Barbara’s eyes flickered. She leaned forward and said quietly, “She is the governess, Dominic.”
He inclined his head. “Miss Gordon, one of Lady Winthrop’s maids shall show you below stairs. We will be leaving for my townhome this evening. I shall arrange a carriage to take you there sooner so that you might prepare a schoolroom.”
A maid appeared and, without words, the two left. Barbara linked her arm to Dominic’s and led him toward the parlor. “I have recently acquired a barouche. It is quite comfortable and charming. Louise, would you enjoy a ride after some refreshments? There is much to see. All the ladies in their finery shall be out.”
“That sounds interesting,” his niece said wanly. A perplexed air hung about her, as though she could not process that Henrietta was indeed of a different class than her family. His jaw clenched. Never had he paid an overt amount of attention to how the servantry was treated, but he found that Barbara’s dismissal of Henrietta irritated him.
Barbara tugged on his arm, slowing their walk until they stopped outside the parlor. Louise had already gone in to investigate. “Do you have feelings for the governess?”
Startled, Dominic pulled his arm from hers.
“Don’t look so put out,” she said with censure. “You have behaved beyond the pale in the past. I do not need to remind you of your antics, I’m sure. I have no idea why Edmund left you in charge of Louise. She needs stability. Propriety. What do you know of this Miss Gordon?”
“I know that she is highly educated and provides Louise with all that she needs. Stay out of this, Barbara.”
She harrumphed, sounding like a dowager rather than a twenty-four-year-old viscountess. “It is my duty to make sure all is as it should be. Do not think I won’t consult a higher authority, should you prove unfit.”
“Is this because you have not provided an heir?”
Barbara gasped, looking quickly about to make sure no one had heard his reference. “That has nothing to do with it.” But two bright spots of color stained her cheeks, and Dominic knew he was right.
“Everything will be fine,” he said. But her threat hung over him the rest of the day. When he stopped paying Old John, she would discover the truth. If her husband agreed that he was not a fit guardian, then Dominic was in trouble.
Thankfully he had Henrietta as a governess for a little while.
But he would need to make plans, and quickly, before Louise’s life was forced into another, unwelcome change.
Chapter Sixteen
Henrietta enjoyed teasing Dominic about being a dandy, but quite unexpectedly she discovered that he was not truly one.
Friday started out regularly enough for a governess, she supposed. Ignored by the staff. Left to her own devices. Which suited her perfectly.
She planned lessons in the morning because Dominic did not wake up until noon, and then he took Louise out, leaving Henrietta to explore London on her own.
After quite a bit of inquiry, in which she discovered that most servants did not like to read, she found a wonderful little shop in Covent Garden on Tavistock Street filled with book lovers. Though the store did not have any medical texts about epilepsy, the owner directed her to a few gentlemen who specialized in that sort of knowledge.
She returned to Dominic’s house with two books and a clearer understanding of London’s streets. The maid she’d brought along was only too glad to be home and disappeared immediately. And so it was that Dominic found her in the library that afternoon, bent over an especially interesting commentary on surgical practices throughout the world.
“Reading about rogues and maidens in distress?” He settled in the chair across from her, his cologne a distracting scent.
Sighing, she looked up from her studies. “If you are referring to those novels in which the heroine always needs rescuing, I do not indulge in that drivel. I am, in fact, trying to find out more about your epi—” She cut herself off as he held up a finger, signaling to keep silent.
“Secrets should not be spoken aloud,” he said, but his eyes were sparkling.
She closed the book. He evidently was in one of his lighthearted teasing moods, which for some unfathomable reason made her feel more lighthearted, too. Even though she’d just been reading a most gruesome account of a surgeon removing the wrong leg because he had not looked beneath the sheet before using the saw.
“Is Louise available for lessons? She has not mastered her reading.”
“My spitfire of a niece is shopping with Barbara today. As for tonight, there is a dinner party. Barbara had a cancellation and has asked that you fill in to keep our numbers even.” He held up a finger. “Now, now, don’t shake your head at me.”
“I have nothing to wear.”
“Barbara has already taken care of that. It’s simply to keep the numbers even. You eat, converse and then it will be over.”
Henrietta pressed her lips together, contemplating. She knew that it was not uncommon for a hostess to seek evenly numbered guests, but she did not have to like it. Furthermore, to tell him no would be to discredit him in front of his sister.
She could not possibly do such a thing.
And that was how she discovered the fashion trend of wearing elaborate and expensive clothing inspired by Beau Brummell, one of London’s most expensively dressed men and arbiter of all things stylish.
Lady Winthrop had sat her between an elderly man with alert eyes and a soft-faced man with a cravat so snowy white and impeccable that she felt she must excuse Dominic for his own cravat sensitivities. Henrietta promptly decided that she’d try to engage the older man in conversation. Style, after all, was not her forte.
* * *
During the second round of food, the dandy talked to
