Page 73 of The Secret Life of the Elusive Governess
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With his hand in the middle of Caroline’s shoulder blade, the Duke led her out and into the nondescript carriage he had ordered Mr. Collins to get. He could not afford to use the family’s carriage, as it was a well-known one, and to secret her away using it would be the height of stupidity. Even his dress was changed to plain breeches and a dark coat. They needed to be as inconspicuous as possible.
He helped her up into the carriage and then joined her. With the door closed, he reached over and took her cold hands into his. “Caroline, we are alone now, please talk to me.”
Her smile was stiff. “There is nothing to talk about, Moses. My uncle just tried to find a way into my mind, but I have changed the locks. He cannot get to me so easily. Can we just proceed? We are losing time.”
The Duke did not believe her, but he could not force her to tell him anything she did not want to. Wordlessly, Moses reached up and knocked the top of the carriage twice, an unspoken order to go.
“I have a cottage a good distance from here passed down from my grandfather. It is safe enough for you and your companions.” Moses said as they cleared the front gates.
“My companions?”
“Edward agreed to lend me some of his people to stay with you while I come back here and investigate this atrocity. I could not use any of mine as I am sure one of them is in collusion with your uncle.” Moses said, “Edward is faithful, Caroline, he will not put people he does not trust to guard one of my most precious people.”
There was silence in the carriage until she spoke, “No one has called me precious before.”
“But that is what you are to me,” Moses replied just as quietly. “Understand that I must protect you from all who would harm you. My oath still stands. I will protect all who are under my roof.”
A sly smile tugged at Caroline’s lips as she pulled away, “But my dear Sir, I do not believe we are currently under your roof.”
Moses’ eyes narrowed playfully, “We are, as this is my carriage.”
Her nose wrinkled, “What did Her Grace say when you told her you were taking me away?”
The Duke’s eyes clenched at the direct change of topic, “I would rather not say it.”
“Please,” Caroline beseeched, “I know this must be hard for you, but I want to know.”
Blinking his eyes open, Moses sighed and massaged his brow, “After she recovered from hearing that you’re from the peerage, she said, and I repeat ad verbatim, ‘Take her as far from us as possible.’”
The words were a slap in Caroline’s face but she did not show it. After digesting the bitter words, she replied, “I understand, she is just concerned for her family.”
Moses wanted to agree but he could not. Moreover, the sneer that Lavinia had said the words in still rankled. Caroline was looking out the window at the countryside for a long moment before she spoke again.
“Are we going to get my companions from Lord Dalton?”
“No,” the Duke replied soberly. “We have to be strategic about this. We cannot take any chances as we don’t know who or where the spies are. If we do go get them, we might be betraying ourselves and negating the purpose of putting you in hiding. Lord Dalton knows where the cottage is. He will send them after us.”
His words were passionate and the impression was clearly made on Caroline. She tilted her head to the side while a soft silence pervaded the air. A tiny furrow marked Moses’ brow until she said, “We.”
The Duke was a bit mystified. “I do not follow.”
She reached over and took his hand and folded her softer ones over it, “You keep saying ‘we’…and ‘us’.”
“Again,” Moses tried to brush off the heavy air he sensed wrapping around him, “Please, Car—”
“I love you,” Caroline blurted, “All of you. I have loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I just tried to deny it for years, and when I was forced to see it, I was too fearful to admit it. I reasoned that there could never be an ‘us’…or a ‘we’. I held that you were unreachable, unapproachable, a monolith like Zeus on his Olympian throne, so I stayed away. I was alone for so many years that I never thought anyone could pierce the void I was in. There was no one to share my interests, and no one to see past the governess veneer to the person I am, the lonely soul who wanted love just as any other person, so I let the very notion of love slip by me when all I had to do was look harder.”
The only sound that was in the air was the crunch of the carriage wheels over the gravelly road. Moses found his throat so unnaturally dry that not a word could pass it. Instead of even attempting to say anything he reached out and tugged Caroline into his chest. Burying his nose in her hair, with his arms around her, he closed his eyes.
God has finally smiled upon me with this angel.
For miles, no words followed Caroline’s emphatic declaration until noon passed and they came upon their first stop. Mrs. Willow had already packed them enough food to keep them for the first day of the trip but, the second and third day they were going to have to buy food or stop at an inn.
The inns they were going to lodge in for the nights were places Moses had proven to be circumspect. However, even with that in consideration, and even with his disguise, Moses still knew it was going to be thorny to avoid who might recognize him and keep a tattletale from gabbing about the respectable Duke and his apparent mistress.
My reputation can lie in tatters for all I care as long as Caroline is safe.
