The Wicked Governess (Blackhaven Brides Book 6)(2)
She swallowed. I will not cry again. I will not.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed before she was summoned by a maid to the earl’s study. Straightening her shoulders, she lifted her chin and determined to keep her dignity for the final interview.
“Don’t close the door, for God’s sake,” the earl said as she entered his study.
She was relieved that the countess wasn’t present. There would be less temptation to give in to fury.
“I’m so sorry for this, but the devil’s in it that I can’t change her mind right now.”
Of course, he couldn’t. She was surprised, almost touched, that he had apparently tried. But the countess, already smarting from being overruled on Lady Serena’s marriage to the impoverished Marquis of Tamar, would not give in a second time in a month.
“I have obtained you a stay of execution until tomorrow morning,” he said, with an apologetic twist of his lips. “Which at least gives me time to warn Benedict of your arrival.”
“Benedict?” she repeated, bewildered.
“Mr. Benedict at Haven Hall.”
Haven Hall… A flash of memory distracted her—a tall, grim figure striding from the trees, an ugly scar, livid and jagged, across a swarthy, frowning face.
“I spoke to him the other day,” Lord Braithwaite explained, “and he is in need of a governess.”
“Why?” Caroline blurted.
“He has a daughter, and I’m sure he’ll accept my recommendation.”
“But I’m not sure I can,” Caroline said in panic. “Haven Hall, sir!”
The earl waved that aside. “Rumor and nonsense. He’s just a little eccentric, but a perfect gentleman and extremely well educated. Besides, it shouldn’t be for long.”
She regarded him unhappily. “You expect me to lose that position, too?”
“Well, yes, in so far as I expect you to come back here.”
She blinked at him. “I beg your pardon?”
He gave a lopsided smile. “Contrary to today’s evidence, my mother is neither an unkind nor an unjust woman. She is merely subject to temper and impulse—as well as being most stern about the proprieties. You must know she was angry with Serena when she sent her up here last month, only then, nothing would do but that we had to rush up here after her because she acknowledged her mistake. In a week or so, she will acknowledge her mistake toward you, too, and I hope you will come back to us.”
Caroline seemed to be spending a lot of today with her mouth open. She closed it.
“My sisters will miss you, Miss Grey,” he said uncomfortably. “They love you, and they certainly seem to learn a great deal more from you than their previous governesses. My understanding is that you also were happy in the position.”
“I was.”
“Then with your permission, I will merely loan you to Benedict and his daughter and reclaim you for my sisters in a week or so. By which time, hopefully, Benedict will have found a permanent governess for his own daughter.”
“I never even knew he had a daughter!”
Braithwaite shrugged. “I doubt anyone knew. He brought his own servants with him to the hall. I gather neither he nor they associate with anyone in Blackhaven, so no one really knows anything about him at all.”
And yet you will send me there like a lamb to the slaughter.
“However, he has recently employed a cook who is a Blackhaven woman,” Braithwaite continued cheerfully. “She used to work in our kitchen and is an excellent person. You may trust her implicitly.”
“Oh, good.”
He cast her a sidelong glance, as though suspecting her—quite rightly—of sarcasm. But he let it go. “As I say, I’m sorry for this, Miss Grey, but I hope we may make it right in the end.”
She met his gaze. “Then I wonder if I might ask a favor? I need to send something to my mother.”
“I shall frank it for you.”
As contented as she could be, in the circumstances, she left him to pack her meagre bag.
*
Lord Braithwaite had told her to order the gig when she was ready to leave, but having gazed upon the sleeping faces of his sisters for what could be the last time, she found she needed to walk off her anger.
She had neither asked for nor wanted the earl’s sympathy, and his mother must surely be an imbecile to imagine any impropriety in such an innocent moment. She seemed to regard Caroline suddenly as some kind of designing hussy, a siren in a drab grey gown and damaged boots, quite set upon getting her claws into Lady Braithwaite’s precious son. So now she was to be parted from the pupils she’d grown so fond of, disrupting their lives and her own.
It was a long walk to Haven Hall, but not the first time she’d taken the path. Then, she had just been walking in the autumn sunshine, unaware of where her feet had taken her until later. The hall itself had only been glimpsed between the trees, its tenant unidentified, even after he’d confronted her.
Her stomach tightened in memory of that encounter. She must have looked somewhat foolish and timid to him. But in truth, there had been reason for her nervousness. Strangers in the neighborhood had recently attacked Lady Serena and were hiding smuggled goods in the castle cellar—goods rather more dangerous than the illicit French brandy so familiar in Blackhaven. So, when she’d heard the unmistakable sounds of someone in the wood, seemingly paralleling her own path, she had been understandably alarmed.