is coming along nicely,” Callie said, praising the boy. He was so very eager to learn, not for the sake of it, but because he craved praise and attention. It broke her heart a little that he would work so very hard just for a kind word.
Callie rose from the table where she’d been working on additional lessons for them and crossed to the window where she looked outside. Her senses were whirling, her mind overwhelmed with all the things that had occurred. He was on her mind, of course. Lord Winn Hamilton, Earl of Montgomery. He had been since their conversation in the hired hack that morning. If she were honest, she would admit that he’d been on her mind far more frequently and insistently than that. It seemed her every waking thought was either about him or reminding herself of why she should not think about him. The admission that he wished to kiss her again, that he thought of her with what she could only assume was the same frequency with which he crossed her mind was doing nothing to ease her current predicament. Then there was everything else, things that she had shied away from.
Her parents. They hadn’t simply abandoned her because they didn’t want her. Her mother, if what had been said was accurate, had left her there on the steps of the workhouse, anonymous and reasonably safe, while she met her own certain death. And if it was true, and if it could be proven, then she was not simply the unwanted bastard daughter of a duke, but an heiress. It would change everything.
It would render her marriageable.
The sad truth was that, as a governess trained by Effie, her standards and her expectations were at cross purposes. In comportment and education, she was a lady. She viewed herself as one. But as a governess, there were few men of a station that she could wed that would not be considered beneath her or above her. That could all change. But heiress or not, she was still a bastard. She was still a woman who had been a servant. It seemed as if it would only complicate her life further.
“You’re very sad, aren’t you?”
The question had come from William, his small voice tight with concern.
Callie pasted a smile on her face and turned back to him. “I’m not sad. I’m only tired,” she lied. “I’m sure I’ll be better company tomorrow.”
He shook his head, his small face clenched with worry. “No. You’re sad the way our mother was when our father was gone for a long time. You’re not going to leave us, are you?”
Leaving her vantage point at the window, Callie crossed to him and crouched down so they were eye to eye. “I’m not going to leave you. I adore you… all three of you. I will be here with you for as long as I can… for as long as you need me to be.”
Callie didn’t have any warning. He simply launched himself at her, hurling his small frame against hers and wrapping his arms tightly around her as he pressed his face against her neck. She could feel the heat of his tears, but she didn’t acknowledge them. He was a little boy, after all, embarrassed by such things and clearly trying to hide them. So she simply held him and rubbed his back. After only a brief hesitation, Charlotte came to them as well. She scooted in and pressed herself against Callie’s side, clinging in her own sweet way.
Those children were broken, neglected, their little hearts and spirits crushed by the years of their parents’ disregard. Whatever her very complicated feelings were for their uncle, and his for her, neither of them could afford to forget that the children had to come first.
*
It was their first lesson. Claudia sat stiffly on the bench beside him, her fingers poised on the keys of the pianoforte. He noticed that they trembled slightly, as did her lower lip. Uncertain of what else to do or how else to ease her nerves, Winn placed his fingers on the keys as well, struck a few notes, then hit one very sharp, very sour note that echoed about the room. She turned her head, looking at him in surprise.
“Even the best of musicians will sometimes strike the wrong chord or stumble over a note, Claudia,” he said. “It doesn’t matter. You simply keep playing. No one will beat you or punish you for that. Do you