He chuckled. “You seem to have done well enough for yourself,” he said, “though you might have come home, Isabella. There was no need to lower yourself to become a governess. His grace seems pleased with your services, though. And so he should be, if he was willing to pay his man to sit at a certain employment agency for four days before he found a suitable candidate.”
She looked at him for the first time. He was still smiling.
“You are his mistress?” he said. “You looked high indeed, Isabella.”
“I am his daughter’s governess,” she said. “Or was. I am your prisoner now, I suppose.”
“And yet,” he said, “it would break my heart to see that lovely neck with a rope about it, Isabella. And perhaps it is true and you misunderstood the situation and thought self-defense necessary. Who am I to judge your motives? Perhaps it was an unfortunate accident after all.”
“What are you saying?” She had stopped walking and stood looking directly at him.
“The simple truth,” he said. “I want to give you the benefit of the doubt if I possibly can. You know I love you, Isabella.”
“I could play this game out to the end,” she said. “But I believe I understand you very well, Matthew. You will agree that Hobson’s death was an accident if I consent to be your mistress. Am I right?”
He held his arms out to his sides. “Why the harsh tones? Do you see a pistol about me?” he asked. “Chains? Ropes? Do you see a constable or guard lurking at my shoulder? Do you think I have searched for you all this time just in order to see you executed? Do you know me so little, Isabella?”
“Speak plainly with me,” she said. “For once in your life, Matthew, speak plainly. If I refuse to be your mistress, what then? Give me a straight answer.”
“Isabella,” he said, “I am a guest here. I came with an old friend of mine, Lord Thomas Kent, to spend a few weeks on an estate I have always wished to visit. It is quite splendid, is it not? You are a governess here—a happy coincidence. And of course we must speak of that unhappy death, whose mystery still has not been cleared up because you fled immediately after it. But there is no need to say everything that needs to be said between us at this very moment, is there? You are not going anywhere for the next few weeks, and neither am I.”
“No,” she said. “I did not think you would be persuaded to speak plainly. But I understand you very well for all that. I have, after all, known you for much of my life. I am to live with a threat hanging over my head. You will dangle me like a puppet on a string.”
“You have heard, I suppose,” he said, “that the Reverend Booth was, ah, disappointed in you? I believe it is the elder Miss Hailsham who is currently the fortunate recipient of his smiles.”
Daniel! Fleur lifted her chin.
“When we leave eventually, Isabella,” he said, “I think it would be as well to do so without airing our dirty linen, so to speak, before the duke and duchess, wouldn’t you agree? And I am quite sure that you would not wish to cause his grace unnecessary disappointment when you leave by raising false hopes in the intervening weeks, would you? You will, of course, be coming home, where you belong.”
“Don’t worry, Matthew,” she said, “there is no affair to put an end to.”
He smiled. “He makes a habit of strolling the back lawns in the early morning, then?” he said.
Fleur turned her head sharply to find that indeed his grace was walking toward them.
“Good morning,” Lord Brocklehurst called. “I find that your park has as magnificent prospects at the back of the house as before it.”
His grace was carrying a cloak over one arm. He shook it out and set it about Fleur’s shoulders without a word to her.
“My grandfather hired the best of landscape gardeners,” he said. “I trust you had a good sleep, Brocklehurst?”
“Indeed, yes, I thank you,” the other said. “And as you must have guessed, your grace, my feeling of last evening was quite correct. Miss Hamilton and I have a slight acquaintance and have been inquiring into the health of each other’s relatives.”
“Miss Hamilton,” his grace said, turning to her, “I will be giving Pamela her first riding lesson this morning directly after breakfast. You will bring her to the stables, if you please. You are dismissed for now.”
“Yes, your grace.” She curtsied without looking at either him or Matthew and turned to hurry back to the house.
There was to be some reprieve, then. It was not to be quite as bad as she had feared all night, and for two months before that. He was prepared to give her her freedom in exchange for what he had wanted for three years past. Except that in the past she had been able to treat his attentions with scorn. Now he must feel that he had a hold on her.