Page 61 of The Secret Life of the Elusive Governess
As she walked down the walkway, she was filled with a mixture of awe at how Moses made sure to keep the area free of garbage and slop. It was a rare occurrence to have clean streets in a town.
The walkway gradually merged from clean to a filthy one of discarded slop, littered pieces of lumber, dirty rags, and various trash.A cat, or possibly an inordinately large rat, darted across the street into a bundle of fruit peelings at the other side of the road. She jumped and hurried down the street.
She was about to cross by an alley when she heard the heavy thuds of footsteps behind her. Caroline bowed her head and kept walking, her steps picking up to a hurried pace.
“Whoa there, Dodsey—” a nasty voice said, as her arm was held and she was dragged backwards, “We’ll be having a word with ye.”
* * *
“Lavinia?”
When Moses got no reply, the Duke frowned and entered the sitting room to find it empty. His frown deepened.Where is Lavinia?
And then, he remembered that she had an appointment with the physician that morning. Moses had offered to have the doctor come to her instead of she going to him, but Lavinia had insisted on going, “Some fresh air will do me good, Moses.”
It was rather curious, though, how she had not returned yet. Resting on her chaise-lounge was a book with its poor spine bent in half, turned face down.
Rolling his eyes, Moses took up the book, closed it, then rested it on the table there. Lying on another part of the table was a sketchbook, one that Moses did not recall seeing Lavinia with, as she had once told him that she was a poor artist.
Plucking the book up, he opened it and felt his heart constrict in his chest. He was staring at…himself. The black and white profile of his face, one that he stared at every day in the mirror, was so carefully defined that Moses had no doubt who had drawn it.
Caroline—this was his love’s work.But what on earth is it doing here?
Taking a seat, Moses slowly flipped the pages and marveled at how Caroline had depicted him. He did not know that he had as many emotions as her drawings presented, but he saw them, nevertheless. He saw happy, pensive, grave, worried and all the emotions that rested between. Her masterful strokes revealed part of himself he did not know.
His fingers slid under the pages and he felt the deep pencil marks that told him she had run her pencil over the lines many, many times. Carefully…lovingly.
“My God,” Moses remarked.
He saw himself perched on the back of Pegasus with his gloved hand grasping the reins, his head tilted back against the sunlight, his eyes staring out at the land before him with a princely stare.
His hands framed a fist under his chin as he wondered how this had come to be in Lavinia’s sitting room.
Surely, this is private work.
Turning the pages from the front, Moses’s eyes lit on a rare colored picture, and marked a blue waistcoat that had been destroyed over nineteen months ago, and nearly dropped the book.
Two years…my God, she has been in love with me for two years.
“Moses?”
Lavinia’s voice snapped him out of his reverie and he instantly shut the sketchbook closed. The Duchess was removing her coat and hat while looking at him with a mildly curious gaze.
He stood and clasped the book in his hand. “Ah, Lavinia, how was the visit?”
She still looked at him suspiciously but turned away and shrugged, “Nothing much to report. The physician is glad about my progress, and has told me that in as many words.”
Perching on the edge of a chair, she tugged off her shoes and massaged her stocking-clad feet. “What is that you’re holding?”
“Oh, this?” Moses said calmly, “Nothing worth your attention. I am glad to hear of your progress. If you will excuse me, I have to get back to my study now. I believe Mrs. Willow has made an excellent tray of blueberry tarts, shall I have her send some up for you?”
“That would be divine, thank you,” Lavinia replied while flexing her toes.
Nodding, Moses left the room, exceedingly happy that his wife had not seen the sketchbook, but that gave him another, deeper, problem to solve.
Who had gone into Caroline’s room?
* * *
