How to Claim a Governess’s Heart - Bridget Barton Page 0,68

Lady Temperance could be open to Betsy returning to their home over time.

Bridget was glad to escape upstairs with Betsy when the child’s bedtime came. The whole night seemed to lose its celebratory feeling with the unexpected guest, and Bridget had no desire to return downstairs for the remainder of the evening.

Chapter 22

Lord John hesitated outside Miss Thatcher’s room. He knew what he was doing went against everything his upbringing had taught him. Still, she had not returned to the parlour after putting Betsy to bed, and he wanted to make sure that things were still right between them after such a laborious night with his mother.

His hand raised and hovered over the door before he knocked on it softly three times. He wondered if she had gone straight to bed. The small glow of light that instantly shown from under the door at his knocking told him otherwise.

He took a few steps back from the door, giving her plenty of room, and waited a few moments. He could hear her scurrying around inside before the door opened slightly.

He saw one green eye peep through the crack and he smiled at her. He did his best not to fidget with his hands. She opened the door wider, looking up and down the hall.

She was wearing her nightgown, a dull off-white colour with no frills or ribbons, with a grey woollen shawl for modesty. Her hair was down and he marvelled at the luxurious curls that cascaded all around her shoulders.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he whispered.

“No, not at all. I wasn’t asleep. Just lying in bed.”

“I wanted to apologise for my mother.”

“There is nothing to apologise for.”

“She treated you very rudely on a number of occasions tonight, and then ignored you the rest of it,” he scoffed.

“It is expected for someone in my place,” Bridget said with a sigh.

He had a sense that she was trying to tell him more. She was resigned to her lot in life, had no desire for more, and she only wished he would resign himself to it as well.

He refused to. He didn’t see her as an employee, a servant, or even as the governess. She was his future. He loved her, and he could no sooner remove her from the pedestal on his heart than he could change his position on military life.

“It’s not right,” he said.

“But it is how things are, right or wrong.”

“It won’t always be like this, though. I can promise you that. Soon, I will have won the bet, I will be free to take all the money set aside for me, and I will choose the one I want for my wife. She will have to keep her opinions to herself when that time comes,” he stated matter of factly.

Bridget wanted to ask what his future marriage had to do with how others treated her. She feared the answer would be what she hoped for and fear that it wasn’t both at the same time. Instead of voicing her fears, she kept her eyes fixed on the carpet beneath her bare feet.

“Sometimes I fear you seek to change everything all at once,” Bridget said softly. “It can’t be done.”

Lord John took a step closer to Bridget. He had no intention of dishonouring her, but he did want to make it clear that he would not back down. He would find a way to change all of his stars.

He recited, “It can, though it isn’t an easy road.

“The course of true love never did run smooth.

“But either it was different in blood –

“Or else misgraffèd in respect of years –

“Or else it stood upon the choice of friends-

“Or, if their be sympathy in choice.

“War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it.

“Making it momentary as a sound,

“Swift as a shadow, short as any dream...”

“You see,” she replied. “Even Lysander understood the impossibility of changing all his stars.”

“But he did. He had his Helena. There were trials and struggles, and perhaps some mix-ups along the way, but in the end, he gained all his heart’s desires.”

“With fairies’ aid,” Bridget scoffed.

She knew the passage well. A Midsummer’s Night Dream was one of her favourite Shakespearean plays. To have Lord John quote it to her would have been swoon-worthy on any other occasion. Now she only felt the desperate desires that Lysander had expressed upon learning his love was set to marry another.

“Then,” Lord John said, taking another step closer.

He took Bridget’s free hand and lifted it to his lips. Watching