Chapter 5
Chapter Five
“Your Grace…” Miss Spencer’s voice came from across the room.
Evander Lockridge, the Duke of Ironvale did not turn around when he heard Miss Spencer speak. He stood by the window -- that which gave him a view of the front of his home -- and he fixed his gaze out that window, his attention saved for his newly arrived guest.
He watched as Miss Finch walked up the driveway, nothing more than a single bag thrown over her back. She was moving into this house permanently, so that one little bag must have held every item of clothing that she owned.
She was dressed simply too, her dress made of thick wool, her brown hair worn out and a little messy, a true commoner in every sense of the word.
Yet, as she approached Evander’s home, she smiled.
There was joy on her face, and it grew as she tilted her head back to take in his home as if it were a new world to which she was finally welcome.
With her walked a young boy, a year older than Aaron, and he laughed as he raced ahead. She called after him, but she did not chase. Their laughter rose from the street, and it swept through the room where Evander stood watching as if it mocked him.
When was the last time that I laughed like that? No… when was the last time that I made my son laugh like that? If ever…
“Your Grace,” Miss Spencer spoke again, clearing her throat.
“Yes?” he said without turning around. Still, he watched Miss Finch with unabated curiosity, narrowing his eyes as she slowly approached the front of the house.
“Miss Finch has just arrived, Your Grace,” Miss Spencer said.
“I can see that for myself, Miss Finch.”
“Would you like to speak with her again?”
“I do not see the point.”
“Is there anything you would like?” she asked.
“My son,” he said. “I would like to speak with him before he meets Miss Finch. Send for him, thank you.”
“Of course, Your Grace. And just to keep you abreast, once I finish showing Miss Finch and her brother to their rooms, I will happily detail to Miss Finch what is expected, her day-to-day. The do’s and the do not’s.
” She tittered to herself. “Once that is done, I will introduce her to Master Aaron.”
Evander knew all of this. Indeed, they had discussed it already. So, Miss Spencer was telling him that this was not the reason that she had come to see him.
He sighed and turned to find the elderly woman lurking by the doorway.
Most of the staff, indeed, most people in Evander’s life, would cower when they found themselves before his menacing glare.
He did not wear it on purpose, but it was trained into him, a way to temper his emotions and project a gait of power and command.
Miss Spencer, however, did not flinch. She knew him too well to truly fear him, and she was perhaps the only person in the world who treated him like someone other than the terrifying Duke who ought to be feared.
For that, he was always grateful…
“Is there something else, Miss Spencer?” he asked her. “I doubt you came to see me to tell me what I already know.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I suppose it was silly of me to try and be subtle, wasn’t it?”
He said nothing. He just looked at her, waiting.
“Yes, well…” She sighed. “I was thinking, when Master Aaron meets Miss Finch for the first time, it might be nice if you were there with him. He does not show it, but he’s scared, Your Grace.
Meeting new people, not knowing how to behave or what is expected of them.
With you by his side, it might…” She clicked her tongue.
“It might provide him with so much-needed stability.”
Evander’s expression remained perfectly flat, even if his insides twisted with guilt and shame.
Miss Spencer’s words were correct, and he knew that he ought to do as she suggested. Evander was nowhere near as close with his son as he should be, and small gestures like this would do a world of good. But did he want such a thing? Did he desire a relationship like that with his son?
Deep down, Evander might say that he did.
He had never had such a thing with his father growing up, so perhaps that was what his own son needed to keep him from turning into another dispassionate, emotionally empty adult like Evander was?
Sadly, knowing this and doing anything about it were two different things.
“That will not be necessary,” he said. “Aaron is seven now, and he does not need me treating him like a babe still at his mother’s teat.”
“Perhaps… or perhaps, showing him that you are there for him will go a long way toward –”
“Is there anything else?” he spoke over Miss Spencer, determined to put this conversation to bed.
“No,” she sighed, no doubt knowing that this was one battle she would not win. She had been there when Evander was raised, and she knew exactly how his own parents had treated him as a child. “I will just fetch Master Aaron…”
“Good.”
Miss Spencer left the room, and Evander turned back to the window, watching now as Miss Finch loitered on the front driveway. She still wore the same smile, her eyes still shone, and Evander could practically feel her positivity even from all the way up here.
She was an attractive woman, and even Evander would not deny that.
With her dark hair, worn in long curls, her full cheeks, and those big green eyes, she was a beauty in the most traditional sense.
She was also short compared to him, with a curvaceous body that Evander wished he did not notice… but he was still human, after all.
There is just something about her that I cannot escape. By rights, I should have had her removed from my home the moment I saw her because everything about this woman screams trouble.
She is reckless. She is unpredictable. She is a storm on a calm night. And yet… here I stand, unable to look away, pulled into that same storm as much as I know how dangerous it will be…
Evander did not do chaos. He did not do unpredictable. He liked his life ordered and neat. He enjoyed knowing what to expect and how to prepare for it. Miss Finch was the opposite of this, and it terrified him as much as it intrigued.
“Father…” a voice spoke from over his shoulder.
Evander straightened, set his face to neutral, and turned to find his son standing in the doorway.
Aaron was just seven years old, still a child, but Evander was set on treating him like a man fully grown.
Discipline was what his son required, as that had always been Evander’s way of showing affection.
“Your hair,” Evander said, noting the messy mop of black hair that sprang from his son’s scalp. “Have it combed at once. You are set to meet your new governess soon, and I want you to leave her with the best impression possible.”
“Sorry, Father…” Aaron used his hands to try to flatten his hair.
“Now, Aaron, I want you on your best behavior. Is that understood?” He raised a commanding eyebrow at his son. “I have been lax these last few months, far too lenient with the way you have treated the past governesses. It ends here.” He looked pointedly at Aaron.
Aaron tried to meet his father’s stare, but he buckled under it and looked away as if with shame. “I am sorry, Father. I… I will do better.”
“See that you do.”
“Are you coming down?” his son asked hopefully, daring a smile to match it.
“No.”
Aaron shrank back, his eyes still averted.
Evander watched his son linger in the doorway.
Even his own flesh and blood were nervous around him, unable to cross the room and come close as any son should be able to do around his father.
He was not scared of Evander, or at least Evander did not think so.
It was more than he’d ever been given a reason to think that affection was something to show.
Evander’s chest tightened, and he was taken by an urge to cross the room and rest a consoling hand on Aaron’s shoulder. A word of encouragement, perhaps? Something to show that he cared. However, just as that urge came, Evander pushed it down.
He will not thank me for such things. What he needs is a firm hand, discipline, and a show of strength. That is how he will grow into the man I know he can be.
“That will be all,” Evander dismissed.
Aaron hesitated, with a hopeful look, only to bow his head and turn.
“And Aaron…” Evander spoke after him, and Aaron turned, again with hope in his eyes. “I will be watching you, son. Do not disappoint me.”
“I won’t, Father,” he said meekly before turning and hurrying away.
With that done, Evander turned again to watch Octavia as she waited to be taken inside. He should not have found himself so intrigued by her. Truly, she should have hardly passed through his mind. She was merely a governess, he would have little to do with her, and that was for the best.
Yet, there he stood, watching her closely, wondering about her also.
He tried to tell himself that hiring her was a good idea, thinking that someone like her might stand a chance at taming his son.
All the while, deep within his consciousness, a warning sounded out that this would only lead to trouble.