“I slept well, My Lord, thank you for asking.”
“I trust you are sufficiently settled in?” He picked up his cup and took a sip of tea.
“Yes, I am. Everyone has been very kind.” She couldn’t really look at him, although her eyes kept wanting to slide his way. There was just something about him that drew her and she did not know what to do about it. In Whitehaven, she’d had a few suitors, boys who tried to woo her. But none of them had made her feel this way. She wondered why this man, this Earl who was her employer, should be the one to make her heart flutter and her body shiver in reaction to his mere presence.
“That is good to hear. You will start your classes right away I presume.”
“Er, yes. I have prepared some lesson plans for this week. I do hope that the children will enjoy them.”
The Earl grinned somewhat impishly. “I don’t imagine lessons are made to be enjoyed. Rather endured as a necessary evil.”
Emily laughed in surprise. She had not imagined that the Earl might be one to make a joke. “Well…I do hope I can make it less of a chore than that.”
“Well, I wish you the best of luck. Please, have some tea.”
“Thank you.”
A footman was already pouring her a cup while another fixed her a plate. She tucked nervously into her food and was very relieved when she heard the high-pitched voices of Lady Anne and Lord Essex. She was not disappointed when they set about to greet her loudly and in a prolonged manner, full of questions and comments.
Their father tried to make them eat quietly to no avail, while Lady Nancy, who had come in moments after them, ate in deliberate silence while shooting sharp glances at Emily.
Having had a relatively restful night after Mrs. Cooke’s hot chocolate, she was better able to think and wonder about why the elder child was so hostile.
Is it me personally or does she just not like governesses?
It was a disappointment to her that Lady Nancy would be so hostile. They were not that far apart in age and she would have liked to have a friend to speak to, if only about light matters.
Taking a deep breath, she decided to start making an effort toward that end.
“So, Lady Nancy, do you enjoy reading?”
The young lady looked up with a frown. “Reading what exactly?”
Emily was a little taken aback by the deliberate insolence, having previously assumed that all gentry were souls of politeness.
“Well…stories I suppose. Are you familiar with Shakespeare?”
Lady Nancy snorted. “Who isn’t?”
“I’m not!” Lady Anne piped up, raising her hand, “What is that?”
Emily smiled. “Not what, but who. He was a writer who lived from the year 1564 to 1616. He wrote a number of books and plays that are still read and revered to this day.”
Lady Anne looked quite interested in this bit of news. “Will you read us some of his stories?”
“Of course…when you’re older.”
“Why not now?” Lady Anne looked like she almost wanted to stamp her foot.
“Well…the language is very advanced. You may not understand a thing.”
“Well, then…when will I understand?”
Emily smiled. “Once you’ve learned your reading, writing, and arithmetic.”
Lady Anne frowned. “That sounds like a long time.”
Emily laughed, quite delighted with her pupil’s honesty. “Well, I’m sure you shall think of ways to make the time go faster.”
Her heart sunk as Lady Anne and her brother exchanged delighted glances.
Oh, oh, what have I done?
She could not help but grin as well, basking in the twins’ mischievous energy. Inadvertently, her eye caught the Earl’s and found him watching her intently. Her cheeks heated up and she looked away, hiding her face behind her cup of tea.
“Anne? Harry? You will do as your governess says.” His baritone was low and gentle but firm, nonetheless. Both twins echoed their agreement and Emily did not dare look at anyone.
Laurence walked around the rubble of what used to be his building. The insurance would pay for some of the damage but there were his girls to be accounted for.
So far, Madam Bainbridge had located all but one. One who seemed to have vanished into thin air like mist in the sunrise. She was a naïve country bumpkin all alone in the big city.
How is it even possible that she’s gotten so far by herself?
A soft footfall had him turning to see Madam Bainbridge making her way toward him.
“What news of our runaway?”
She shook her head, avoiding his eye. “No one has seen her. Nobody will own up to having seen hide or hair of her that night after she ran off to her chambers. We do not even know how she escaped.”
“Could she have been taken? By one of the patrons?”
Her brow furrowed with concern. “I do not see how. None of them are allowed on the upper floors.”
“There was a fire, Madam Bainbridge. I doubt that there was anyone around to reinforce that.”
She shook her head. “She was not in the parlor long enough to have excited anyone’s ardor that extremely. No, I think that she left without being seen and we will find her soon–probably wandering the streets looking hungry and dirty.”
Laurence took a step closer to her. “You better find her Madam Bainbridge. Find her soon.”
“I will, Sir. You may trust me. Nothing happens in these streets that I do not eventually hear about. If someone sees her, I will know.”
Laurence nodded. “Good.” He took a deep breath, “Now I have a meeting with the insurance agent. I must go. You will find us a new building by tomorrow. The girls need to get back to work.”
Madam Bainbridge bowed her head. “Of course, Sir.”
In spite of the slightly bumpy start to their acquaintance, Lady Nancy gave her no trouble once she was assigned some work to do. She was clearly highly intelligent, but took care to conceal it beneath a genteel nature.
Emily set her to name all the flowers in the garden, and to find out what uses they might have aside from being pleasing to the eye. Meanwhile, she set the twins up with pen and charcoal and asked them to draw a flower of their choice.
While their resultant work was quite good, it was clear that Lady Anne had a distinct talent in drawing. Emily made a note to give her more art-related projects to accomplish in the future. Meanwhile, Lord Essex finished his drawing and set about counting petals and leaves.
“I want to see if every flower has the same amount, you see.”
Emily smiled. “That is very scientific of you, Lord Essex. Well done. An inquisitive spirit is always an advantageous thing to have.”
“You think so?” Lord Essex grinned up at her.
“I know so.” Emily assured him.
“My father doesn’t think so. He’s always complaining that I have too many questions.”
Emily smiled affectionately, “I expect you ask them at the wrong times. That always gets parents in a bit of a bad mood.”
“Oh,” Lord Essex bit his lip thoughtfully, “then when is the right time, Miss Fletcher?”
Emily laughed, shaking her head. “I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him that.”
She was feeling rather wistful because she had not clapped eyes on the Earl since the breakfast they’d shared on her first morning. According to what she could gather, he was very busy at the moment and tended to leave the house long before his children awoke and come back after they had gone to bed.
Emily generally tried to share a meal with the children when she could and when she could not, she ate in the kitchen with Mrs. Cooke. She had tried to ask–without sounding like an old gossip–if such absences were the norm with the Earl. Mrs. Cooke had only widened her eyes at her and changed the subject.
It was very frustrating.
Emily told herself that she was only concerned for the children but if she was honest with herself, she could admit that she really wanted to see
the Earl. He had managed to embed himself in her spirit and when she closed her eyes at night, she found herself thinking of him. She had begun to seek out thoughts of him to evade the memory of her one and only night in the brothel. But now she could not get him out of her mind.
When she dreamed of a man reaching out to tweak her nipple, that man had the Earl’s face. Instead of leering however and filling her with fear and disgust, his face was filled with wonder and adoration. The way that he touched her in her dreams made her moan in her sleep, jerking awake to find her nipples in hardened peaks of desire.
She was forced to rub convulsively at them, to try and get rid of the sensation. But instead of dissipating the heat in her center, touching her nipples only served to increase the sensation. She did not know what to do and ended up squeezing her thighs together very hard in an effort to quell the leakage of fluid that dripped slowly out of her.
“Oh Lord, help me.” She closed her eyes, wondering if her experience at the brothel had made her a wanton, who lusted after men’s flesh with abandon.
But it’s not all men’s flesh, is it?
That voice in her head that sounded like her mother spoke up.
Just the Earl’s.
She had absolutely no interest in any of the footmen or the butler.
“I’m done with my drawing, Miss Fletcher,” Lady Anne said pulling her out of her reverie. Emily studied it with care before turning to Lady Anne with a smile.
“This is very good, My Lady. You have a real talent.”
Lady Anne beamed with pride and gave a little jump for joy. “May I draw something else, please?”
“Yes, but let us get out of the sun, shall we? We can go to the library.”
“All right…” she hesitated, a slight frown on her face, “But what about my sister? She’s not finished yet.”
Emily looked up to see her third charge walking among the azaleas, seemingly deep in thought. “She can finish up and join us,” She told the twins who obligedly got to their feet and followed her to the house. She called out to Lady Nancy, to let her know where they were going and the girl gave a small wave to indicate that she’d heard.
Emily led the other two to the library where she immediately went to the shelf to pick up a small carved animal that one of the footmen had told her was a rhinoceros. A fell animal found in the plains of the Dark Continent.
“Lord Sulby traveled there once and came back with many stories of enormous horned creatures. He said this carving is but a tiny fraction of the animal’s actual size.” The footman had told her.
She had stared at it in some stupefaction, overcome with a childlike curiosity to see the full scale animal. “It looks similar to a wild boar, I think,” she had said to the footman.
“Perhaps, but much more fearsome.”
She turned with it now and showed the sculpture to the twins. “This is a rhinoceros. I want you to draw me a rendering Lady Anne while Lord Essex and I go over some arithmetic. I will put it here on the table, carefully and you can sit right there on that stool and draw it. That way there’s no danger of us dropping it by mistake and breaking one of your father’s prized possessions.”
Lady Anne was perfectly agreeable to this plan and sat down immediately to draw while Lord Essex waited expectantly by the desk for her.
Emily smiled.
She was really proud of the progress they’d made. She’d found that by emphasizing the areas of personal interest to all three, she was able to accomplish a lot more than if she made them all learn the same thing at the same time. Lord Essex was partial to arithmetic while Lady Anne loved to draw and paint.
Quite inadvertently, she’d learned of Lady Nancy’s love of botany when she’d wandered into the conservatory and Mrs. Cooke had informed her that Lady Nancy had been in charge of it for a long time. She’d said that Lady Nancy repeatedly requested her father to bring her exotic plants from his overseas trips which she planted in the conservatory and did her best to keep alive.
“It’s the only time that I ever see her truly happy.” Mrs. Cooke said sadly, “She’s been a miserable little thing ever since their dear sainted mother died.”
“How did that happen?” Emily felt guilty for asking but could not contain her curiosity in the wake of such an opening.
Mrs. Cooke sighed again shaking her head. “Well, it wasn’t pretty I can tell you.”
“Was she sick?” Emily persisted, not knowing why she wanted to know so badly.
“You could say that.” The vague reply was even more frustrating than not knowing.
“Lord Sulby must have loved her a lot.”
Mrs. Cooke didn’t say much, just sighed deeply again. It was deeply frustrating.
Duncan was glad to be back home in the daylight for once. He had missed his family. It was strange to be in London with them and yet not see them for days on end. His time was occupied with Parliament which was debating a new and crucial bill on the Dutch East India Company and in addition to that, he was forced to contend with all sorts of paperwork and licenses for the new ventures that were opening up in the East Indies.
Even with his steward doing most of the leg work, it was all very involving. He looked up to see the butler headed for him and as the man reached for his coat, he asked on the whereabouts of his children.
“Lady Nancy is in the garden while the twins are with the governess in the library.”
“Oh, is that so? And everything is going well?”
“I believe so, Your Lordship.”
Duncan made a sound of acknowledgment, gratified to hear it and eager to see both his children and their governess. He had been trying his best not to think of her. Not only was it inappropriate to do so, but his heart was already too interested in her for his own good. He had no interest in having it broken once again.
Chapter 9
Despite his reservations, Duncan found himself lurking by the library door, pricking his ears to hear what they were doing inside there. There was not much sound, just the occasional scratching of a pen, which was most unusual. His children were not normally quiet.
He stepped nearer the door and that was when he heard quiet voices counting.
Miss Fletcher’s melodic “Very good, Lord Essex. That is correct. Now, subtract two of them.”
Duncan inched the door open and peered inside to see his younger daughter hunched over the desk, fiercely focused on her paper. On the other side of the room, Miss Fletcher sat with Harry, as they wrote in another book. He was counting something with his hands while Miss Fletcher watched.
Duncan blinked, taken aback at the level of obedience Miss Fletcher had manage to produce in his children in the short time she’d known them.
Why she’s barely been with us a week!
He stepped back and made his way to the gardens, intent on his elder daughter. If anyone had any complaints to make, it would be her. Duncan did not know why he needed to hear complaints about Miss Fletcher. He just knew that there was an imperative within him to make sure she was not in some way, a figment of his imagination.
Did I conjure her out of my dreams or is she a flesh-and-blood being?
Even as he knew he was being overly dramatic, he could not help but wonder. He spotted Nancy among the roses, her nose planted in the petals, eyes closed, looking as peaceful as he’d ever seen her. He hesitated by the door, reluctant to disturb her.
Instead he turned and went to his study where he could watch her from the window. A serving girl brought him some tea and scones and he absently ate as he watched his daughter.
There were days where he was sure Nancy would never be happy again. He knew her mother’s death had adversely affected her but what worried him was that she did not seem to be getting any better.
If she did not get better, then neither could he. He understood her misery too well, and he wished that there was something he could do about it. He had even considered taking her along with him on one of his many trips abroad. Perhaps a new environment mi
ght have helped. But she was remarkably hostile to the idea. She had even gone so far as to scold him about it.
“Who will look after the twins if we are both gone?” she had almost wagged a finger at him. He’d opened his mouth to suggest that they should all come along but she’d forestalled him.
“Anne and Harry need some stability. We cannot simply follow you around like a bunch of gypsies.”
A Wicked Earl she can't Resist: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel Page 7
