The Duke and The Governess (14 page)

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 fro
m 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 adjust
ed
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 car
efully, not wanting to either tear her gown or tumble down the stairs and straightened up. She settle
d
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 th
e stairs, nor see the mischief
on his face as she turned at the top.

John had been dancing with the grasping Lady
Greyston; the woman was like an octopus with her hands everywhere
,
and
he
had seen Elizabeth the first time he’d passed the door. He’d intended to give Jessica some grief about it, but the next time he passed, Jessica was on the stairs. It took him a few minutes to extricate himself from Lady Greyston,
the palms of her hands seemed to be adhered to his buttocks,
but as he went out of the door, he saw
Jes
sica and Elizabeth vanish around the turn in
the stairs. He took that first flight two at a time but he didn’t catch up with them until Jessica was back on the Nursery wing and he watched from the corner as she
dismissed a nanny and then
waltzed with his daughter up and down the corridor.

He saw the empty chair and decided to sit. He folded his arms over his chest and sat proudly watching them swirl around the corridor. Elizabeth giggled softly as Jessica turned. He marvelled at her grace and a certain part of his anatomy woke up suddenly. He groaned at the ache in his groin and had to squeeze it under his hand. Suddenly she saw him and stopped dead. ‘May I have this dance?’ John asked as he stood up and gently took Elizabeth from her arms.

‘Of course, Your Grace.’ Jessica said, embarrassed.

‘Daddy!
Miss Jessica
was dancing with me.’ Elizabeth said.

‘I know. And I’m going to waltz you straight back to bed.’ He looked at Jessica. ‘Maybe you’ll save the next dance for me.’ Jessica just smiled, knowing he was teasing for Elizabeth’s enjoyment. As she watched the tall Duke turn about the landing on his way to his
daughter’s
suite
, she sat demurely in the chair and sighed with regret. She picked the book she had been reading up and opened it to the last page she read
and tried to concentrate on the words. But she couldn’t get the memories out of her head and how he’d felt when she danced with him on her first ball.

A hand appeared over the edge of her book, making her look up into John’s face. She inhaled sharply as she stared into the bluest eyes again and she felt her cheeks flush as he said ‘Would you do
me
th
e honour of this dance, Lady
Carruthers
?’

She heard the blood rush in her ears as she put her book down and her heart pounded as she carefully placed her hand in his. He held her lightly in his arms and they stepped and turned in time to the distant music.
Jessica was astonished to be doing a waltz, as the dance had been banned in Britain, although it was still dance
d
on the continent. She was unsure of the steps at first and found the way the Duke held her as intimate as any embrace.
There was something distinctly scandalous about the way his leg moved between hers. It made her heart pound.

‘I must say, My Lady, y
ou haven’t lost any of your grace since the last time we danced.’ He murmured as he looked down into her rapt face.

‘Neither have you, Your Grace.’

‘Maybe now I can really apologise for my stupid and ignorant sister. She really was quite the snob at the time.’ He said softly and pulled her closer than was polite, but she didn’t pull away.

‘I’m sure Lady Asquith
... I do beg your pardon, Her Grace,
repaired any damage.’ Jessica said calmly, trying to keep her breathing under control.

‘She didn’t.’ He sighed. ‘Victoria never cared about anybody but herself, so poor Verity still suffers from the cut your mother gave her.’

‘Don’t we all.’ Jessica said with more vitriol than she’d intended. ‘Tell me how your wife died?’

‘Haemorrhage during child birth. The umbilical was wrap
ped around Elizabeth’s waist and
once Victoria
started to bleed there wasn’t anything to be done.’

‘I’m sorry. But I suppose it could have been worse.’ Jessica said softly.

‘Worse, how?’ John said sharply and looked down into those sad, blue eyes.

‘Elizabeth could have had the cord around her throat.’ She said and looked at  his intricately tied cravat. ‘Then you would have lost them both.’

‘I’m so glad I didn’t. Elizabeth has been a saviour for me.’ John whispered like a prayer.

‘I didn’t realise that you loved your wife that much, I’m sorry again.’

‘I didn’t love Victoria at all. She was vain and vacuous
and though I didn’t wish death upon her, I’m glad she’s not here.’ He sighed and stopped dancing. ‘I would have asked you to marry me, if my mother hadn’t taken the gossip as gospel.’ He released her hand and gently stroked his fingertips over her cheek. ‘I knew from the first moment I met you that you would dominate my life and there hasn’t been a night I didn’t picture your face before I went to sleep.’

She looked in his eyes and saw the honesty in them and as her mouth opened to castigate
him, he brought his lips quickly
down on hers. Jessica thought she’d died and gone to heaven. He pulled her against him with the hand that was still on her back and stupidly he plundered her mouth as his need and desperation escaped to run rampant through his body. His tongue forced her lips apart and explored every facet of her maddening, si
lky mouth and he sensuously stroked his hand up from her waist until her firm breast was cradled in his palm
before he realised she was struggling in his arms and as he released her lips her fist crashed i
nto the point of his shoulder and
she yanked herself out of his arms in a panic. She stumbled away from him as he released her body.

‘Your Grace!’ she said forcefull
y, her chest heaving in
effrontery
as she backed against the wall
. ‘Please remember where you are. This is not some house of ill repute in London! This is a nursery!’
and she turned and fled in virginal panic.

You bloody intemperate fool!
He scolded himself. He sat down dejectedly on the chair and fought
not only
to control his breathing
, but the rampant erection testing his best silk britches
, that he r
ubbed absently while he
pondered events.
He was surprised that she had reacted just like a
n
innocent vir
gin. It suddenly occurred to him
that the gossip had been completely wrong and Jessica Gordon had not had her skirts around her waist in the Garden at Lord Devon’s, in fact, he would wager that her maidenhead was still intact and he intended to prove himself right!
He returned to the party totally unaware that Elizabeth had watched from the door of her room.

‘I wonder if Daddy is in love with Miss Gordon?’ she wondered to herself and went to back to bed with a yawn. ‘I’ll ask him tomorrow.’
she determined, as she’d never even seen her Daddy kiss one of the maids.

Jessica dived straight into her bedroom and stood with her back to the door, her chest heaving. She was caught somewhere between shock and desire. Her heart had almost leaped into her throat when his lips had descended onto hers and the soft, silky feel of them did strange things to her body. Her heart raced, she felt a weakness rush through her limbs and would have collapsed into a quivering jelly if he’d not had his arms around her to hold her up. But she felt
a thrill at the same time as panic galvanised her into action and she pummelled him to release her. She held her hands to her flushed face and wondered how she was going to face the Duke in the morning
.

When the
nannies had all retired
and Jessica could retire. She stripped off her gown
, let down her hair
and washed her face. After that she quickly stripped and threw on her night gown, climbing quickly into bed. She
sat and plaited her hair, tying a ribbon around the ends before she
lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. Without her realising she was doing it, her left hand idly stroked her breast, as John Farrington had done and again she felt the flush of desire course through her veins.

John returned to the ball and was immediately commandeered by Lady Pritchard, the other merry widow. He danced a few more times and then retired to th
e card room for a game of whist
or two. As he arrived in the room, he could see Anthony bristling.

‘You should be careful what you say, Sir! She happens to be my sister-in-law!’ He said loudly.

‘I was only repeating the gossip that was about at the time of her marriage to your brother!’ Viscount Boston said without any caution, but even John could see he’d imbibed a little too much brandy.