“Bridget Wetherby.”
“Miss Wetherby.” He smiled. “Norman Dodge.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Dodge.”
“I must say, I’m grateful to you for taking care of Miss Emma for us while she was away from home. She’s like family to me,” he said.
“You aren’t family, then?”
“A close friend of the family,” he said. “I’ve been employed by His Grace for many years. Since before Miss Emma’s birth, in fact.”
That came as a surprise to Bridget. She had no experience with servants who also considered themselves family friends. Such things would not have been possible in the house where she had grown up. But Norman Dodge seemed at ease enough to say all this in front of the duke, which made her think there must be some truth to it.
He sat back and looked at her appraisingly. “Have you been with the orphanage for very long? You’re quite young.”
She didn’t think of herself that way—she was five and twenty, after all—but he looked to be in his forties, so perhaps it made sense that he saw her that way. “I’ve been volunteering there for many years,” she told him. “It’s been a passion of mine for a long time. It only became my residence a little over a year ago, when I decided to make it my life’s work.”
“You must have a great deal of experience with children, then,” he said. “It’s no wonder Miss Emma feels so at home with you.”
“I try my best to make children in my care feel comfortable and safe,” Bridget agreed. “I think it’s a very important thing to do.”
“Well, I certainly agree with that,” Mr. Dodge said with a warm smile. “And now I’m even more pleased that Miss Emma has been in your care all this time. It seems truly to be the best we could have hoped for her.”
Bridget was anxious to ask how Emma had come to be away from her father in the first place. The whole thing felt like a mystery she had to try to solve. But it didn’t seem appropriate to ask a question like that right in front of the duke. She was worried about how he might respond.
Perhaps I’ll have a chance to speak to Mr. Dodge about it some other time, when the duke isn’t present. He seems like someone I could turn to for answers to these things, someone who wouldn’t get angry at me for asking questions.
She hoped that was true. This would all be much easier if there were someone she could speak openly with about things while she was here. At least she knew Mr. Dodge would be at Greystone with them.
She cleared her throat. “How long is our journey?” she asked. “Will we be traveling through the night?”
To her surprise, it was the duke who answered. “These roads aren’t safe at night,” he said. “We’ll have to stop and rest somewhere.”
She was taken aback. “We’re stopping? But you were offered accommodations at the orphanage, and you said you needed to get home right away.”
“I have no interest in spending the night in an orphanage,” the duke said firmly. “Nor am I interested in leaving my daughter there. She isn’t an orphan and doesn’t belong at a place like that.”
There was something judgmental in his tone that Bridget didn’t like. “A place like that?” she repeated. “Our institution cares for children who aren’t being cared for by anybody else, and I’m sorry to tell you that for the last week and a half, thathasbeen true of your daughter. Don’t fault us for caring for her when nobody else did.”
He stiffened. “I don’t fault you,” he said. “But I do ask that you recognize that things have changed now. She is back withher father, and the services of your orphanage are no longer necessary. We’ll stay at the inn tonight.”
Bridget bit back her frustration. If they were going to stay somewhere, why couldn’t they have spent one more night in surroundings that were familiar to her? Why had it been necessary to get on the road so quickly?
It was too late to raise the question, too late to complain about it. They were already here, and she knew there wasn’t a chance in the world of getting the duke to turn back now. But she simmered as they rode on all the same. He was so determined to have his own way about everything, even when the things he wanted didn’t objectively make that much sense.
They arrived at the inn a quarter of an hour later. It was a small, warm, brightly lit place, and Bridget had to admit—if only to herself—that it would be nice to have a soft bed and a quiet room, to take a bit of time to process everything that had happened today.
As soon as she was out of the carriage, though, Emma wrapped her arms around Bridget’s waist and clung to her tightly.
It occurred to Bridget that Emma might not feel ready to be alone with her father. She had certainly seemed timid around him at the orphanage. “Your Grace,” she said, “why don’t you put Emma and me in the same room? You brought me along to look after her, and I’m happy to do that tonight.”
“My daughter stays with me,” the duke said gruffly. “Emma, come.”
Emma’s arms tightened around Bridget. She didn’t move.
“I really think she wants to stay with me,” Bridget said. “And I really don’t mind. You ought to have a good night’s rest.”
“This is not up for discussion,” the duke said sharply. “I’m grateful to you for caring for my daughter, Miss Wetherby, but you are a near stranger to me. I have no intention of leaving my daughter alone at the inn with someone I hardly know. She stays with me, and that’s the end of it.”
