The Devious Seduction 0f A Wayward Duke (Steamy Historical Romance)

by Olivia Bennet

  “Hello,” Jamie replied, quickly walking into the open door. He was hoping that the footman would keep his mouth shut. Jamie forgot that there would be a footman at this door, too.

  He made his way through the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible. Since this part of their home wasn’t often used by anyone other than those having to do with the distillery, he was also hoping that he wouldn’t see anyone who might suspect something was amiss.

  It seemed like the longest walk ever, but Jamie walked slowly and quietly, and finally made it to his father’s office door. He looked both ways before taking a deep breath and opening the door.

  He stepped inside and closed the door behind him, quietly. He then looked around the office. It was empty. He smiled to himself, and then walked over to the wall where he had decided to place the mouse. He sat it on the ground, and then walked over to where his father’s desk was. From this angle and distance, it surely looked like a real mouse!

  Filled with excitement, Jamie quickly trotted across the office to the mouse, and pulled the length of the string gently. He didn’t want to move the mouse, but he needed to hold the end so that he could pull it when his father came inside.

  Jamie walked slowly to his chosen hiding place, a spot behind a cabinet where he couldn’t be seen, and then crouched down to hide.

  At that moment, the door burst open and the Duke stormed in.

  “JAMIE!” his father bellowed. “What do you think you are doing?”

  Jamie froze in place. He was caught, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Chapter 14

  Priscilla put the books she bought in town before meeting with Joan away in her room, and then made her way downstairs. She hadn’t been gone long, but she wanted to find Lord Seton and find out how his day had gone.

  She knew that if he was with Miss Slade, she would have him doing something productive, like reading, so she checked the sitting room first, but it was empty. Priscilla then started to walk towards the library. As she walked, she passed a footman.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Ainsley. Are you looking for Lord Seton?”

  “Good afternoon. Yes, I am. Would you know where he might be?”

  He leaned into her and said softly, “I just heard that he was sneaking through the hallway near his father’s office. It’s not our duty to reprimand him, of course, but it seems like he might be up to something.”

  He’s planning a prank.

  Priscilla said a quick, “Thank you,” and then started quickly walking the opposite way towards the Duke’s office. I have to get there before the Duke does.

  She walked as fast as she could without breaking into a run, and as she finally turned the corner to the hallway where the Duke’s office was, she could already hear the Duke’s booming voice, which sounded extremely angry. She was worried what he might do.

  “…told you over and over not to do this, yet you do not heed my direction!”

  Priscilla didn’t know what came over her, but she walked through the open door and said, “STOP!”

  Everything suddenly froze. Lord Seton was standing before his father, his head down. The Duke was towering over his son, leaning into him. He was pointing at him and looked crazed and angry. His face was red, and his normally neat hair had fallen out of place.

  “Please, let him go,” she said quietly.

  The Duke turned slowly towards Priscilla and at the same time, Lord Seton raised his head. Her heart sank as she realized what she had done. Not only had she raised her voice at her employer, but she had raised her voice to a gentleman and to a Duke.

  “What did you say to me?” The Duke snarled at her.

  “I’m so sorry, Your Grace. Please, I thought—”

  “I don’t care what you thought. You are out of line!”

  Priscilla had seen a lot of angry people in her day, but she didn’t know if she had ever seen anyone as angry as the Duke looked at that moment.

  The Duke turned back towards Lord Seton.

  “Jamie, you are to go to your room immediately. I will deal with you later.”

  The Duke slammed the door shut and then turned to Priscilla. She was almost trembling. She didn’t know what was about to happen. Would he yell? Would he strike her? Terminate her employment?

  He leaned over the table; his hands firmly placed on its surface. He looked furious.

  “Miss Ainsley,” he said sternly. “Who do you think you are, to EVER have an opinion on how I discipline my son?”

  Priscilla tried to remain calm and not raise her voice towards the Duke. She took a deep breath, and then said, “Your Grace, I can’t apologize enough for what I just did. It was wrong of me, and I never should have said it.”

  The Duke stood up straight, still staring at her. She didn’t know what else to do, so she just kept talking.

  “I spend a lot of time with Lord Seton. And he is a wonderful child, but I believe he is missing something…the love of his parent. He doesn’t have anyone else but you, and he does these pranks to get attention from you. In his head, I believe, any attention from you, even bad attention, is at least something. You are the only parent he has left, Your Grace.”

  “Get out.”

  “What?”

  “Get. Out. Of. My. Office.”

  The Duke pointed towards the door.

  Priscilla said, “I’m sorry,” and she rushed to the door. She didn’t even look behind her. She just walked as quickly as she could towards her quarters, and she hoped she could get there before the inevitable tears began to fall…

  * * *

  Oliver took a deep breath. He could not believe that this was happening. First, Jamie tried to prank him, even after he had specifically told him no more pranks, and then Miss Ainsley stood up for him by implying that he, Oliver, was a terrible father.

  He shook his head and tried to settle down. He was not a terrible father…was he? He gave Jamie everything. Sure, he didn’t always spend a lot of time with him, but he had other things to do. He had a distillery to run, not to mention all of the responsibilities associated with his Dukedom. So, perhaps he hadn’t spent as much time with Jamie as he could, but he still gave him attention. He still saw him at dinner…most nights. Well, perhaps it was more like once or twice a week…

  Suddenly, the thought came that perhaps Miss Ainsley was right. Was it possible that he could spend more time with Jamie? Was that really why Jamie pulled all of his pranks? Oliver sighed…it made a lot of sense.

  No one had ever spoken to him the way Miss Ainsley had just a bit ago. Never in his entire life. Something about that excited him, and something about it made him even more curious about her than ever before. He suddenly felt remorse that he had spoken to her like that, and he was remorseful over how he had spoken to Jamie. He had to apologize…to both of them. But he also needed to settle down a bit.

  * * *

  “My Lord,” Miss Slade said, as she scowled. “I hate to say it, but whatever punishment your father deems necessary is appropriate. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Jamie was sitting in his bedroom sulking and waiting for his father. Word travelled fast in the manor, and only a few minutes after he came up to his room, Miss Slade had come barreling in.

  “I know, Miss Slade. I was wrong, and I shouldn’t have done it.”

  Miss Slade was pacing back and forth. “From what I hear, you didn’t think it was very wrong at the time. You simply waltzed right into the office and started setting up an elaborate prank. If that footman hadn’t seen you and quickly reported it to your father, who knows what damage you could have caused? What if your father had a meeting or a distinguished guest?”

  “I know. I didn’t think it through very well.”

  “You did not. I wonder what’s taking your father so long? He usually comes quickly when sending you to your room for punishment.”

  Jamie shrugged, but then said, “Oh, he’s talking to Miss Ainsley.”

  Miss Slade stopped pacing and quickly turned
to him. “What does Miss Ainsley have to do with this?”

  “She came into the office when Father was scolding me. She told him to stop.”

  Miss Slade gasped and put her hand over her heart. “NO! She didn’t!”

  “She did. My father then told me to come to my room and for Miss Ainsley to stay.”

  “Oh no! She is sure to be terminated.”

  “What?” Jamie said, standing up. “No! I can’t let her…I won’t. She’s the best governess I ever had.”

  At that moment, Jamie’s bedroom door opened, and his father stepped in. “Father, you can’t terminate Miss Ainsley,” Jamie said quickly. “She didn’t have anything to do with this. It was all me.”

  “I know, Jamie. Please, sit down. I want to talk to you.”

  “But what of Miss Ainsley?” Jamie asked as he walked to a chair against the wall.

  “Miss Ainsley is still your governess. I have not terminated her. In fact, I am going to speak to her after I speak with you. I want to ask you a question.”

  Jamie watched as his father pulled another chair close to his, and then sat down. “Jamie, Miss Ainsley informed me that I might not be giving you the attention that you need. Would you like it if we spent more time together?”

  “What?” Jamie asked. “Just you and I?”

  “If you like. Though sometimes we might ask Miss Ainsley…or Miss Slade, perhaps…or even Wright…to join us. Would you like that?”

  “Yes, Father.”

  “Very good then, Son. I look forward to seeing you at dinner tonight. For now, though, I must go apologize to Miss Ainsley.”

  The Duke touched Jamie’s shoulder before walking out of the room.

  * * *

  Priscilla couldn’t believe how distraught she was. At any moment she was expecting Wright to come to her door and tell her that her services were no longer needed here.

  She would miss Lord Seton a lot. She had grown very fond of him, and she couldn’t imagine not seeing him every day. Priscilla would also miss the comforts of living in this manor, and she wondered if she should start packing up her belongings. What about her—?

  Suddenly there was a knock at the door of the classroom, and her heart jumped. She said, “Come in,” and hoped with all of her might that it was anyone but Mr. Wright.

  Priscilla gasped as the Duke, himself, walked into the room followed by a footman.

  “Miss Ainsley,” the Duke said calmly. “I’m so sorry to bother you like this, but I have thought about what you have said, and I had to personally come to apologize to you. I hope that you will accept my sincere apology.”

  She didn’t know what to think. Was this some type of prank? A joke? Less than an hour ago he was yelling at her, and now he was as calm and charming as a happy baby.

  “Yes, Your Grace,” Priscilla finally uttered. “I will forgive you…on the condition that you forgive me, too. It was wrong of me to come into your office like that, and it was further wrong of me to raise my voice.”

  “I apologize, and I also accept your apology.”

  She looked at him and watched as his expressionless face began to form a smile.

  “I will have you know that I have also spoken to Jamie. I have asked him to spend more time with me, and he has agreed. Also, if you are still interested, I would like to extend the invitation to you, as well. Tomorrow, I have to go to London, but the following day, I would like to invite you to take a walk with me…and Jamie, of course.”

  Priscilla smiled. “Yes, Your Grace. I would like that very much.”

  “Perfect! I am looking forward to it, then. Have a good rest of the evening Miss Ainsley.”

  He smiled widely, then turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Priscilla finally felt as if she could breathe, and she couldn’t hold her smile back any longer. This day, which had taken a turn, had turned out to be perfect.

  * * *

  The following morning, Jamie ate his breakfast quickly, and rushed to get to his classroom. He needed to see, for himself, that Miss Ainsley was still employed in the household.

  The schoolroom door was closed, and he took a breath before walking in. He was delighted when she saw Miss Ainsley smiling back at him.

  “Miss Ainsley,” he cried as he ran to her. She opened her arms to him, and they embraced. He quickly pulled away, so as to act like a young gentleman, and not a child.

  “I am so glad you are here! I was…worried.”

  She looked down at him with a kind smile. “I was too, My Lord. I spoke with your father, though, and everything is going to be fine.”

  Jamie nodded at her, but then he remembered that he had caused all of this. “Miss Ainsley…I’m sorry.”

  She half smiled and nodded slowly at him. “I know, My Lord. I hope, that if nothing else, we all learned a lesson from this incident.”

  “I know I did. I promise to never do another prank as long as I live.”

  Miss Ainsley laughed at him. “Well, My Lord, I think that’s a bit extreme. Harmless pranks can be funny. It’s the pranks that involve sneaking around and targeting inappropriate people—like your father—those are the ones that will get you in trouble. I daresay when you head off to Eton, or wherever you will go to boarding school, that there will be pranks happening. You don’t want to get too much out of practice, right?”

  Jamie laughed. He knew that he would go to boarding school, soon, and that his time with Miss Ainsley wouldn’t last forever. So, she probably had a good point.

  “Now that we have all of that out of the way,” Miss Ainsley said, “What should we start with today? Mathematics? Just to get it out of the way?”

  “I guess,” said Jamie, taking his seat at the table. “We might as well get this over with.”

  * * *

  Oliver was up and in the carriage early. Traveling to London would take about three hours, and he was hoping to stop in on some business contacts before meeting with Darnerton later in the day.

  Since the trip would be a lengthy one, he had brought work to do along the way. His goal was to go back through all of the figures, and then try to re-budget. It was a boring activity, but since he would be confined to the carriage, he decided that it was the perfect time to work on it.

  Of course, travelling was also the ideal time to think, and Oliver certainly had some thinking to do. He and Jamie had a wonderful dinner the night before, and his son beamed most of the time they were together. Oliver was really putting in an effort to give Jamie attention, and it seemed to be working. In fact, he couldn’t remember a time when he had seen Jamie look so happy.

  He also marveled how highly Jamie thought of Miss Ainsley. This was actually good news to Oliver, as he still was aware of his developing feelings for the governess, and should things move forward with her and their relationship, it would be good for Jamie to like her, too.

  Oliver sighed and looked out the window. The sun wasn’t quite fully risen yet, but the early morning light put him in an excellent mood. Unfortunately, he would have to spend his travel time doing work, so he hoped that the light would last until he could meet with Darnerton.

  * * *

  “May we go to town again?”

  Priscilla looked at Lord Seton from across the table. “Of course, My Lord, but we have to ask your father, and I understand that he is away today.”

  “Yes. He is going to London. I wish I could go to London.”

  “Oh, I am sure you will at some point, My Lord,” Priscilla replied as she flipped through papers, looking for a particular globes lesson she had written out the evening before.

  “Have you been to London?”

  “I have, My Lord. Ah! Here it is.” She pulled the paper out of the pile. “Your globes lesson.” She slid it across the table.

  “Is London fun?” He asked, not paying much attention to the lesson.

  “It is, yes,” Priscilla replied, tapping her fingernail on the paper she had just passed to her student. “It’s a large city…probab
ly the largest I will ever see. Much larger than our small town. There are so many people, and horses, and shops, and peddlers…you could easily get lost in it all.”

  “Wow!” Lord Seton said excitedly. “I really want to go now.”

  Priscilla couldn’t help but to laugh. “I’m sure your father will take you if you ask him. But for now, I want you to label all of the territories of the British Empire on this map.”

  Lord Seton sighed, and began to write on the paper. Priscilla leaned back in her chair and watched him. He was already concentrating hard, or at least looked like he was, and she couldn’t believe the change in him since she had started working as his governess.