Chapter Six
Josephleft Milly taking tea, and went to call the carriage. He could have simply pulled the bell, but he needed the distance. Where was the man she had left him for? This thought kept churning inside him, along with the doubts that had begun to plague him after he had received those papers from her father.
Daughter, I must beg your forgiveness.
Lord Lawrence’s words had played over and over inside Joseph’s head for weeks.
After speaking with Bailey, Joseph went to his room to collect his things. When he returned to his study, it was to find Milly gone.
“God’s blood!” Storming from the room, he found his carriage ready, and Bailey waiting outside his front door.
“Miss Higglesworth was most insistent she walk, my lord. In fact, she said an earl should not be carting about a governess.”
She was right, but as she was no governess, Joseph simply grunted, then got into his carriage. He leaned out the window as they reached the gate at the bottom of his driveway, and found her striding along with her little dog at her side. Rapping on the roof, he leapt out after the carriage stopped several feet up the road.
Joseph watched her eyes turn left and then right. When she saw no escape route, she squared her shoulders and faced him. Commendable, and yet it did nothing to ease his temper.
“I am not used to people, especially servants, disobeying my orders, Miss Higglesworth. Please get in the carriage.”
She didn’t retreat as he stalked toward her, only stopping when he could see the flush in her cheeks.
“I had no wish to put you to any trouble, Lord Ellsworth.”
“And yet I have told you I have an appointment with Lord Wimplestow, therefore it is no trouble.”
“So I must obey you?”
“It would be extremely foolish to walk when I am driving.”
“But you have already done so much for me.”
He looked down into the round face, padded with God knew what, and felt his conscience twitch.
“Perhaps I am one of the few good noblemen, Miss Higglesworth.”
“I’m sure there are more than just a few, my lord.”
“You are a tiresome woman.”
“It was not my intention to annoy you, my lord. However, as I see no way to win this argument, I shall yield.”
She then gave a short nod, and walked past him and into the carriage. He took a few seconds to look skyward, for no reason other than to calm his breathing, then followed, and soon they were on their way once more. Milly, as he now knew her, sat across from him, pressed into the corner, looking out the window. She was no longer Millicent. That name was reserved for the woman she had left behind in London.
The day was gray, and snow continued to swirl in the air. Darkness would fall early now, and Joseph had no problem with that. He was more than happy to be huddled beside his hearth with a brandy and book before it did. Where would Milly be as day turned to night? In the Wimplestow household, he knew, but doing what? When would her workday finish? What had she been forced to do in the last four years? What was her story?
Christ, these thoughts had to stop, they were like a never-ending carousel inside his head.
“Do the Wimplestow family know they are getting you and Mugwort?”
The little dog was sitting on her mistress’s lap, snoring blissfully as Milly stroked her spiky fur.
“As to that, my lord, I had not planned to... ah—”
“Add dognapping to your resume?”
“I shall find another home for her if the Wimplestow family do not want her in theirs,” she added, ignoring his accusation.
“I will take her,” Joseph said, before he could stop himself.
