Mr. Hunt, I Presume (Playful Brides, #10.5)
Valerie Bowman
Chapter One
London, August 1824
Lucy Hunt stared at the looming stack of letters that sat on the writing desk in front of her. She shook her head. “How in the world am I to go through all of these?”
Her husband, Derek, the Duke of Claringdon, strolled up behind her to peer over her shoulder. “What are they?”
“Inquiries for employment. There must be a hundred of them.”
“For the governess position?” Derek asked.
“Yes. I’m quite overwhelmed.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you choose some to meet with.” He cleared his throat and picked up the first sheet of vellum from the stack. “Mrs. Harriet Kindlewood. Previously employed for fifty years by the Marquess of Dorset.”
“Fifty years?” Lucy exclaimed. “Why the poor woman must be at least seventy! She should be pensioned off by now.”
Discarding the first letter, Derek picked up the next one. “Miss Patience Horville. Clean, punctual, not afraid to discipline unruly children no matter how young.”
Lucy shuddered. “Ralph and Mary are only two and three. I’m not certain how much discipline they need. Besides, I’ve found that when someone has a name such as Patience, she usually has none of it.”
“At least she’s clean and punctual,” Derek replied with a laugh.
Lucy sat back and blew out a breath. “Be serious, Derek. I’ve been at my wits’ end since Miss Langley left. She was such an excellent governess.”
Derek pressed his lips together. “Yes. It’s a pity she had to go fall in love and get married.”
Lucy crossed her arms over her chest and arched her brow to return his stare. “It’s not a pity at all. I played a significant role in making her match with Mr. Benton. It’s only a pity that she had to move away and leave us.”
A smile crept to Derek’s face. “Perhaps if you and Delilah Montebank weren’t always trying to matchmake everyone, we would have a governess with a longer tenure. Where did all these letters come from, at any rate?”
“I asked all my friends for references, but none of them had anyone. Hence, I reached out to Mrs. Griggs’s employment office. Her services come highly recommended.”
“There’s no help for it then,” Derek replied. “We’ll just have to go through all of these and pick a few to meet with.”
With a sigh, Lucy grabbed the next letter from the top and read it aloud. “Miss Erienne Stone, formerly of Brighton, currently of London. Gently reared woman seeks position as governess. Able to teach reading, writing, and maths as well as French, history, and globes. Trained in music, art, needlework, and deportment. Caring and kind. Strict when necessary. Excellent references available.”
“Erienne Stone?” Derek frowned. “Did you say formerly of Brighton?”
“Yes.” Lucy lowered the paper to the desk. “You don’t know her, do you?” Derek had been born and raised in Brighton before he’d gone into his majesty’s army and rose through the ranks to fight at Waterloo. He’d been made a duke for his efforts.
“It must be a coincidence,” he replied, shaking his head.
“How did you know her?” Lucy asked.
“She was the daughter of a knight. Sir Robert Stone. She grew up with us. Only she was of a much better stature than my poor family.”
“Was she kind to you? She didn’t look down upon you, did she?” Lucy asked.
“To the contrary. In fact, she and Collin…” Derek’s voice drifted off. He rubbed his chin as if deep in thought. “Nevermind. It cannot possibly be the same woman. She would have to be at least thirty years old by now, and at any rate, I’m almost certain the Miss Stone I knew married well and moved to Shropsbury.”
Lucy’s different-colored eyes sparkled. “Wait a moment. What were you going to say? About she and Collin?”
Collin was Derek’s middle brother. The two of them, along with their youngest brother, Adam, had grown up the sons of an army veteran who insisted all three boys join the military. Derek and Collin had actually enjoyed it. Even after the wars ended, Collin, who had been a spy for the War Office, had remained in the army and was now a general. Adam, however, was currently happily employed as a publisher and even more happily married to his wife, Cecelia. But Collin was a confirmed bachelor at the age of five and thirty, which drove Lucy, a dedicated matchmaker, a bit mad.
“I wasn’t going to say anything about Miss Stone and Collin,” Derek replied in a guarded tone. “They courted, I think. It was nothing serious.”
Lucy widened her eyes. “They courted? Are you quite serious? I’ve never known Collin to court anyone.” She snatched up the letter from Miss Stone and stared at it anew. Her brow furrowed. “Wait a moment! This isn’t the same woman who …”
“What?”
Lucy tapped her cheek, desperately trying to remember details of a conversation that had taken place many years ago. “I asked Collin once why he seemed so bent on refusing to marry.”
“He didn’t answer you, did he?” Derek paced toward the fireplace, crossing his arms over his chest.
“On the contrary, he was quite deep in his cups that evening, which is rare for Collin, and which is also why I sought him out and asked him that particular question on that particular evening.”
Derek shook his head and gave his wife a vague grin as if she was perfectly incorrigible. “Because you thought you’d have a better chance of getting a response from him?”
“Precisely,” Lucy said. “And an honest one.”
Derek chuckled. “What did he say?”
“He said there was only ever one woman he’d loved. One woman in Brighton, someone he’d known as a lad.” Lucy squinted into the distance and pressed the letter to her chest. “He told me she married. I assumed she’d broken his heart.”
“Lucy.” A note of warning sounded in Derek’s deep voice. He stopped his pacing near her chair and dipped his head to meet her gaze. “Don’t you dare even think about it.”
“Think about what?” Lucy stuck her nose in the air and blinked at him innocently. Several times.
“You know precisely what you’re thinking about,” Derek replied. “Regardless, it doesn’t matter. I’m certain this cannot be the same young woman I knew in Brighton. Perhaps it’s a niece who’s named after her.”
“Perhaps.” But Lucy was already pulling out a blank sheet of vellum to write back to Mrs. Griggs’s employment office.
Hughes, the butler, entered the room and cleared his throat. “Your grace,” he said to Derek, “you have a visitor. Lord Swifdon has arrived.”
“Ah, yes,” Derek replied. “Show Julian to my study. I’ll be there momentarily.”
The butler bowed and left the room.
“I’m going to visit with Julian now, Lucy,” Derek said firmly as he started for the door. “Please promise me you’re not going to employ a governess for the care of our children because you think she may have known Collin in the past.”
Lucy dipped her quill into the inkpot that sat on the far side of her desk. “I don’t intend to do anything of the sort.”
“Good.” Derek paused at the threshold. “I’ll help you look at the rest of the letters later.”
“Thank you, darling,” Lucy said, already bent over the vellum, scribbling.
Derek flashed her one last, doubtful look as he strode from the room, and a satisfied smile immediately spread across Lucy’s face in his wake. She had no intention of hiring the woman based on the woman’s past relationship with Collin, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to find out if she was the same young woman in question, could it?
Lucy bent back over her paper and wrote a short missive to Mrs. Griggs, asking the woman to arrange an interview three days hence with one Miss Erienne Stone, formerly of Brighton.
Chapter Two