Page 64 of The Precious Secret of a Loving Governess
“Please stay,” he begged, his voice choked. “Why are you doing this? Why are you leaving?”
Gasping against the sudden fervour and trying to still the pounding of her heart, Victoria opened her mouth to reply.
With a quiet and gentle honesty, she whispered, “You must know why, my lord. You must know how I feel about you.”
Victoria swallowed against her vague confession. She could say no more. She had said too much already. Tearing herself from the Earl of Hanover’s grip, she rushed from the room and retired to her own.
Chapter 30
“Miss Jamison?” called a voice from the other side of the door, adding a soft knock and waiting to be welcome in.
“Yes? Come in,” she replied.
Miss Franklin entered the room with a paper in her hands and a look of sadness on her face.
“Is it true?” she asked.
Victoria knew what she was wondering. Was she really going to leave them? Was she really going to abandon her post?
“I fear so, Miss Franklin. I must depart from here. If not now then it shall only become more difficult. But I will never forget you and we shall continue to write to one another,” Victoria promised.
Miss Franklin looked grim, but she sat on the bed and handed Victoria the paper in her hands.
“What is this?” she asked.
“I should like to know myself,” Miss Franklin replied, curiously.
Victoria opened the paper to its fullest extent and saw the handwriting upon it. It was the hand of an intelligent man, scripted in a way that she might easily understand his heart.
My Dearest Miss Jamison,
I have had little time to write this, but understood that it was urgent that I speak with you on this matter. Just as you had written a letter to me, and read it to my face, so I must write to you. It is unfortunate that I am not able to speak these words directly, but I assure you there is reason for that.
First, I must inform you that I am leaving for a short trip. This trip is extremely important and has a great deal of influence on my future.
I shall return in three days’ time. What I have to ask you, what I have to beg you for, is that you shall not leave before my departure.
I ask that you would remain in the time that I am gone and that you will watch over my daughter until my return. She can do a great many things, but we must both agree that you bring this out in her. I should not like for her to have to adjust to a new governess while I am not present.
Not only this, but the business to which I must attend concerns your opinion of me. There are many things for which I must make amends. As it is, I am going to make things right. I am going to make everything right.
Miss Jamison, you have shown me what I am capable of. Furthermore, I wish to prove to you the sort of man that I truly am. I wish to prove to you that I am the man that you made me believe once more that I am.
I think that until I met you, I did not know who that was. I saw myself as far less. But you have consistently shown me what I could be. And that is a man that I once knew myself as.
You see, long ago I knew my place in this world. I knew who I was, and I knew who I wished to be. But all of that was lost upon the death of my wife.
I had to learn how to be a father on my own. I had to learn how to be the sort of man of society that I was expected to be. Each of these things was difficult in and of themselves. But nothing has been so difficult as hearing that you wish to leave.
For that reason, I must prove to you who I truly am. I must show you that I can be the man that you think me to be, the man that you believed I was.
Forgive me for the length of this letter. I hope that you do not believe my words to be meaningless or a waste of your time. But I simply could not allow you to leave without knowing that there’s much more I have to say.
Until I return, please look after my daughter with all the love that you have for her. It is a joy to see you interact with her, and I cannot wait to return and see it again.
Until that time,
Reginald Fairfax, the Earl of Hanover
