“Please, see my guest out,” Lady Florentia ordered before the butler could even have the time to enter the room. “The Duke was just leaving!”
Looking quite dumbfounded, the butler quickly placed the tray on the nearest end table at the edge of the room and gestured for Watson to follow him. Feeling guilty and slightly embarrassed, Watson followed in silence, only glancing back over his shoulder to wonder,Does she believe me?
Chapter 15
Things at the manor had been quiet for several days and she, the Duke and Lady Amy fell into a pleasant routine. She and Amy would go about their lessons and such during the day and when the Duke returned in the evenings they would take a walk before dinner, sitting and eating as if they were a proper family.
Several times, Matilda caught herself imagining what it might be like to actually be that family, to be the Duke’s wife and has Lady Amy as her step daughter, but every time she would quickly force the thoughts away, too scared to gather any hope on the matter.
It was during one such thought, while Matilda was helping Lady Amy with her music lessons at the pianoforte in the drawing room, when they were disturbed by a most agitated Lady Florentia.
“Forgive me, Miss Percival, Lady Amy!” Burns yelled even as the woman swept into the room, looking like a whirlwind of frustration. “I tried to ask the lady to wait outside while I announced her.”
“Do not trouble yourself, Burns,” Matilda insisted even as she quickly pushed herself up from the stool and gave Lady Florentia the respectful curtsey that she was due as a noblewoman. “Lady Amy, please help me greet our guest.”
Matilda heard the girl grumble under her breath, but she reluctantly pushed herself from the stool and dropped down into a curtsey of her own as she said, “Welcome, Lady Florentia.”
“Welcome indeed,” Lady Florentia scoffed, looking the young girl up and down as if she would have liked to say something far worse. Matilda barely managed to stop herself from stepping in front of her charge to shield her from the woman’s foul gaze.
“If you are looking for my father, he is out on business,” Lady Amy insisted and Matilda’s stomach clenched. The last thing she wanted was for the lady to know that she and Lady Amy were practically alone in the house. Without Watson, she was not at all sure what the lady might decide to do.
“I am not here to see your father, girl,” Lady Florentia snapped, and it was clear that whatever veil the woman had kept carefully over her resentment toward the girl was now gone in the absence of the Duke’s favour.
“Lady Amy, why do not you take your music sheets and study them in the garden for a few minutes?” Matilda suggested, hoping to get her away from the woman as soon as possible. Lady Amy had been doing so well in her learning and in her behaviour. She did not want this noblewoman coming in and ruining all of that now.
“Why are you sending her away, Miss Percival?” Lady Florentia demanded, turning her cold glare on the governess. “Is there something you wish for people not to know?”
Lady Amy raised one dark eyebrow at that, and she looked curiously from Matilda to Lady Florentia and back again. From the look on her face, she clearly knew that something important was going on between them. Matilda gritted her teeth, all too able to imagine just how juicy something like this might seem to one so young as Lady Amy.
“Please, Lady Amy, do as I ask,” Matilda instructed her gently with a smile, “and I promise that later we will go down to the stables to check on the horses.”
Lady Amy’s eyes lit up at that and Matilda was relieved when the girl finally swept up the music sheets from the piano and hurried from the room. A small wave of satisfaction washed over Matilda when the girl failed to politely remove herself without saying farewell to Lady Florentia.
“Impolite little miscreant,” the woman hissed under her breath and Matilda was sure that she had not been meant to hear the words. Deciding it was better not to rile her up anymore, she kept her mouth closed on the subject even though she would have liked to defend the girl against her.
“Lady Florentia, if you are here to see His Grace, I am afraid he shall not be here until this evening,” Matilda said politely, through gritted teeth, and she clasped her hands before her hoping to hide the fact that they were trembling.
“I am not here to seehim!” Lady Florentia snapped once Matilda had barely gotten her words out. The way she said it with such disdain took the governess by surprise. “I knew he would not be here!”
That caused Matilda’s insides to twist painfully. She definitely did not like where this was going.
“Then, my lady, may I enquire as to why you have come?” Matilda asked with the sneaking suspicion that she already knew too well exactly why the woman had come.
“I have come to speak with you, woman to woman,” Lady Florentia announced, “I know all about why the Duke has decided to call off our courtship.”
Lady Florentia’s face reddened so violently that Matilda wondered whether it might have suddenly sent her lightheaded. Yet if it did, the woman seemed unfazed by it. She glared at Matilda as if she wished to throw herself across the room and claw her eyes from her skull.
“My lady, I am unsure as to what you mean,” Matilda said carefully, feeling the urge to take several steps back just to lessen the burn of the woman’s gaze upon her. Yet she knew that if she did so, the lady would likely smell it as weakness, and she might be even more inclined to strike a blow. Instead of moving, Matilda stood her ground, forcing herself to meet Lady Florentia’s gaze.
“Oh, really? Please, Miss Percival, do not lie to me as I have come here out of the kindness of my heart simply to warn you,” Lady Florentia announced, looking at Matilda with and stern and yet smug smile.
Matilda’s skin crawled at the woman’s words and she had to stop herself from automatically asking what she could possibly mean. Holding her tongue for a few moments, she hoped that her lack of instantly reaction would work in her favour.
“As I said before, Lady Florentia, I am unsure as to what you mean,” she said carefully and calmly, “What exactly have you come to warn me of?”
The woman’s face spread into a striking smile that made Matilda’s skin grow cold. Her insides twisted and she had to bite the inside of her lip to stop herself from snapping something she might regret.
“I am well aware of your romantic entanglement with the Duke, Miss Percival,” Lady Florentia announced, and Matilda’s breath caught in her throat. She struggled to stop herself from gasping out loud. Hearing the words come from the lips of a woman such as Lady Florentia made he feel sick to her stomach.