The Duke's Marriage Mission (4 page)

He did not blame the Almighty for what had happened to Celia and his son. That had been
his
fault for not protecting his wife from her own impulsive nature. If he had kept her from traveling when she was so close to her confinement, she might not have gone into early labor. She might have survived Kit’s birth and his son would likely have been born healthy.

After all that he did not deserve Divine mercy, yet the Lord had heeded his desperate prayer and spared his infant son. As the parent of an ailing child, Hayden had come to rely more than ever upon the strength of
his
Heavenly Father. Now he lifted a silent prayer for reassurance that he was doing the right thing and inspiration for the proper words to explain his decision.

Kit seemed to attribute his father’s hesitation to a different cause. “Do you think I am not clever enough to learn from Miss Leah? Just because my legs don’t work properly, do you think my mind is weak, as well?”

“Kit, how can you say that?” Hayden groped for his son’s hand. “I think no such thing! It is obvious you are very bright for your age.”

He strove to infuse his words with the force of certainty. If he did not fully succeed, it was only because there had been a time when no one could assure him what his son’s mental capacity might be. Though he would have loved Kit no less, he had been overjoyed for the child’s sake when he began to speak at an early age and otherwise demonstrate that his wits were not impaired.

“You don’t mean that!” Kit pulled his hand away from his father’s and shrank from him in a way that tore at Hayden’s heart. “You think I’m like Elsie who works in the scullery. I hear the servants talk about her. They say she walks with a limp and she’s slow-witted. They laugh about the mistakes she makes.”

Outrage roared through Hayden, setting his face on fire...or so it felt. “No one should laugh at the girl or treat her unkindly. Nor will they under my roof if they wish to remain here, I will see to that! If she cannot walk or reason as well as they, all the more reason they should treat her with kindness.”

He knew how cruel people could be to anyone with a weakness. He never wanted his son hurt by that kind of mockery. He would speak to Gibson at once and make certain his instructions were clear. “But Elsie’s troubles have nothing to do with my reluctance to have Miss Shaw as your governess.”

“What is it, then?” Kit sounded as if he doubted his father would tell him the truth. “Don’t you like her?”

“Not especially.” The words rose to Hayden’s lips by a kind of defensive instinct he did not fully understand. Yet they tingled upon his tongue with a sour tang of untruth. The fact was he found Leah Shaw far too engaging, when she was not challenging his judgment. “What I mean is, I am not certain she is the right sort of person to have in charge of you. She lacks the proper sense of caution, for one thing.”

He could not afford any partiality toward a person who opposed his manner of raising his son. He knew Miss Shaw meant well, as did his sister. They simply could not understand how much Kit meant to him. Not having children of their own, they had never experienced how a tiny hand could hold a parent’s heart or how much stronger that bond grew the more a child depended upon its parent.

In spite of all that, Hayden could not entirely disregard the things Leah Shaw had said. Was Kit’s safe, quiet life a kind of imprisonment?

“I don’t care!” The child’s defiant tone troubled Hayden. “I like Miss Leah and I want her to stay. She makes me smile and forget I don’t feel well.”

The lady had made
him
forget his troubles, too, Hayden was forced to admit. Even when they argued it had made him feel more truly alive than he had in quite some time.

But how could he allow her into his home and into his son’s life? Until now he had been able to control Kit’s small world to make it a place of comfort, safety and acceptance. Leah Shaw would be a disruptive influence. Already she had introduced an element of dangerous discontent into Kit’s relationship with him that might smolder into outright rebellion if he did not quench it at once.

“Miss Shaw came to Renforth by mistake.” He set about patiently trying to explain to Kit how his Aunt Althea had hired the lady without consulting him.

When he reminded his son of the harm she could have caused by carrying him to the window, Kit refused to listen. “Even if I fell and got hurt it would have been worth it to see the grass and the flowers and move about out of bed!”

The last words came out in a sob, which set him coughing. It chilled Hayden to the depths of his heart to see his son’s thin shoulders heave beneath his nightshirt. Leah Shaw had caused this, he fumed as he strove to quiet the child.

He rejected the cruel irony that she might be the only remedy.

“Hush, now, hush.” He stroked Kit’s dark hair. “Perhaps I can speak to Miss Shaw to see if she would be willing to stay for a little while.”

The son’s coughing began to ease. “Do you...promise?”

He’d only meant to divert the child as he had so often before, but what could he say that would not provoke a worse coughing fit? “I promise, though I would not be surprised if she refuses. I am not certain she thinks any better of me than I do of her.”

Kit immediately began to breathe easier. His face lit up with the brightest smile Hayden had seen from him in a very long time.

“She will stay. I know she will,” the boy announced with happy certainty his father did not share.

* * *

She had always preferred temporary positions to longer ones, Leah reflected the next morning as she drove away from Renforth Abbey. But staying less than twenty-four hours was by far her shortest.

It could also have been her most lucrative position yet, if she had accepted the duke’s offer. Since it had been clear nothing she said would change his mind about hiring her, why could she not have saved her breath and taken what he had been prepared to give her?

“I do
not
regret rejecting his insulting offer!” she muttered out loud, the better to convince herself.

She hoped her refusal had convinced the duke she was not speaking from motives of self-interest. She truly believed Kit needed someone to teach him, to amuse him and to advocate for him with his overprotective father. The boy needed someone who would treat him as a
child
rather than an object of pity.

Peering out the carriage window, Leah took her final glimpse of Renforth Abbey and sent a dark scowl in the direction of the new range. Was His Grace standing at one of the windows this very moment, watching with an air of gloating triumph as his carriage whisked her out of his son’s life?

Where would she go once she reached the village? Leah wondered as the trees closed in on either side of the lane, blocking any further view of the great house. She knew any of her friends would be happy to extend her their hospitality until she found a new position. But she hated to impose on them. Hannah and Lord Hawkehurst would still be on their honeymoon. Marian would be occupied with her precious baby while Rebecca and Grace were both expecting. Besides, Leah feared they would try to persuade her to change her mind about helping Evangeline set up their school.

It would be better if she went to London and found temporary lodgings. From there she could write to her previous employers, inquiring if they knew of a family looking for a governess. All that would take time, though—time with no money coming in, only bleeding out of her savings, pushing her travel plans further and further into the future. For a moment Leah’s natural optimism deserted her. She leaned back in the handsomely upholstered seat in the duke’s fine carriage and heaved a sigh.

But no sooner had it left her lips than she heard the muted thunder of galloping hooves and caught a fleeting glimpse of a horseman overtaking the carriage. Immediately, the vehicle began to slow and finally came to a halt. Leah was about to open the carriage door to ask what was going on when it flew open and the Duke of Northam climbed in.

The poor man was the picture of exhaustion. In spite of her annoyance with him, Leah could not stifle a pang of sympathy. His eyes were bloodshot, and the dusky smudges beneath them darker than yesterday. His face was unshaven, the dark stubble further accentuating his pallor. Strangely, it made him more appealing rather than less.

“Your Grace.” Instinctively she reached toward him, fearing he might collapse at any moment. “What are you doing here? Whatever is the matter?”

The duke avoided her outstretched hand and hurled himself onto the seat opposite her with a sigh that echoed her recent one. “
You
are the matter, Miss Shaw. You have filled my son’s head with the notion of having a governess and he will not rest until I persuade you to return to Renforth Abbey. I have been up half the night with him, only to fall asleep while you prepared to leave.”

He looked as if he could sleep for a solid week without relieving his bone-deep weariness. Mr. Gibson had claimed the duke spent nearly every waking hour with his son. Did he also sit up with the child at night when he was ill or fretful? His present appearance suggested so. Leah had never met a father whose devotion ran so deep.

“Name your price,” the duke demanded in a breathless voice as if he had chased the carriage down on foot. “And I will double it.”

Double whatever sum she named? Leah’s cherished dreams of travel and adventure, which had seemed shattered only moments ago, suddenly glittered brighter than ever. “You truly want me to take charge of your son?”

“Of course not!” His Grace flared up. “There is nothing I want less. But Kit wants it and I dare not refuse this fancy of his no matter how little I like the idea. So tell me your terms of employment and I will tell you my conditions.”

His hostility to the notion of having her as Kit’s governess stung Leah harder than she expected.

“I believe we should do it the other way around.” She crossed her arms in front of her. “
First
you tell me your conditions then I shall decide what amount of compensation I require to comply with them.”

The duke scowled only to have his forbidding expression spoiled by a wide yawn.

“Very well,” he agreed once it had passed. “For my son’s protection I must set firm limits on what you can and cannot do with him. No more cavorting around pretending to be his horse. Kit will remain safely in his bed. You may work with him for one hour in the morning and another in the afternoon. You will cease at once if he seems tired or unwell. You will not stir up discontent with his situation or the precautions I must take for his safety.”

Leah’s spirits sank. If she accepted the conditions His Grace demanded, she would never be able to help Kit break out of his stifling prison. Instead,
she
would end up bound hand and foot by the duke’s rigid limits.

“In that case, sir,” she replied, “I fear there is no salary I could name that would render such a situation tolerable to me. I am sorry you have gone to so much trouble to hire me back, but I must decline. I could not teach under such conditions.”

She was taking a risk, she knew, in rejecting the duke’s offer. Perhaps that had been his aim, to present her with conditions she would be forced to refuse. Then he could place the blame for Kit’s disappointment on her. But if the duke truly was prepared to go to any lengths to insure his child’s wellbeing, he would be obliged to compromise.

Hostile silence bristled between them as His Grace considered her refusal and his response.

What could he be thinking? Was he weighing the danger he feared she might pose to Kit against the torment of more sleepless nights trying to comfort a disappointed child? Or had some part of him begun to recognize the consequences his excessive protectiveness might have upon his son?

“Tell me then, Miss Shaw, under what conditions
would
you be prepared to accept a position as my son’s governess?” A glint of steely determination in his tired eyes warned Leah against pressing too far with her demands.

“What about this?” she proposed. “I will do my utmost to avoid anything that might bring harm to your son. In return, you must promise not to interfere with my methods of teaching. That is a reasonable compromise, surely?”

The earl’s brow creased in a dubious frown. Or perhaps it was only a look of deep thought.

“And your salary demands?” he asked, giving her hope that he meant to agree.

“I make no demands.” She strove not to take offense at the way he had phrased his question. If she were as weary as he appeared, she might be hard-pressed to maintain proper civility. “I ask only that you honor the terms I accepted from your sister.”

“Very well, then.” The duke thrust out his hand. “We have a bargain.”

Leah reached out to grasp his hand only to hesitate at the last moment. “There is one more matter we should settle.”

“What is that?” His Grace sounded suspicious of this last-minute provision.

“It is something your sister agreed to when she engaged my services. I mentioned it earlier, but I want to be certain you understand. It is not my practice to stay in one position for more than a year. When the time comes for me to leave, I will help you secure a replacement. Would that be agreeable to you?”