Page 62 of The Moonstone Governess
“I arrived late last night.” Was that his voice, so thick and raspy?
“We were swimming, as you can plainly see. Well,” she said with a light blush, “Felicity was teaching your nephew how to swim. Master Matthew is doing beautifully, and he also knows how to count to one hundred. Would you like him to show you?”
Matthew began to sniffle.
Daire felt a jolt to his heart. What he would not give to have the boy trust him enough to give him a heartfelt embrace. “Matthew, that is remarkable. Well done, lad. Perhaps we shall count together later. How about counting the poppies in the nearby field? Or we can count the birds we see. Or the clouds. Would you like that?”
Brenna spoke up for the boy, who was now hiding behind her and tugging on her gown. “We shall like that very much.” She turned to the lad. “I shall be by your side, too. No one is going to hurt you here, Matthew. No one wants to do you any harm.”
Matthew just stared at Daire, his eyes shadowed.
“Your Grace,” Brenna said with obvious heartache, “your nephew is an utter delight. Clever. Helpful. Funny. We have been having quite a lot of fun learning our numbers, and next week we shall start on our letters.”
Daire smiled at the boy. “That’s very good, Matthew. I’m glad you are enjoying your studies with Miss Angel. She is quite charming, isn’t she?”
Matthew just cast him another shadowed stare.
“I like her, too. I think she is an excellent governess. I wish mine were as nice when I was your age. But they were all quite horrid. What do you think of our Miss Angel?” When he still received no response, Daire decided to leave the boy as he was for the moment and introduce Jax to the ladies.
He was about to do so when Matthew spoke to him from behind Brenna. “I can dress myself.”
Daire let out a breath. “I see, although you seem to have dressed in a hurry. But that’s all right. I’m glad you were having fun. Was the water pleasant?”
He nodded. “Miss Standish said I was a wicked boy and always misbehaved. She said I was stupid and would never learn.”
Daire spared a glance at Brenna. “Seems to me that Miss Standish was the wicked one. She should never have spoken to you so cruelly. You will never hear a cruel word from Miss Angel’s lips, Matthew. In fact, I think she will box the ears of anyone who dares be mean to you.”
Jax emitted a low growl. “A pox on all these charlatans who call themselves governesses and tutors. They hold themselves out as experts, but all they are is bullies who single out children because they are too weak to fight back.”
Daire thought back to his own childhood, to a time before his stepmother came into his life and that of his older brother. Their tutors and governesses were a cold-hearted lot, but their father had been the cruelest of all. He’d noticed a bruise on Matthew’s chest when he had run out of the glade toward him earlier.
He would ask Brenna about it later. Not that he suspected her of ever laying a brutish hand on Matthew.
No, that deep bruise must have been put there by Miss Standish or any one of the governesses who came before her. He recognized those marks, for he still had a few that had been so brutally beaten into his back that they had never disappeared.
Matthew screwed up a little courage and spoke directly to Daire. “Shall I show you how well I can count to one hundred?”
Daire would pull out his hair if he had to listen to the boy count the entire way to one hundred, but he was not going to deprive the lad of the pleasure of showing off. As he was about to nod, Brenna spoke up. “I think your uncle has many questions for us, Master Matthew. How about we shorten it for today and you just count by tens?”
The lad nodded and immediately started. “Ten, twenty, thirty…”
Daire smiled, for that was a much better idea. When the boy finished, he patted him on the head and congratulated him. “Well done, lad. An admirable job. Give me a moment to properly greet the Misses Angel and catch up on all that has happened since I’ve been away. Then you and I shall take a long walk and you can tell me all about what you’ve done since arriving here. How does that sound to you?”
Fear shot into the boy’s eyes again, and he stared at his toes.
Brenna tweaked Matthew’s nose. “Yes, we would love to take a walk with you, Your Grace. I hope you don’t mind my being with you at every step.”
“Not at all, Miss Angel. I look forward to having you with us.”
Matthew’s tension appeared to ease.
Daire now got around to the business of introducing them to Jax. “Miss Angel, I would like to present a good friend of mine, Ajax Monteith, Earl of Bradford. He resides in Plymouth, and I stayed with him while attending to the Dumbley & Hayworth draperies. By the way, that business went very smoothly because of your excellent preparatory work,” he told both Brenna and Felicity.
Then he introduced Felicity to Jax.
Felicity curtsied demurely.
Jax took her hand and bowed over it. “May I say it is an exquisite pleasure to meet you.”
