The Wicked Governess (Blackhaven Brides Book 6)(23)

His lips twisted. “By taking her shopping?”

“Yes, and other mundane and hopefully amusing pastimes. I believe she should be allowed to grow used to people, to be with other children. You may not be aware that Lady Tamar called this afternoon with her young sisters—”

“I am well aware.”

Then he had merely lacked the civility to greet them.

He pushed the book across the desk, crushing papers in the process. “I am also aware you cannot…fix Rosa in whatever few days you have left here.”

“I do not claim to—” She broke off, searching his face with a first hint of understanding. “Are you dismissing me?”

“You are on loan, are you not?” he snapped. “I presume Lady Tamar came to take you back. I’m only surprised you didn’t jump in her carriage at once.”

Caroline flushed under the contempt in his voice. “If it weren’t for Rosa, I would have. It is certainly not the courtesies of my employer which keep me.”

“Then it must be the boots.”

She frowned. “The boots? I—” She met his suddenly tranquil gaze, and in spite of everything, had to bite back a surge of laughter. “Yes, of course it is the boots.”

“You’re not going back to them, are you? And yet I heard her—Lady Tamar—ask you to.”

He had been as close to the drawing room as that, and yet he had not come in? Because Lady Tamar had asked her to go back.

“I find I cannot go back,” she said now with difficulty. “Not until it might be possible to teach Rosa along with the Braithwaite girls.” She raised her hands to prevent the inevitable outburst. “Please don’t bite my head off, I am well aware that time is not yet, and is not my decision to make either.”

“You are a very managing female,” he observed.

“It is a useful quality in a governess,” she replied with dignity.

“Do you normally feel called upon to manage the families of your charges, too?”

“Frequently.”

A faint smile played about his lips. “You made a poor job of it with the Braithwaites.”

“On the contrary, I made an excellent job of it, up until a rare moment of weakness. It won’t happen again.”

“We’ll see.” He moved from behind the desk, advancing upon her. For a moment she couldn’t breathe, until he walked past her toward the door. “Fetch your cloak, Miss Grey, I believe it’s time for Tiny’s walk.”





Chapter Seven





The following afternoon, as part of the music lesson, Caroline sang out a note, and Rosa had to find the corresponding key on the piano. Rosa became adept at this very quickly. She seemed to like the way the human voice blended with the piano and urged Caroline to sing along to the scales she was practicing, which became amusing when Rosa’s finger slipped, and Caroline mimicked the corresponding discord.

Caroline was just calling things back to order when something made her glance at the doorway to the drawing room. Javan Benedict stood there, leaning against the door, his face inscrutable as he watched them. Her heart gave the funny little leap it always seemed to when she saw him.

Rosa immediately showed off her scales with more care and received her father’s as well as Caroline’s approval.

“Go and find Tiny,” he told his daughter. “I want a word with Miss Grey.”

Rosa, like any child, looked delighted that lessons were finishing early and skipped off with great glee.

“It gets dark so early now,” Mr. Benedict remarked in an excusing kind of way. To her surprise, he moved to the piano. “I’ve been thinking about what you said.” He depressed the last key and wrinkled his nose before sinking down onto Rosa’s vacated stool. If Caroline had moved, she’d have touched him. As it was, his warmth radiated through her.

“I shall accompany Rosa,” he said abruptly.

Caroline smiled. “Tomorrow?”

“Yes, tomorrow. But I don’t care to spend my day in a lady’s shoe shop. Besides, it would cause talk, and it is your day off. We shall all go in the carriage to Blackhaven, and you may go off and do as you wish, and then return with us. Or the carriage can come back for you.”

Caroline murmured her thanks and waited.

He continued to stare at his large hand, his fingers moving silently back and forth across the same keys. “You are right,” he said. “She is too little with other people, especially children, but it must be done gradually so as not to overwhelm her.”

“That seems a very sensible course,” she allowed.

His lips curved as he cast her a caustic glance. “Careful, Miss Grey. Agreeing with me might become a habit.”

She raised her brows. “I thought, sir, that you were agreeing with me.”

The smile in his eyes deepened, which did strange things to her breathing. “You are an insolent baggage, and I shall probably dismiss you tomorrow.”

Surprised laughter spilled from her lips, but footsteps sounded in the drawing room beyond the open door, and he rose as quickly as he’d sat down.

“Sir?” came the voice of Williams the manservant.

Mr. Benedict strode into the drawing room. “I’m here, what is it?”

“Miss Rosa opened the door and the dog’s off on his own,” Williams said apologetically.