The Duke in Disguise Read Free Page A

spotless, although she worked as hard as anyone else.

"I don't have much time, Miss Shelby," the housekeeper warned her apologetically.

"I only want to know if I should prepare Stephen for dinner with his father."

"No, His Grace never eats with his son. It just wouldn't do."

"But the boy is six now. Surely he needs to learn what is proper behavior in a formal situation. He can't learn that nearly as well by eating with me in the nursery."

But Mrs. Theobald could only apologize and move on to her next task. When Meriel took Stephen upstairs for his meal, she resolved that she would have to speak to the duke herself.

Once again, speaking with her employer seemed like an intimidating task. She didn't want to be alone with him. Many of the nobility seemed to think that they could behave as they wished. She had heard stories over the years of abused governesses who could say nothing against their employer because they feared losing their position.

And now she was one of them.

Yesterday, she'd walked to the post office to send money home— a pitiful sum it had been, too. She had thought herself capable of helping her mother— she could not afford to lose a second job.
    * * *
    Two days passed, and the duke remained elusive. Meriel watched Stephen grow more dejected. She kept reminding the boy that his father's recovery would be slow, but inside she was working up the anger to insist on a meeting with the duke.

That night, dinner was a lonely affair as usual. Nurse Weston went down to the servants' hall, but Meriel was never invited to join in the camaraderie. She ate her meals with Stephen, and though he was a good-hearted boy, she missed adult conversation. She missed intelligent conversation— she missed her sisters.

Her heart gave a painful lurch, and she put down her fork as her appetite faded away. They had spent their whole lives together. Meriel had always thought that even when they all married, they'd be together in London much of the time.

But Ramsgate seemed like the end of the world, situated as it was on the southeastern edge of England. Meriel walked to the window and looked out at the sea. Home was many miles in the opposite direction. She had already cleared a few days' holiday with Mrs. Theobald to attend her sister's wedding. But for now, letters would have to do. She kept them in her desk, treated them gently so they wouldn't tear, and read them over and over again until she knew them by heart.

She turned to retrieve her letters from her desk, and saw that Stephen's chair was empty, his food half eaten.

"My lord?" she called to the empty room, wondering if he was hiding again.

She searched the cupboards, then walked down to his room. "Stephen?" she called outside the washroom.

He was gone.

She should have known that he would not be able to quiet his curiosity, now that his father had shown a small interest in him. He was a boy full of questions about his parents, from his absent father to his deceased mother. Meriel could answer few of them, so she should have known that Stephen would take the first opportunity. Standing at the head of the private staircase that led to the master suite below, she prayed Stephen had not dared to use it. She had heard Nurse Weston reminding him over and over that it was for his father only.

Meriel walked down the grand staircase to the dining room first. The large double doors were open, and several footmen were clearing away the dishes from the head of the table. The duke had eaten alone and was thankfully gone.

The two footmen, so identical in height and build, stopped what they were doing to look at her suspiciously.

"Robert," she said to the one whose name she remembered, "have you seen Lord Ramsgate?"

"No, Miss Shelby."

He was polite, but she sensed an underlying suspicion, as if he silently accused her of losing the boy.

It wouldn't be the first time. She'd spent much of the first week looking for Stephen everywhere, and she thought she knew all his