Oh, Cherry Ripe

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“You will like the pond … it has a very pretty setting …” Freddy said as he looked at Cherry dreamily.

“Yes, there is a great deal that can be learned at a pond. We can manage two birds with one stone, as the saying goes.” Cherry laughed at Freddy’s expression and waved him off. “Go on … you go and fetch the biscuits for the ducks and meet us outside.”

“At once,” he answered dramatically and was off, happy to be of service. It was all too obvious to Cherry that he was infatuated with her; she would have to be careful and steer him off by reminding him every time she could that she was older and not suitable.

The walk to the pond was done with everyone conversing in French. Cherry made a game of it, starting it with a song and then presenting the simplest of questions, requiring only a basic answer in the French tongue. Even Felix became quite enthralled with the game. By the time they had reached the pond, she had started a short story, embellishing it with romance, keeping it simple enough for them to understand, sticking in a word of English here and there to help them along, ending it with the promise to continue it the next day when they had learned additional French vocabulary.

They stopped to view the pond, and Cherry exclaimed, “Why it is certainly everything you said, Freddy. Quite exceptional … lovely.”

“Look!” Felix shrieked and took after something in a great rush.

“Oh no!” Francine wailed. “He’ll catch it and shake it in my face.”

“What will he shake in your face?” Cherry smiled, greatly amused, and then went wide-eyed as Felix had indeed caught something he was stroking in his hand.

“It’s a frog … only look how big he is!” Felix announced as he approached them.

Francine dove behind Cherry as Felix held it up to Cherry’s face for inspection with great enthusiasm.

Cherry laughed and shook her head. “No, not a frog.” She reached out and petted the creature to Felix’s amazement and Francine’s horror. “At least not just any frog, but a bullfrog, Felix.”

Freddy, who had been grinning broadly during this entire interlude, burst into indecent mirth and said to his young brother, “She has you at every score, young’un.”

Felix’s mouth opened and shut. Finally he said, “A bullfrog?” He eyed her suspiciously. “How do you know?”

“Why, just by his size. He will live for about fifteen years, you know.” She smiled to see him look at her oddly before he set the creature down and stood back to watch it hop off to safety.

Cherry was breaking down all of Felix’s defenses, and at the moment he was at a loss. Just how did one react to such a governess?

* * *

Sky Westbrooke strode hard through the front door and handed the butler his driving coat, gloves, and hat. He smiled amicably at the man, and inquired carefully, “Tell me, Thurston, has my brother Frederick been heard from?”

“Why, yes, my lord. He arrived yesterday.”

“Did he, by God! Well, that is something. Where is he presently?”

“He is with the children and the new governess, my lord.”

“New governess? Will wonders never cease—good for ol’ Trekner! What sort of woman is she, Thurston? How is she holding up?”

“I must say, my lord, she is unlike any governess we have had here before. As to the children … we believe they already are taking to her … but of course, she has only been here since yesterday.” In an aside with a slight smile, he added, “Felix seems taken with her.”

“Will wonders never cease? Where are they now?” His lordship was intrigued.

“At the pond, my lord, er … feeding the ducks.”

Both men suddenly turned to look at the front door, which opened with a bang and an accompaniment of laughter and shrieking children.

His lordship’s eyes opened wide as he watched Freddy step aside to allow ‘Miss Sarah’, as he called her, to enter, her shawl full with a crew of wriggling yellow fluffs.

Behind the new governess came Francine, squealing with delight and interjecting, “Be careful, oh, Miss Sarah … one is escaping!” So stating, she grabbed at the shawl where one little duckling had managed to stick out its head and held it together.

Cherry, however, had been struck into such immobility that all she could do was stare at the tall and arresting man before her. Both Cherry and Westbrooke took a long gulp of air at finding one another so unexpectedly.

What is he doing here? she immediately wondered. Faith, but he was (as she had thought a few nights ago) the most handsome man she had ever seen, and how very exciting to see him again. What a night that had been … when he ushered her into his coach and took her to Polly Corbett’s. It all came flooding back to her, and she felt the heat rush to her cheeks. He had kissed her … and that kiss … oh, that kiss.