“He is a very close friend to both the Duke and Mr Hayman and is also Lady Amy’s uncle, by blood, I believe through the Duke’s late wife.”
Matilda automatically held her breath at the mention of the Duke’s late wife. She was so very rarely spoken about that it always felt as if it were a huge secret whenever she was uttered on somebody’s lips.
Before she could even think of anything to say, Helen continued, “I am sure there are a few other gentlemen the Duke went to school with and some of them with wives though I struggle to remember all of their names.”
“I am sure that the Duke will make any introductions he believes necessary,” Matilda responded, not expecting that the Duke would feel the need to do any such thing. After all, she was only the governess and mainly there to keep an eye on Lady Amy. At least, that was what she kept telling herself over and over again even when she felt as though there had to be something more to the Duke’s invitation.
It was not until Matilda felt Helen stiffening behind her that she turned on the stool and gripped hold of the personal maid’s hand, “Helen, is something the matter?”
“I have also heard that Lady Florentia Knightley will be in attendance,” the woman admitted. Matilda was not sure why but at the mention of the lady, her gut churned, and a hole opened up in the pit of her stomach that made her feel sick.
“Is there something wrong with that?” Matilda asked, struggling to speak past the sudden lump in her throat.
Helen quickly started to shake her head and removed her hand from Matilda’s before she answered, “No. I just feel I ought to warn you to stay as far away from her as possible.”
The hole in Matilda’s gut seemed to grow larger and nausea threatened to overwhelm her. “Why should I treat her any differently than the other guests?”
For a moment, Matilda thought back to the conversation she’d had with Lady Amy all those weeks ago beside the pond after they had first been introduced to the woman. She thought of all that Lady Amy had said and how angry she had been at the sight of the woman with her father. She could only imagine how awkward the dinner might be with them both sitting at the same table.But what would that have to do with me?Matilda asked herself, awaiting Helen’s response.
“Lady Florentia is a force to be reckoned with and she is trying so desperately to get her hooks into the Duke,” Helen explained, her cheeks blushing as though she was embarrassed to even be voicing her opinion on the subject. “I fear that she may see you as a threat, Matilda.”
The governess’ mouth practically dropped open at that and she gaped at Helen in utter astonishment. “Why ever would a noble lady see me as a threat? I am nothing but a governess!”
“And yet you are closer to the Duke than perhaps even his friends,” Helen pointed out with a raised eyebrow and a serious expression that made Matilda’s skin crawl. “I have heard the two of you laughing and talking well into the evening and you are the first governess to have been invited to such a dinner.”
The lump in Matilda’s throat grew harder and thicker.There goes my telling myself that I have only been invited for Lady Amy’s benefit,she gulped hard past the lump and tried to steady herself.
“All I am saying is, be careful not to get on the wrong side of the woman,” Helen insisted with a shrug of her shoulders, looking as if she were trying to take some of the weight from her warning in the hopes that Matilda would not get too anxious over the matter.
Matilda opened her mouth to respond but in that moment they both stiffened. The sound of the front doorbell was ringing loudly throughout the house, signalling that the first guests had begun to arrive.
“Well, I suppose the time is now or never,” Matilda said with a deep exhale, hoping that she was even half-prepared for whatever she was going to face that night.
The dinner went much better than Matilda could have hoped for after her conversation with Helen. She was most relieved that Lady Florentia had been seated several places away from the head of the table, between Mr Hayman and the wife of another gentleman that the Duke had gone to school with while she found herself sat at the very head of the table two seats down from the Duke himself. The only person between them was Lady Amy herself, sitting at her father’s right hand.
She was surprised at just how welcoming all of the guests were. Not a single one of them seemed to bat an eyelid at the fact that the governess had joined them at the dinner table. Matilda reminded herself of the conversation she’d had with the Duke on one of her first nights at the manor where he had told her that he had risen Lady Amy in a most unorthodox manner.
Perhaps that also extended to his dining habits and so his guests were not shocked in the least to find her sitting at the head of the table with the Duke and his daughter.
Yet there was one set of eyes she felt on her several times, one set belonging to the woman that Helen had warned her about, and although she turned her head and met the woman’s gaze, Matilda was somewhat terrified. In all her years as a governess, she had never been in this kind of situation before.
Never had she felt as though a noblewoman would have liked to rip the hair right from her head, hairpins and all. Yet that was how Lady Florentia looked at her, especially when nobody else seemed to be watching.
Matilda’s only solace was the fact that whenever Lady Amy caught the woman glancing toward them, she would stick out her tongue or offer some other kind of disgruntled gesture. Though Matilda scolded the girl quietly, she had to force back laughter at the interactions being passed between her young charge and the woman who had taken it upon herself to see her as an enemy.
She wholly intends to marry the Duke,Matilda thought, remembering Helen’s warnings to stay well clear of her. And so, she did, choosing instead to enjoy the food and the company, laughing whenever Lady Amy made some silly and childish joke that had the entire table in stitches, that was all save for Lady Florentia who seemed to have a dark cloud hanging above her head.
It was not until dinner was finished and Lady Amy started to yawn that Matilda started to grow worried. With the party having been moved from the dining room to the parlour, Matilda was well aware of the moment when Helen was brought in to take the young girl to bed.
“How is it going?” the personal maid mouthed to her across the room even as Mr Burns escorted her in to collect Lady Amy from where she had started to doze off on one of the couches beside her father.
“Fine,” Matilda mouthed back and watched as Helen tried to rouse Lady Amy enough to get her to walk through the room and up to bed.
Able to feel Lady Florentia’s eyes upon her once more, Matilda hurried over to them and suggested, “I can help.”
“Oh, nonsense,” the Duke protested. “You are off the clock, Miss Percival. Please, continue to enjoy yourself.”
With that, before Matilda could offer any kind of protest, the Duke slipped his arms beneath his daughter and pulled her up to his chest to carry her from the room. “If you will all excuse me, I shall return shortly.”