Private Tutoring for the Duke’s First Night - Chapter 30

Right. From now on, the lessons were supposed to be held not here, but in the Duke’s bedroom.

That crucial instruction had been swept far away and forgotten, carried off by the waves of pleasure she had felt at the time.

Late, two days in a row!

It made her want to bite her tongue and die.

She hurried toward the bedroom.

Standing before the double doors of the master bedroom, she knocked without even taking the time to steady the roughened breathing from hurrying there.

If she had not been late, knocking on the Duke’s ‘bedroom’ would have felt somewhat uncomfortable. No matter how much bodily contact a private tutor had, such an intimate and private place was not somewhere one should enter lightly.

But to Julia, tormented by the thought of being late two days in a row, even that discomfort was a luxury.

“It’s Devel, Your Grace.”

In less than ten seconds, the door opened. Duke Drexton, at least a head taller than Julia, looked down at her in expressionless silence. Overcome by guilt and embarrassment, Julia lowered her gaze to her feet.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I, I mixed up the lesson location…”

Her shoulders trembled as she stammered with a flushed face. The Duke’s fingertips twitched for a moment.

“Come in first.”

The Duke turned and entered the room. Julia hurriedly followed his back.

“You spoke during the day as if you were extremely devoted to your duties as a private tutor, yet you cannot even keep the lesson start time.”

The Duke reproached her in a relaxed tone. The color drained from Julia’s face. She could only bow her head.

There was no room for rebuttal. After lecturing him about how a widow should not go out with him under the pretense of being a teacher, she herself had ended up late for the lesson again.

“I am not, by nature, someone who is harsh about mistakes.”

Julia clasped her hands tightly together and nodded. The head maid, the coachman, the gardener. All of them had served this household for at least ten years, some for several decades. That would not have been possible if Duke Drexton were not a good master.

“But this time, I am a little angry.”

Whether the Duke was truly angry was unclear. His face was expressionless. But it was more than enough to make Julia shrink.

Even with ten mouths, she would have nothing to say.

“I apologize, Your Grace.”

The Duke looked at Julia with a quiet, admonishing gaze. Her eyes reddened with shame and distress.

“I am not qualified.”

Julia whispered in self-reproach. The Duke neither affirmed nor denied her words.

Julia’s chest began to tighten on its own. She had signed a contract for a large tutoring fee. But if she could not even fulfill her role properly as a tutor.

Would she be dismissed…?

Her breathing began to grow rapid again, for a different reason than before.

Being dismissed would be disastrous. Her husband’s debts were piled high. The moneylenders had said that if Julia failed to repay them, they would sell her to a brothel. They had even hurled humiliating remarks, telling her to put on some weight, since no man would buy someone so scrawny.

Her imagination spiraled into the worst possible place. Julia found herself imagining being dragged into a house of prostitution. The ‘customers’ were the very moneylenders who had come to threaten her.

Just imagining it made her feel sick.

‘No. I have to pay off the debts.’

Suddenly desperate, Julia grabbed the Duke’s arm tightly. She could not lose her position as Duke Drexton’s private tutor like this. She had to complete the contract period and receive her wages. No matter what.

“My deepest apologies, Your Grace. I’ll make sure this never happens again. So please…”

She looked up at the Duke with moist eyes. Her lips trembled in the forced smile she wore.

“Please don’t throw me away.”

Ah, what am I saying. Isn’t that too pathetic? But this was no time to worry about that. All she could think about was somehow begging for his forgiveness and changing his mind.

“What are you saying…”