Page 3 of The Colonel's Ungovernable Governess
“The gentleman may call, and I shall be congenial, just as you have instructed, but I shall not marry where my heart is not engaged!” Jocelyn declared in stringent tones.
“You shall marry, and you shall marry the gentleman who meets your father’s approval. He will arrange it all,” her mother insisted in calmer tones than Jocelyn expected. Obviously, her parents had returned to England, not because the war made it too dangerous for them to remain in Europe, but rather to marry her off. To be rid of her once and for all. Out of their sight and out of their minds.
“The devil will have his due first,” Jocelyn hissed.
“Such language and sentiments are unbecoming, Jocelyn,” her mother said with her customary calmness. Even when her ladyship was frustrated, Lady Romfield rarely raised her voice, whereas Jocelyn would prefer to conduct a shouting match.
“It is also not becoming for a parent to force her child into an unwelcome marriage.”
“The gentleman comes from a well-placed family, with deep roots in Britain’s history.”
“Why would I care whether the man’s family is exceptional? If I loved him, such would be all that is necessary for our happiness,” Jocelyn said in emphatic tones as she stood quickly. “You are asking me to commit my life to a man I have never met!”
“Yet, you shall meet him. Walk with him. Dance with him. Ride out with him. Talk to him and marry him. He has enough experience to handle your spontaneity. Even curb it.”
“I despise you!” Jocelyn declared as she started for the door.
“Even so, I love you, Jocelyn.”
“This is ridiculous! Take me back to London. I shall apologize to the patronesses, and I shall accept an appropriate offer for my hand,” she said to the door, unable to look upon her mother and not break into tears. “Permit me to know the man. To have some choice in this matter.”
“I suppose the gentleman believes it is time he settled down. Though he knows nothing of you except perhaps your name; yet, I cannot say that with any assurance,” her mother continued ignoring Jocelyn’s grand exit.
“Indeed!” Jocelyn declared. “How flattering!” Her grip on the door’s latch tightened.
“Many successful marriages began this way,” her mother countered.
“As do many marriages where the husband prefers his mistress over his wife,” Jocelyn countered. “I do not choose a marriage of convenience!”
“I fear you have few options. This is the wish of both your mother and your father,” her ladyship declared in exacting tones. “I know you believe your parents are cruel. However, we believe the gentleman will treat you kindly, and you will be part of one of the most powerful families in all of Britain. Your husband will treat you with respect and with gentleness.”
Jocelyn felt the tears rushing to her eyes. “I cannot do this! I always knew you could not love me as you do Andrew, but I never thought you would sell me to a complete stranger, simply to claim an aristocratic connection!” With that, Jocelyn jerked the door open and fled.
Chapter Two
For the next three days, Jocelyn avoided her mother, taking her meals in her quarters and spending long hours riding out across the estate, visiting with the tenants, taking a tour of the new mill, and other such activities. She quickly had approved with what she observed. Even so, Jocelyn had ignored the stable hand who had obviously been instructed to follow her about and report back to Lady Romfield of Jocelyn’s activities.
Her mother thought Jocelyn might run away, and her ladyship had been correct. Jocelyn did not know where she might go nor how she would manage once she made her escape, but she meant to leave. She would not permit her parents to force her into an undesirable marriage.
On the fourth day of her standoff with her mother, Jocelyn overheard her ladyship’s maid telling the valet hired as her brother’s personal servant that Lady Romfield meant to escort Andrew to Harrow, near London proper, on the following day, as it was time for the new term at school, with the Easter term beginning on 11 April.
Jocelyn wished to ask the particulars of her mother’s journey, but no one in the house was likely to share what he or she knew of the outing, and any interest she showed would be quickly relayed to her mother. Instead, she pretended no knowledge of her mother’s journey, which surely could be no more than two to three days, as planned. This was her opportunity, and Jocelyn meant to make the most of it.
* * *
“And so, you called upon William’s Wood?” Edward’s cousin, Fitzwilliam Darcy, asked.
“Yes, I wished to check on Lady Lindale’s twins. It seems another governess has been let go, so, in addition to traveling to London for my duties to the army, as well as stopping at the Romfield estate on the Kentish border to take the acquaintance of Miss Romfield, I must see that a new governess is employed.”
“Is it the boy they cannot handle?” Darcy asked. “I had heard he was ‘dumb,’ but I did not find the child to be so. Only that he is extremely regimented.”
“More regimented than you, my love?” Mrs. Darcy asked in a teasing tone, as she bounced Bennet Darcy on her knee while the boy giggled in delight. The lady cooed, “Shall you be as stubborn as your papa, my boy?”
The child looked to Darcy and said, “Puh. Puh.”
“Yes, that is your papa, my boy. Neither you nor he will ever forget it.”
Meanwhile, Darcy responded to his wife’s question, but not in a mean manner. “The Babcock boy can apparently tolerate only certain types of cloth upon his skin, and he has everything within his quarters in a particular order.”
