Still, a good governess would have remedied the situation and made sure she had not been up on that tree to begin with instead of Miss Knight’s possible enabling of all the terrible ideas her sister was bound to have.
Morgan did not want his sister’s lessons to be filled with misadventures between the mud-caked pair. However, it seemed that he was the only one who did not think it was a good idea to have the two of them together so often, and in that, he was outnumbered.
Despite this, he still could not see how this would end well. He began to shake his head at his grandmother’s insane idea but then Barbara walked up to him.
“Please, brother? Can Miss Knight be my governess even for a little while?” she asked him, looking at him with those sad eyes she had been surreptitiously wiping while her head was bent and Morgan knew he would do anything she wanted at that moment.
Morgan was confused. This would be the first time his sister was involved in choosing a governess. She had never wanted a governess and had said nothing in favor of the ones he had hired, always happier to see them go than having them in the first place.
It had not been his plan to make her cry. However, knowing that she had been with Miss Knight, who had never left his mind, had made it more difficult for him to see beyond the thoughts that filled his head.
Knowing even that she had been so eager to have Miss Knight which was what he would be hoping would happen in their search for a governess had begun to sway him in his own rigidity against giving her the position.
Perhaps if he let her have this, she would forgive him and Miss Knight would prove herself unworthy of the task and then they could go ahead to look for a better governess with experience in tutoring young ladies and making respectable ladies out of them.
“All right. I will speak to Miss Knight,” he told Barbara, smiling when she jumped in excitement and wrapped her arms around his waist as she hugged him.
“Thank you, brother. You are the best,” she said, making him feel slightly better about his decision.
“All right, come on,” the dowager said, extending her hand towards Barbara as she looked between her grandson and her companion again.
“Why don’t we leave them to talk and sort out your schedule and then you can begin your lessons with Miss Knight,” she told Barbara. “We can get you cleaned up while they speak.”
Morgan watched as they walked away, waiting until they had gone off a little distance and could no longer hear them before he turned to Miss Knight.
He sighed as he turned to her, feeling as if he was about to embark on a war.
CHAPTER6
Selina stood in the garden with Morgan as the Dowager Duchess ushered Barbara away to be cleaned up.
She looked at Morgan, who was staring after the retreating pair and could not understand why she constantly antagonized the man in the way that she did, especially when she was already made aware of his inability to communicate effectively with others and the flaws in his personality.
Goosebumps rose on her skin as the breeze blew cold air in the garden and she struggled to not run her hands up her arm. Doing so felt like she would be putting amend to whatever silent war they had going on.
She mentally scoffed at herself. Was she at war with herself thinking he was doing the same? There was no way of knowing what he thought behind those dark blue eyes but Selina was certain he was imagining all the ways he could end her.
His grandmother had once again ended their fight, coming just in time before it became worse than just exchanging words.
She had not looked at the dowager when she happened upon them, sensing that the older woman might be disappointed in her. She had, after all, given her a warning on her grandson before they stepped into the estate, and it was not three days yet and they had already been at each other’s throats twice.
Although Selina was certain that if the dowager had not expected this to happen, she never would have warned her about him. So perhaps she was not disappointed by it at all. Perhaps she had expected it.
Selina struggled to hold back her laughter at the thought of what else he would have done, save for trying to deliver scathing remarks, which she was certain to follow with some of her own, had the dowager not stepped in.
Would he have continued to lecture her on remaining neutral on family matters? Perhaps he would have wiped off the mud from his face and thrown it at her. She grinned at that thought and hoped that her face did not betray her thoughts.
It was just so difficult for her to watch him looking so regal in a dignified posture with mud streaked across his face and his clothes.
Of course, the mud had been from her and she had mud on her gloves and the bottom of her dress but at least her face had been spared from the mud. How could he still look so serious when he had mud on his face?
“Clearly,” Morgan began, clearing his throat. “We do not see eye to eye and seem to have issues getting along.”
“Oh, I assumed that would not be new to you,” Selina said, unable to stop herself from antagonizing him. She cringed inwardly when his eyes flashed at her. Had she not just been chastising herself for antagonizing him all the time?
“I apologize,” she said looking away from his eyes boring into hers. “It seems that you are correct.”
“Hmm!” he grunted, not saying anything more.
