Read Online The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan - Free Book Online Page B

back down now is because I refuse to let my child drown in silence.”
    “You should have told me.”
    “What would it have changed?”
    Everything. There was a counterpoint to his father’s vicious words. It was neither loud nor insistent, but sometimes when he closed his eyes, he could remember his mother singing.
    “At least I wouldn’t have made you stand all day, four days running,” he shot back. “I’d have understood that when you asked for recognition, you were not speaking solely about revenge. Tell me, Miss Barton, and tell me plainly. What is it you want?”
    “I want funds enough for the future.”
    “You’re looking for perpetual support?”
    “No. That farm I told you about—I want to grow lavender, make soaps, and take them to market.”
    He inclined his head.
    “I want my child to be able to overcome the circumstances of his birth. If he is to be a duke’s son, he should have some advantages. I want him to go to Eton. Or, if she’s a girl, to have a Season. Clermont is the father. He owes his child some sort of future, and I will not go away until it’s secured.”
    Hugo exhaled and tried to imagine the duke taking responsibility. He tried to imagine the duchess understanding. No use; it would never happen.
    He tried to imagine himself driving Serena away—but that was an even more futile prospect. He was trapped between an improbability and an unlikelihood.
    He frowned. “I’ll need to look into a few things,” he said. “But we’ll talk tomorrow—let us say at eleven in the morning. And this time I mean it. No threats—not from either of us. This is a problem.”
    He reached out and set his hand over hers on the walking stick. She raised her eyes to his, wide and luminous.
    “I solve problems,” he said.
    F REDDY HAD BEEN IN BED when Serena arrived last evening; she was still sleeping when Serena awoke, early in the morning.
    Serena was just slipping into her shoes in the entry when a querulous note sounded behind her.
    “Serena? Are you sneaking out already? Where were you so late last night?”
    Serena’s heart skipped a beat. “Out,” she said.
    “Out doing what?”
    “Out being…out.”
    There sounded the thump of feet hitting the floor, and then Freddy turned the corner. Her countenance was screwed into worried little lines.
    “You arrived in someone’s company,” she said. “I watched you.”
    And she’d thought Freddy asleep. Her sister had likely been too upset to speak. There was no use denying the accusation, though, so Serena simply picked up her cloak.
    “A man. Haven’t men caused you enough trouble?”
    “It wasn’t like that.”
    “Don’t you know how men are? It is always like that with them. Is that how you got in trouble? Walking out with a man after dark?” Freddy grimaced. “You’ve never learned your lesson.”
    “What lesson should I have learned?”
    Freddy straightened and set her hands on her hips. “I scarcely said a word when you flaunted your problems before all of Mayfair. And now I’m being forced to vacate the home I hold dear. I am made homeless, and you are out at all hours of the night cavorting with men.”
    “I wasn’t cavorting. It was the Wolf of Clermont, if you must know. I have to speak with him. And even if it wasn’t, what do you expect me to do? Hide for the rest of my life, because something bad happened to me?”
    Freddy’s lips compressed.
    “If you’re worried about where to stay, I’ve a few leads on rooms. I’ll have us a new place by nightfall. I was just headed out to—”
    As she spoke, Freddy reached down and picked up a pair of slippers. “Us?” she said. “ We won’t have anything.” And then she threw the slippers at Serena.
    They were made of wool and therefore bounced ineffectually off Serena’s forehead. Still, she was aghast. Mild-mannered Freddy, tossing things at her?
    “How dare you?” Freddy said. “How dare you bring me into this?”
    “Freddy—it’s just a place to stay.