Page 18 of The Colonel's Ungovernable Governess
“I wanted to feed the ducks,” Victoria whined.
“Yet, you require a proper saddle if you are to go riding with your uncle,” Miss Lambert reasoned.
“May we visit the ducklings when we return?” the child asked.
Miss Lambert looked to him for approval. “Such would be your uncle’s decision. Perhaps Mrs. Darcy might also bring Master Bennet down before the child’s and your bedtimes.”
The children looked to him. “If all is well, I imagine a visit with the ducklings can be arranged.”
Miss Lambert smiled knowingly, and Edward felt an unexplainable urge to pull her into his arms and kiss the smirk from her lips. She was far too pretty to be a governess. If she was in a different household, the master would be claiming her innocence before a flipped coin could hit the ground. At least his brother Roland would not treat the woman thusly, but could Edward say the same of his own honor? This was absurd! Extremely intolerable! “Damnation!” he groaned.
“Pardon . . . sir?” Vincent asked.
Miss Lambert bit her lip to keep from bursting into laughter. She was obviously aware of his misery. “Nothing important,” he told the child. “I just recalled another task I must perform in Lord Lindale’s absence.” He turned to the woman. “Might I ask you to attend me in my brother’s study this afternoon, Miss Lambert? Before we go forward, we should speak of responsibilities and amenities. We must come to an agreement on specifics before you are installed in an official capacity at William’s Wood.”
* * *
Jocelyn knew her way around men. She was, most assuredly, not a loose woman, but she was aware of the effect of her countenance on even the most hardened character. She had, in fact, been pleasantly surprised to realize her appearance had had no effect upon Mr. Darcy, but it had definitely awakened something in the colonel’s hard veneer. She enjoyed a challenge. Even so, she managed a bit of decorum. “Gladly done, sir.”
Victoria looked off to where Miss Lambert walked away, without even a “by your leave.” The child said, “She is quite perfect, Uncle Edward. Please say Miss Lambert might stay with us.”
“I cannot . . .” he began, but the child’s protruding lip had Edward swallowing his words. “I cannot,” he started over, “promise until I speak to the lady regarding ‘responsibilities’ and ‘amenities’ and so forth, just as I said to her.”
“She . . . does not . . . think me . . . dumb,” the boy said in defense of both the lady and himself.
“She knows things that Mrs. Peyton said I was too young to learn, but Miss Lambert showed me how to do my needlework and something on how to play the pianoforte and to dance. She truly is quite perfect for us,” Victoria said with a lift of her chin in challenge, while Edward considered the woman might be his downfall, for, uncharacteristically, instead of summarizing what the children had shared, he was musing over what he might teach the lady.
Chapter Eight
Edward came into the small dining hall to oversee the evening service, but Mrs. Darcy and Miss Lambert were already within. Elizabeth looked up with his entrance. “I apologize, Colonel, I assumed you would wish me to address the meal service.”
“I hold no objection,” he told the woman. “You are more accustomed to such details than am I.” He smiled upon the woman. “Now, if you wish for the servants and cottagers to attack the neighboring estate, I am your man.”
Darcy entered the room at that moment. “Do not challenge my wife unless you wish to lose, Cousin. If a bet is to be made, I would take Elizabeth’s side, even in a battle between estates. Mrs. Darcy possesses the knack of convincing a dying man to rise and walk again or a beleaguered group of tenants to wield their pitchforks as if they are capable of defeating a man with a cannon.”
“Thank you for the affirmation, sir.” Mrs. Darcy rose up on her toes to buss Darcy’s cheek with a quick kiss, and a bit of envy claimed Edward heart. Since his father’s order to marry, Edward had begun to study all his married acquaintances’ interactions. The Darcys were like no other pair, but were the one he would most wish to emulate.
“And the children?” Edward asked. “Should we send someone to fetch them?”
“They shall appear in three minutes,” Miss Lambert said casually, as she assisted the footman in pouring tea.
“And how can you know such with confidence?” Edward demanded.
The woman lifted her chin as if to accept his challenge. “I have explained to Lord Vincent and Lady Victoria that the world will judge them negatively if they are late or they speak from turn.”
“And they will not become involved in some other activity and forget?” he asked in skepticism. However, a noise in the hall said Miss Lambert was correct.
“The lady prevails, Cousin,” Darcy taunted as he held a chair for his wife and then Miss Lambert.
“We are not late,” Lady Victoria announced while a footman assisted her to a chair beside Miss Lambert.
“You were prompt, and being such is exemplary,” the lady said with a gentle smile and a sweet pat on the child’s knee, “but it is best not to announce your arrival. At most events, such is the butler’s domain, is it not, Mr. Torrence?”
“Yes, miss.” The man smiled and blushed at the same time.
“Told you,” Lord Vincent reprimanded in the manner of all children.
Before more could be said, Edward instructed, “You may serve, Mr. Torrence.”
