Sacked (To Love a Governess Regency Short)
Page 5
But, he looked up, directly across the street. A person could go to a dress shop. Jared spun on his heal, marched out of the inn and across the street. He tried the handle on the door but it was locked.
Elizabeth had to be in here.
He pounded on the wood and yelled. “Elizabeth, I know you are in there. Monique, open this door right now.”
There was a scurry of feet from within the shop. A moment later he heard the latch click and Monique through open the door. “What do you want?” She glared at him.
“Elizabeth, if you don’t mind.” He stormed around her and into the shop.
“I mind very much.” She slammed the door and stood to face him, hands on her hips.
“I don’t see that this is any of your concern.”
“You don’t?” Her eyebrows shot up. “You lied to me.”
“I most certainly did not.”
“Yes, you did.” She poked him in the chest and Jared had to keep backing up. She wielded that fingernail like a knife. “When you escorted me across the road you led me to believe you were going to offer for her. Not make love to her without even telling her how you feel.”
“I m m m meant to.” Jared fell into a chair and she towered over him.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Well, when I got to her room, well, she had just bathed, and, well, her robe was damp. . .”
Monique let out a loud sigh and rolled her eyes. “Your brain stopped working but something else took over?”
His faced heated at the truth and he grew rather uncomfortable. Since when did grown gentlemen blush? Yet, Elizabeth and now Monique had both caused him to. “I meant to tell her this morning, but she had already gone.”
“What did you wish to tell me?”
Jared’s head jerked up. Elizabeth stood in the doorway leading to the back of the building. She looked beautiful, lamplight casting a golden-red halo around her, just like in London. He stood and approached. Her face was deathly pale. Did she have regrets? He dearly hoped not. Jared drew close and took her hands in his. Her skin was ice cold. He rubbed the backs, attempted to bring warmth to her fingers. She simply stood and stared at him. She had asked him a question, but for the life of him, he couldn’t recall. Elizabeth seemed so fragile right now, her eyes studying him, lips drawn and all he wanted to do was hold her and protect her.
He moved, took her in his arms and rubbed her back, offering what comfort he could. No matter what had upset her, he would make it better. He kissed the top of her head. “Let’s go back to the inn.”
Everything else faded when she looked up at him, her full lips begging to be kissed. He lowered his mouth and brought hers to his. At first she remained still. When his lips ran across the seam of hers, they parted and he plunged. Would he ever get enough of kissing her, touching her, making love to her? He pulled her tight against his body. Last night was just a sampling of what could be. He intended to show her more, now.
Something pulled at his jacket and Jared was jerked back rather forcefully and out of Elizabeth’s arms. He turned to see who would do such a thing and found Monique glaring at him again, arms crossed over her chest and he groaned. He still hadn’t told Elizabeth how he felt.
For months he had dreamed of holding her, kissing her and all manner of things and now that he had, all speech was robbed. He quit thinking because all he wanted to do was go backing to loving her.
“I now understand.”
“What?”
“Come here.” She grabbed his arm and shoved him into what he assumed was a fitting room. A small raised dais was in the middle of the room, which he assumed the ladies stood on for hems and such.
“Stay there.” She pointed at him. Monique was as fierce as any school master he ever encountered and Jared didn’t dare move.
The drapes to the room were yanked closed and a moment later he heard the sound of nails pounding into a wall. As the curtain grew taut he realized Monique was nailing him in this room.
“Let me out? What are you doing?”
“I will let you out when you have said what you need to say.”
“I promise to the moment I am out of here.”
“No, you won’t.” A thud hit the counter and he could only assume it was the hammer. “The minute you lay eyes on Miss Claywell you cease thinking. Say what needs to be said and when you are done, I will let you out.”
Monique did have a point. He really couldn’t think straight looking at Elizabeth. He hoped that wasn’t the future or she would leave him for lack of conversation.
“Very well.” However, he did not want to expose his emotions with Monique listening as well. “Could you at least leave.”
He heard a bit of material rustling and then silence.
“She is gone,” Elizabeth spoke. “What did you want to tell me.”
“I love you.”
There was a gasp from the other side of the curtain. Oh, how he wished he could see her face and gauge her reactions. It was very hard to pour one’s heart out to a curtain.
“I think I have loved you for months. Why else do you think I offered you the position of governess without experience?”
“You were desperate with five little girls to raise.”
“Why do you think I offered to marry you?”
“You didn’t. I saw the man. He was very, very much older than you. White hair, walked with cane, and lived as a recluse.”
Grandfather said he botched it. Now Jared knew exactly how badly. Maybe it wasn’t the idea of being married to him, which he feared until last night, but the idea of being married to a sixty-year-old man. He certainly couldn’t blame her. “That was my grandfather. He was there on my behalf.”
“I did wonder why he would still have children to raise, and wanted a mother for them.”
Jared chuckled. “I never claimed to be a recluse. I was tired of the matchmakers and desperate mothers. With a wife I would be left alone.”
“You haven’t known me all that long.”
“I met you in London, but that wasn’t the first time.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I noticed you while visiting your uncle. You weren’t even aware of my presence. I did pay attention to you however, and knew I wanted you for my wife.”
“Why not court me, or at least introduce yourself?”.
There was an edge to her tone. Could he really blame her for being angry? He didn’t exactly go about this in the right fashion. But on the other hand, she hadn’t given him much choice. “I was going to call on you and your uncle in the country but then my brother was killed,”
“I am sorry.”
“I couldn’t go to you myself, so I sent my grandfather to speak to your uncle to plead my case. They have been friends for years.”
“Oh dear. I had no idea.”
“So I gathered. I received a note from your uncle, before my grandfather arrived, that you had run away and he was afraid there had been a misunderstanding.”
“Clearly.”
“We knew you were on a coach to Scotland so the girls and I went into town each day to be there for your arrival, in hopes of intercepting you.”
“You set the entire thing up?”
“Yes,” he admitted without shame. “When I saw how you were with the girls, helping with Julia, I decided to ask you to be my governess. I thought if you had a chance to get to know me you would change your mind.”
There was complete silence from the other side of the curtain and his heart ceased. Had she left? Was she angry? Was she trying to figure out a way to reject him?
Jared pushed on. “You cannot learn anything about a person while courting them with society looking on, which is why I was going to call on you in the country. Your living in my household gave us a chance to become comfortable with one another.”
The curtain fell away and Elizabeth stood their looking at him, tears in her eyes. “I supposed you intended to release me from my position as governess all along.”
“You are most definitely sacked.” He grinned down at Elizabeth and kissed her. “I have a much better position in mind.”
Monique cleared her throat. “You still haven’t asked.”
“Miss Elizabeth Claywell, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
A smile burst on her lips and she threw her arms around his neck. “Yes!”
More titles from Jane Charles
A Gentleman’s Guide to Once Upon a Time Series
His Impetuous Debutante
His Contrary Bride
His (Not so) Sensible Miss
The Wiggons’ School for Elegant Young Ladies Series
To Walk in the Sun
To Love a Governess –Regency Short Series
Sacked
Handfasted (coming soon)
About Jane
Jane Charles has lived in the Midwest her entire life. As a child she would more likely be found outside with a baseball than a book in her hand. In fact, Jane hated reading until she was sixteen. Out of boredom on a long road trip she borrowed her older sister’s historical romance and fell in love with reading. She long ago lost count of how many fiction novels she has read over the years and her love for them never died. Along with romance she has a passion for history and the two soon combined when she penned her first historical romance. What turned into a hobby became a passion, which has been fully supported by her husband, three children and three cats.
Jane can be contacted at: janecharles522@gmail.com
http://www.JaneACharles.blogspot.com
or on Facebook and Twitter: JaneACharles