless tutting.

She would have enjoyed making Kate’s distress worse.

Mrs Bishop and Kate interacted like they were old friends trying to outdo each other in their pleasantries.

Edward hadn’t considered it before, but now he thought Tobias’ choice of employee must be deliberate and he realised, not for the first time, how little he knew the duke, even after all these months of living with him.

Perhaps there was a kind, thoughtful man behind the aloof, stern exterior.

When Mrs Bishop had finally been allowed to take the rug away, with promises to inform Kate if there was anything she could do to help restore it to its former glory, Edward finally said, ‘I was looking for you actually.’

‘You were?’

‘Yes.’ He hoped she had forgotten the way he had barged into the room, pretending he hadn’t realised she was in there.

‘I was wondering if you are available to come with me now to talk to Charlotte. I spoke with my brothers and we would all like to know what you think about her speech after talking with her for a longer time.’

Her whole body brightened at his words. ‘I would like that very much.’

Seeing her joy at being asked to do something made him wish he had asked her sooner.

So what if being around her made him wish he could run his fingers through her hair?

He was a grown man; he could cope with unrequited desire.

He was not a brute who would act on his impulses.

And no one need ever know where his mind went when he imagined her in his bed.

Arriving at the nursery compounded his guilt at not acting sooner.

Charlotte’s whole body tightened in delight when she saw them, and she ran towards them, throwing her arms around Kate’s legs as if they were long-lost friends.

He should have done this days ago; his own pride had kept them apart for no reason.

Charlotte’s nurse, an older woman whom Charlotte adored, looked pleased to be given some time off and wasted no time in heading to her own rooms for a quick lie-down. ‘To prepare myself for this afternoon’s entertainment,’ she said, smiling at them as she made her escape.

‘Hello, Charlotte,’ said Kate, dropping to her knees so she was the same height as the little girl. ‘I have come to play with you and Dolly.’

‘And Teddy,’ said Charlotte, pointing imperiously at him.

Kate bit her lip, hiding her smile. ‘And Teddy,’ she agreed.

‘Only while we are here,’ he murmured to Kate as he lowered himself to the ground. ‘I will not respond to that name anywhere but in this room.’

Kate nodded, her eyes smiling. Even though he was not keen on the shortened version of his name, he was glad to see she was happy again and that the horror of her memory, the one that had gripped her so tightly with the spilt tea in the Blue Lounge, was being wiped away by passing time with his innocently happy niece.

‘Where is Dolly going today?’ Kate asked Charlotte.

‘To… to… the darden.’

‘To the garden,’ Kate repeated. ‘How lovely!’

For a while, Edward watched them play together.

Charlotte did not seem to need his input, although at one point, his body became a mountain Dolly had to climb.

The autumnal sun poured through the high windows and the room warmed.

A few times, Edward felt his eyelids grow heavy, but he managed to snap himself awake before he started snoring.

He had not been sleeping well, which was not new, even if the reasons behind his sleeplessness were.

He’d been overthinking his relationship with Kate.

Again, the overthinking wasn’t a recent development.

He had been this way since he could remember, but dwelling on Kate and whether or not he had made her uncomfortable was a fresh form of agony.

Leaning back against the wall, he stretched his legs out in front of him.

Charlotte climbed between them, facing outwards to talk to Kate.

He wasn’t following the conversation until Kate said, ‘Look at the big lake in front of them. See how deep it is too. They will need a boat to get across this water.’

Edward watched Charlotte’s curls bobbing as she nodded.

‘Oh, how lucky,’ Kate said. ‘Here comes one now.’ She pushed a wooden box across the floor until it was in front of Charlotte. ‘Is Dolly going to get aboard?’

Charlotte went to put her toy in the box and then stopped. ‘Need Ace.’

‘Ace?’ Kate asked.

Charlotte leapt to her feet. ‘Yes. Ace on boat.’

Edward locked eyes with Kate, tilting his head slightly, hoping the movement indicated he had no idea who Ace could represent. She nodded in acknowledgement.

‘The boat can wait for Ace,’ she told Charlotte.

‘Not Ace. Ace .’ Charlotte emphasised the first letter of the name, but it was no clearer to him who this person might be. Charlotte ran to her small bed and fetched a teddy bear. She held it up to show the adults. ‘Dis Ace.’

‘This is Ace?’ Kate emphasised the a too, which seemed to satisfy his niece, who brought the bear back to the makeshift boat and added both toys to it.

Charlotte began to push the boat around the room. It was clear this Ace was in charge of Dolly, because whenever Charlotte spoke like she were the bear, she said things like ‘Teatime’ and ‘Time for bed now,’ ordering Dolly to do things as if she were a child.

Edward leaned forward, watching the interaction intently.

The brothers had no idea how Charlotte had travelled from America to England, a trip that normally lasted six weeks but could have been as long as ten weeks.

That person had presumably also travelled from Plymouth to London, keeping Charlotte safe in a new and possibly frightening environment.

But whoever had brought her had not stayed to see her delivered to her uncles, had not watched over her as the four brothers had struggled to rearrange their lives in order to accommodate a little girl they had never met before.

That disparity had always struck Edward as strange.

Even if the person had not been a relative, it was hard to imagine anyone knowing Charlotte and then being able to walk away without first meeting the family with whom she was going to be living.

Edward knew he was biased, she was his niece and he adored her, but he was fairly sure she cast a spell on everyone who met her and he could not understand why her travelling companion had abandoned her with the lawyer.

Now it was possible they had a name for the person who had travelled with her and cared for her during her voyage. Except… Ace was not a name.

‘Can you find out if Ace is a man or a woman?’ he asked Kate in a soft murmur.

She appeared not to have heard him and he did not want to interrupt to repeat his question, not when this was possibly their first insight in months.

After a while Kate said, ‘Should Ace go to sleep now too? I think he is getting tired.’

Charlotte giggled. ‘Ace is a girl.’ She took the bear from Kate’s outstretched hand and lowered it next to Dolly. ‘I get blanket.’ She rushed over to her toy crib and took a small blanket from the top. ‘Now dey sleep.’

‘While they have a rest,’ said Kate, ‘shall I read you a story?’

Charlotte nodded, her thumb already in her mouth. Kate tucked the little girl into her bed and took a book from a small stack next to it.

Edward listened as Kate read, her voice soft and melodic.

He did not listen to the words, only stared at the box with the toys lying next to one another.

Kate had found out something not one of them had managed in the five months since Charlotte had been living with them, although what he was going to do with this newfound information, he wasn’t sure.