The Duke and The Governess (4 page)

The whispers were so bad at one point that she shut herself up in a closet, but fortunately Abigail saw her do it.

‘Where’s Jessica?’ her mother demanded.

Abigail squirmed and then smiled sheepishly. ‘She’s shut herself in that closet.’ She said pointing at a housemaid’s storeroom.

‘Silly girl.’ Lady Helen muttered and walked across to the door, yanked it open and felt pity for her youngest daughter. ‘You can’t hide in here.’ She said firmly, grabbed Jessica by the hand and yanked her out of the cupboard. ‘You just help fuel the gossip if you hide.’ She explained
as s
he carefully stroked her linen
handkerchief over her
daughter’s cheek to remove her tears. ‘You must hold your head up high and stare the old biddies out.’ She smiled softly. ‘You know you didn’t do anything wrong, and they’re not actually disparaging you, only the Duke. They feel he was out of order dancing with a debutante.’ She pulled Jessica into her arms and hugged her fiercely. ‘I’m very proud of you. It is not every girl that attracts the attention of a Duke at her first ball. Instead of crying, you should be preening and crowing over your sister’s.’

‘I’m sorry, mama. But I really liked him. He said he had known papa for years and he didn’t tell me he was a Duke only that his name was John Farrington.’ A huge si
gh gusted from her and Helen led her back to her seat between her sisters. ‘

‘Now, sit yourself down and hold your head up high.’ Helen said and went back to her husband.

The ballroom started emptying at about two o’clock and Wilbur Gordon made sure his wife and daughters were well wrapped in their cloaks as they waited for his huge Landau to arrive. Jessica shivered as the Duke’s party stepped out beside them.

‘Mr. Gordon
, it was good that you brought all of your daughters for a change.’ John Farrington said from beside Jessica. He smiled down at her. ‘I especially enjoyed dancing with Miss Jessica.’ He gently took her hand where it was clutching the front of her cloak and carefully kissed the backs of her fingers. ‘Perhaps you will favour me with a dance at your next ball?’

‘Your Grace, it was an honour!’ Wilbur Gordon said happily, ecstatic at the Duke’s attention.

John Farrington smiled down into the perfect innocent face and took his leave, following his obnoxious sister and mother to the
ducal
carriage as it drew up at the curb.

All through the carriage ride and after they reached home, Jessica was ribbed and plagued by her siblings over dancing with a Duke. In the end she had run upstairs and rushed to be in bed when Cecily arrived.
It was hard to pretend sleep, but she remained quiet and eventually Cecily dropped off to sleep.

Jessica was thrilled to have danced with a Duke, but realised that it wouldn’t go anywhere. Every time the Duke had held her hand or looked in her eyes her heart had skipped a beat
. The arrival of his sister only emphasized how disparate their existences were and Jessica felt it keenly, as the
ton
gossiped about the handsome Duke of
Warwick
. Things became worse the next day, after church, when her brother Robert teased her so much and called her “Your Grace”, making her so angry she slapped his face before running home alone to cry in her room.

Chapter Two

Warwickshire,
February
,
1808

The Duke of
Warwick
stood beside the hole in the ground and felt nothing
. His hat spilled water
as he watched the fine casket being lowered
into the watery grave
. His mother and sister were sobbing softly into their handkerchiefs and able to show their grief, but he neither could nor wanted to show grief for a woman he actually hated
, all he felt was relief
.
The sexton offered the Duke a shovel of earth as the vicar intoned the interment prayer.

‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust....’ he slowly reached for a handful of earth, ‘.....We consign the body of the dearly beloved Victoria Farrington into God’s hands.’ And the Duke dropped the sod onto the wet casket with a bang, making the gathered mourners jump in surprise. ‘Lord, may you keep her by your side. Amen.’ The Vicar finished. He went to the Duke and offered his hand and John Farrington looked down on his muddy fingers.

‘Maybe I should wash my hand first.’ He murmured and the vicar muttered some reply and left him standing over the deep excavation in the grave yard. The mourners turned towards the lynchgate
, huddled under their umbrellas
and made a bedraggled
procession back to the carriages.

‘It wasn’t your fault, John.’ Victoria’s brother Edward Asquith murmured beside him
, as he stood quietly under his umbrella
.
He was very tall, which gave him the appearance of being cadaverous, but he wasn’t a
s
thin as he seemed.
He glanced up at the steel grey sky as the rain fell in stair rods
, his eyes a
lmost a bottle green
.
‘I’ve talked with the best physicians in London and they have all said the same thing, once they haemorrhage there is nothing you
can do.’ He patted his brother-
i
n-
law on the shoulder. ‘At least the child survived.’ Edward stood silently beside John just waiting for the harsh words that he knew would come. Edward knew exactly what a shrew and a bitch Victoria had been.
He glanced at the sexton and his apprentice, waiting patiently for them to go so they could fill the grave in and erect the headstone.

‘The useless bitch couldn’t even give me a son!’ John snapped and the rage and frustration he’d had to deal w
ith since his wedding night three
years previously, burst forth like water from a broken dam. John let out a keening wail, which was misinterpreted by the other mourners as grief and they turned to watch him collapse onto his knees in the mud.
He heard again his mother’s insistence that he marry Victoria, he saw again that she was not Jessica, as she walked down the aisle of the cathedral
. Victoria may have had a certain allure, but she could never have possessed the innocence or the grace of Jessica Gordon. He’d spent the last three years repenting his decision to marry Victoria. Almost from the moment they walked away from the altar, sh
e had become a shrewish wife, especially
after the wedding night, when he had so miserably failed to pe
rform. For a rake of his stature, it was devastating to realise his wife could not arouse him and she tried very hard in the first few weeks, only to leave them both frustrated and angry. Many a night he had sat in his study, thinking of Jessica as his manhood filled his hand and drunk himself into a stupor to avoid seeing Victoria in his chambers and
she had belittled him and attacked his virility at every turn, until in the end
in his drunken state,
he had used the vision of Jessica Gordon to almost rape her and beget the heir he so needed. And that had failed too, as she unerringly produced a girl, before she lost her life.

Edward clutched his shoulder, in compassion, he’d known just what had transpired in their marriage as he and his sister held no secrets
. Victoria had also been very vocal about it to her friends. Edward wondered if John would take up his rakish behaviour again, now that the bane of his life was gone.

‘Poor John,’ his mother muttered
, as she watched him sobbing over the open grave
. ‘We must start straight away getting him back into Town.’
She turned and stepped into the carriage with renewed purpose.

‘If you want my advice mother,’ Verity Farrington said coldly as she climbed into the carriage behind her mother, ‘you’ll keep your nose out this time. John didn’t appreciate you interfering the last time
. He was never enamoured of Victoria
Asquith and you forced the issue due to irrelevant gossip.
’

‘But it was all over the
ton
that she was with child and he was the father!’ Emily Farrington spluttered in outrage.

‘Well you were wrong a
nd you forced him to marry a wo
men whom he could
never love and was only bent on
his title and money!
’ Verity said firmly. ‘I’m four
years wiser now and I advise you to button your lip and leave him to sort out his own life.’

Emily was shocked at t
his verbal attack by her own precious daughter.
‘He needs a mother’s guidance in matters of the heart.’ Emily said pouting. ‘As do you!’

‘John doesn’t need another marriage
. What he needs is light hearted flirtation.’
Verity looked patiently at her mother. ‘
He’ll look for another wife, when his heart scabs over from this marriage, Mother.
’
She sighed at the calculating expression in her mother’s eyes. ‘And don’t both trying to trick me into matrimony. It’s not your place and John will decide where I’m to marry.’

‘But you were so popular in your first year.’ Emily continued to pout and pushed her bottom lip out like a child.

‘Pouting will get you nowhere. I was cut off at the knees by Lady Gordon for committing the ultimate sin and not knowing her daughter. It was my own fault and I have paid the price for my lack of finesse. I hope I’m a much wiser and tolerant person.’

‘You do a splendid job of organising John’s household.’ Emily said, sniffing
disdainfully. ‘Better than
Lady Victoria ever accomplished.’

‘Good, at least I know I can do something useful in this world.’ Verity said with barely veiled asperity.

‘Well, you’ll be helping John with his daughter now?’ Emily said hopefully.

‘No, I won’t be, mother.’ Verity sighed. ‘Not unless John asks me directly. He’s going to need a nanny, as well as the wet nurse I
hired last week
and eventually she will need a governess.’
She was quiet for a moment. ‘Lord Watson has offered for my hand. John is happy with the settlement and I’m trying to decide if I can spend the rest of my life with him.’

‘You should take the offer. Very soon you’ll be twenty five and left on the shelf.’ Emily said firmly. ‘You should have your own life.’

Verity nodded distractedly as she watched her brother approach the coach. The footman opened the door and took the umbrella from Lord Edward’s hand before both gentlemen climbed in the carriage and settled on the seat squabs.

‘John...’ Emily began as the carriage lurched into motion.

‘Be quiet,
mother!’ John spat viciously
, as he wiped the tears from his face and the mud from his hands on his handkerchief
. ‘I don’t want to hear your thoughts on anything today. When we get back to Charlecote Hall you will go to your rooms and stay there!’

Emily sat and looked at her son with her mouth open. Never had she heard John speak so harshly. She tried again, ‘John....?’

‘Enough!
’ He said forcefully
, ignoring the ashen colour of her face
. ‘When I have dispatched the last of the mourners, you and Verity will be leaving for London.
’ He turned his attention to Verity. ‘I have accepted Watson’s proposal so you need to be in London where he can ask you. I assume you are going ahead?’ Verity merely nodded acquiescence. ‘Good. Edward will be returning to town with you as a favour to me.’

‘But...?’ Emily tried again

‘I shall remain here and interview nannies for my daughter and work out my demons.’
John turned his face away as if the subject was closed. The silence was profound.

Edward indolently sprawled on the seat
. ‘Do you want to hear the latest gossip?’ he asked and sniggered, but carried on regardless of his companions.
‘I did hear that Gordon’s youngest is getting marr
ied tomorrow.’ he said
it
jovially to fill the uncomfortable lull.

‘Who is she marrying?’ Verity asked softly, aware that this was a subject she normally avoided.
She had realised years ago that John had a soft spot for the very beautiful Miss Gordon and it was unpredictable what he would do or say where she was concerned.
‘Anyone we know?’

‘
David
Carruthers
, the eldest
son of the Earl of Dean. I understand the yo
ung pup has gone and purchased a commission in
the army. Wellington will have to put up with his antics now, the young jackanapes.’

John studiously kept his face turned to the window, as if the subject were beneath his notice.

Verity flicked her eyes to John and then asked ‘Why is he a jackanapes?’

‘Haven’t you heard the goss
ip? Apparently he got poo
r little Miss Jessica into a compromising position and has been forced to make an honest woman of her. I understand his ship sails from the Pool of London tomorrow evening. I’m sure all his mistresses will cry on the wharf as he sails away.’