“Of course!” Toby piped up. “Only …” He frowned. “We haven’t seen much of him since that night that he spoke to you. He has been the one to begin working on the building, but we haven’t seen him.”
“Then do not worry about it,” she assured him. “He is a rather busy man. All that matters is that he is thinking of you, of this place. Yes?”
There was an answering chorus of agreement, and she smiled, beginning to hand out the usual slates and chalks. One by one, the children were equipped, and she thought of the lesson she had already planned. At the time, she had thought she could run it by the duke at their “first meeting” at Hyde Park that had been thwarted, but now she was glad she had not been able to.
He did not need to interfere with her lessons.
They werehers,and he did not know the children like she did.
Even as she launched into her lesson in mathematics this time, leaving behind the fictional storytelling of teaching the children the ways of science, the Duke of Fairmont remained on her mind. There were even times she swore she could hear his low laugh in her ear as she messed up several equations.
Mathematics has never been my strong point,she answered that low laugh in her head, but she knew he was not there, even as her eyes kept straying to the door.
Eventually, she concluded her lesson, with the children sated and happy, sleepy and full of knowledge, so Elinor took her leave after receiving echoedGoodnight, Miss Elinor, our governess, and she smiled on her way out of Fielding House.
Sneaking back to Morland House was a nervous affair, but the townhouse remained silent, and Elinor returned to her bedroom without a hitch, her breath labored from the panic of being caught once more.
Yet she fell into a deep slumber, tired and happy with the night’s lessons.
Still, the absence of the Duke of Fairmont, strangely, was felt.
Chapter Eight
“Look who’s arrived. The bespectacled shrublet.”
After not having been to a ball for quite some time, Elinor felt overwhelmed as she stepped into Lord and Lady Hale’s ballroom, finding herself face-to-face with a sea of witnesses and whispers she ought to have expected but had not.
She was so used to being called awallflower,unimportant, inconspicuous, that she did not expect the curious glances in her direction.
For once, she was not wearing a simple day gown. Her stepmother had actually endowed her with a beautiful new one, likely because the duke himself had asked for Elinor’s presence. The fear over shame was greater than her disliking of Elinor, so she had equipped her sufficiently.
Yet, as grateful as Elinor was, she could not help but think of the duke’s comment about disliking all the gaudily-dressed ladieswho preened themselves as though it made up for a lack of personality.
He is getting to know me better than that,she assured herself as she descended the main staircase into the ballroom alongside her stepmother and stepsisters.He knows me beyond a frilly, fancy gown. He will understand.
And then she had to question herself as to why she even cared.
Her arm was suddenly grasped, and she looked at Lady Morland, who regarded her with the particular pity that Elinor disliked being in receipt of.
“Elinor, I will be honest with you, I do not know how you have managed to captivate His Grace’s attention, when it ought to have been Belinda who did, but it seems His Grace is not currently present. I cannot help wondering if he has come to his senses.”
“He simply is late,” Elinor said.
“Regardless.” her stepmother’s grip tightened. “I would like you to give Belinda more room to speak if he does arrive. Either of my daughters are worthy of the Duke of Fairmont.”
Of course, Elinor already knew that, and her cheeks flushed in humiliation.
“Certainly,” she answered.
“Mama, you are not being very nice to Elinor,” Joanna said quietly. “She has every right to be in this ballroom, too.”
Up ahead, Belinda had already delved into the crowd, slotting herself between a group of ladies. She leaned in to whisper to one of them, and a moment later, four pairs of eyes lifted to Elinor, giggles too far away to hear, but easy to read.
Elinor turned her face away, searching the crowd.
He would not do this to her, surely. He would not invite her to a ball, only to not turn up himself, when she had told him well enough how her stepfamily felt about her being present.
Her stepmother steered her forward. “If you are to be here then you will make an effort. You will not shame me by remaining a wallflower. Not tonight.”