Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
“Hugh! Not so fast!” The Duke called out in a panic. “Careful!”
Hugh either did not hear or did not listen. Whatever the case, the young boy kicked his heels into the side of his pony as he hurried it across the open paddock. As he did, he cried out in joy; his laughter was infectious, and it was without a doubt the happiest that Yvette had ever seen the child.
“He’ll be fine,” Yvette laughed from beside the Duke. And then she laughed again when she saw the worry on his face.
Whatever he might think of himself as a father, he clearly cares for Hugh. And finally, Hugh is starting to see it.
“He’s riding too fast…” The Duke’s hands gripped the reins of his horse tightly, and Yvette could see how he struggled not to urge it forward after his son. “He doesn’t have control.”
“Let him learn.”
“I’d rather he not fall and kill himself.”
“Unlikely,” Yvette said, still laughing. “The plains are flat, his horse isn’t moving that quickly, and he seems rather adept at it. He told you that he has ridden before.”
The Duke grimaced. “Yes, but children lie.”
“Not Hugh.”
“Perhaps… perhaps his mother taught him.” His brow furrowed as he watched Hugh ride across the paddock, and Yvette wondered if the expression on his face was for Hugh’s safety or if memories of Hugh’s mother were the cause.
She opened her mouth… so close to asking him. Oh, how she wanted to know the whole story. Who was Hugh’s mother? Why did she take Hugh, rather than having him raised here? And how was the Duke dealing with her death?
Yvette did not ask any of these questions. Not yet. Not until she felt that she and the Duke were close enough to have such a conversation as that… assuming they ever would be.
Rather, Yvette chose to focus on the now, the day at hand, and how wonderfully it was turning out.
It was the Duke’s suggestion that they go for a ride across the estate. When he had joined Yvette in the reading room, Hugh’s first instinct was to cower and shy away, apparently terrified of his father, as if the mere sight of him was proof that he had done something wrong.
Yvette stayed back during the interaction, curious to see how it might play out.
Surprisingly, the Duke did not tell Hugh what they were doing but asked him. His voice was gentle, his eyes were kind, and as he spoke, she could see Hugh relaxing. When the Duke asked if he wished to go for a ride, the boy’s eyes filled with excitement.
It wasn’t until they were on their horses that Hugh truly relaxed. As he rode, he constantly looked back at his father for guidance and support, and the Duke laughed and urged him forward in a way that was almost natural, as if they had done this one hundred times before.
He was nowhere near perfect. He still had so far to go. But progress was being made, and Yvette could not help but be impressed.
“You’re better with him than you think.” Yvette rode side-saddle, and she steered her horse beside the Duke’s so they both trotted at a steady pace.
In the distance, Hugh’s cries of laughter echoed across the paddock.
“What?” The Duke had been focusing on Hugh, but he turned sharply to find her beside him.
“You with Hugh,” she said. “You’re better with him than you think. There’s a natural connection there that I doubt you realize but is obvious to anyone watching.”
He scoffed. “Unlikely.”
“I’m being serious,” she laughed. “You’re his father, and he knows that you are. It’s obvious in the way he acts when he’s around you…” She smirked. “And how you act around him.”
“Like a big oaf, you mean.”
She laughed further. “Something like that.”
“It’s not easy for me,” he admitted slowly. “This whole being a father thing. I never wanted it, you know. But when I learned what had happened to Hugh’s mother…” He let the words trail.
“You’re doing the right thing,” she told him, feeling that it was what needed to be said. “Anyone who sees you together will say the same.”
He rolled his eyes. “Better than my own father, at least.”
“Oh? Were you and he not close?”
The change that took the Duke was subtle, but Yvette saw it. A shadow passed behind his eyes, and his shoulders turned stiff. While the day was a bright and sunny one, the world turned dark as if a storm was approaching…
“No, we weren’t.” The Duke turned away.
Again, Yvette felt the urge to ask questions that she knew she had no right to ask. It made her realize, as she had done often this last week, how little she knew about the Duke. Almost nothing, to be fair.
She had no reason to know more than she did. She was just his son’s governess; her role was to teach Hugh, and that was as far as it needed to go. Yet…
Yvette could sense a familiarity growing between them; a sense of comfort that was forming slowly. It was strange to consider that a man whom she had previously seen as being so dispassionate and dark had a kind and approachable side, one that she no longer feared trying to access.
The Duke pushed his horse forward and she watched him from afar.
He still carried the same darkness as he had done when they first met. His black hair. His dark eyes. That scar on his face. And he was constantly scowling with a tight jaw and narrowed eyes. It was no wonder when she first met him that she had been more than a little terrified.
“Were you the same when you were his age?” Yvette steered her horse closer to the Duke again.
He watched Hugh ride back and forth, but he snapped his head around when he heard her speak. “Me?”
“Yes, you,” she laughed. “Or maybe a better question is, were you this serious? Or does that come with age?”
He looked at her flatly. “Are you asking if I have always been a terror?”
“Something like that.”
A wry smile cracked his lips. “A bit of both. I was never like that –” He nodded toward Hugh, who still laughed gaily. “But I wasn’t always this…” He sighed. “A consequence of my upbringing, I am afraid. As cliché as that must sound.”
“Oh?”
“And I don’t want that for Hugh. If I can save him from that…” Again, he looked for his son and that smile grew. “Maybe that will make up for everything else.”
“Everything else?” She stared at him. “What do you mean?”
He winced and looked away.
Yvette watched closely, again surprised by how different the Duke was to what she had originally thought. There was a darkness inside of him, that was undeniable. But she sensed that he did not like this about himself, and that he wanted to be different.
Is that what Hugh is? A chance to prove that he is more than what people think?
“We can speak of something else, if you like.” Yvette softened her voice, determined not to let this moment pass.
The Duke tilted his head. “Such as?”
She shrugged. “Whatever you like. You will find that I am a bit of an open book.”
His eyes flashed with humor. “Very well, why don’t we start with –”
An ear-splitting scream cut through the question like a knife.
They both turned as one, and what Yvette saw had her stomach dropping to the earth in terror. She might have screamed, was she able.
It was Hugh’s pony, sprinting across the paddock, but with Hugh nowhere to be seen.
“Hugh!” the Duke cried and kicked his horse forward. “Hugh!”
“Hugh!” Yvette joined in as worry crashed upon her like waves in a storm. “Hugh!” Her eyes scanned the paddock as the fear compiled on her.
“I found him!” the Duke shouted from ahead.
Yvette rode her horse forward as the Duke jumped from his horse and crouch down in the brush. The grass was so long that it came up to the Duke’s shoulders when he dropped to his knees, so it took a moment for her to see what had happened.
When she came close, and when she saw Hugh lying in the grass, she lurched back, her entire being rebelled inside of her, and it took all the control she possessed not to scream.
No… please no…
Yvette hated the sight of blood. Worse than that, she was mortified by it.
Memories converged in her mind, the sound of screaming, crying and shouting, blood everywhere.
She was ten years old again, there was nothing she could do, and that sense of helplessness crippled her in ways that she wanted to forget…
that broke her whenever they returned, as they so often did.
She started to shake. She started to sweat. She started to sway as the world turned…
“Easy there,” she heard the Duke say as he knelt by his son. “It’s lucky this grass is so thick, otherwise you might have really hurt yourself.”
Over his shoulder, Yvette forced herself to look upon Hugh, and she just about fell from her own horse as relief swept her body. Hugh was awake, he was shaking, but it did not look like anything was broken. And there was not a drop of blood in sight. Thank God…
“I’m so – so – so – sorry,” Hugh whimpered as the Duke pulled him into his arms. “I did – did – did not me – me – mean to –”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
“I sh – sh – should have lis – listened.”
His stuttering was as bad as Yvette had ever heard, and she braced herself for the Duke’s reaction. He didn’t know that his son had a stutter, and she knew how ashamed Hugh was of the fact. Just as she knew how much men of the peerage hated weaknesses like that, thinking it to be beneath them.
Such a small and silly thing, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if the Duke loathed him for it.
“You probably should have.” The Duke chuckled as he scooped Hugh into his arms. The boy looked so tiny and fragile compared to his father’s large frame, but the Duke was gentle, even tender. “But this is how we learn.”
“L – learn?” Hugh stammered.
“Has anyone ever told you what is to be done when you fall off a horse?”
Hugh frowned. “N – n – no.”
“It’s quite simple, really. You get back on.”
Hugh’s brow furrowed. He looked confused. But the Duke continued to smile at his son, and it was enough to see a smile take Hugh’s face too.
Yvette stayed back on her horse and watched the moment closely, her heart soaring and her chin even wobbling at how touching the scene was. Once again, everything that she had thought about the Duke when she first met him proved false. He really did have a softer side.
More than that, he is clearly capable of being a good father.
“Come on then.” The Duke kept his son in his arms. “You look fine but let us get you home so we can be sure. Miss Norleigh…” He turned to Yvette, and she balked because she had been staring. “Can you guide my horse back?”
“Me?”
“I’m going to carry Hugh,” he said. “The house is not far but I don’t want to risk riding with him in this condition.”
“Oh.” She blinked as she came into herself. In the back of her mind, she could still hear screaming, but she did her best to ignore it. “Y – yes, of course.”
“Thank you.” With that said, he stalked across the paddock, his son in his arms. As he did, she heard him say something to Hugh, which caused laughter in the young boy.
Yvette gaped… and then smiled. This might not have been what she imagined or planned, but the result was the same. The Duke was growing closer to his son, a bond was developing between them, and her heart soared to see it.