Rebellious Rake, Innocent Governess. Elizabeth Beacon

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СКАЧАТЬ away, Miss Wells,’ he warned with the hint of a driven growl in his gruff whisper, ‘you don’t need them any more than I do, and every time you put them on in my presence from now I shall claim a forfeit.’

      ‘I’ll do as I like,’ she sparked back, but Charlotte knew he could almost see the shiver of delighted apprehension sliding languorously down her spine at the very thought of what such defiance might cost her.

      ‘Oh, I guarantee that you will like, Miss Wells, but I’m not at all sure it would be proper for such a correct governess as you are to like it so much.’

      ‘Which is one very good reason why you should leave me alone,’ she pointed out rather breathlessly and cast a warning look at him, then at Isabella, who was eagerly paying attention to all she could catch of this highly improper conversation.

      ‘For now,’ he half-threatened and half-promised and Charlotte sat back in her chair with what must be relief as he finally swung away from her and her world could expand again.

      Ben did his best to consider the book Miss Wells had set on her neat schoolmistress’s desk and finally decided she had completely shot his concentration, and that she was right and it wasn’t a very good book to start with. Sweeping it aside, he perched on her usual desk instead and tried to muster a description of his first meeting with the inhabitants of that young country, both native and more recently arrived. He must have succeeded, for Isabella hung on his every word and even Miss Wells stayed silent in her corner and didn’t interrupt once. The very thought of her there, quiet and sceptical and far more of a woman than she had ever let the world see, was in danger of distracting him, but luckily Isabella had a keen interest in the world and kept him busy with questions and challenges.

      His respect for governesses grew, although he suspected Miss Wells was far more learned and genuinely accomplished than most and he could see why Miranda valued her so highly. And nobody could accuse her of being encroaching with any justice, since she was so determined to efface herself in company that at first he used to quiz himself on whether she had actually been in a room while he was in it or not. But that blessed state of oblivion now felt as if it had happened years ago and he knew exactly where and when she was there now, however hard she pretended to be invisible. Just by the reaction of his rebellious body he was all too aware of every look and movement she made. He was sincerely glad she didn’t know it, or how infuriating he found his ridiculous susceptibility. Just thinking of her reaction if he gave in to his baser instincts and kissed her passionately, to prove she wasn’t the icily correct governess she wanted to believe, made him feel like grinning like an idiot and moaning like a soul in torment at the same time.

      He was a damned fool to stir up a hornet’s nest that didn’t need stirring, he decided, and did his best to answer Isabella’s questions. No, more than that, the hornet might win and it only took the quiet, elusive scent of Miss Wells, the sight of her pretending to be obliviously stitching, to let him know he was in danger of being stirred up more than she would think at all proper. Last night he’d tossed and turned in his very comfortable bed in his comfortable house and told himself he had everything he needed in life. It had taken until the dawn was threatening for him to acknowledge that, no, he didn’t have one very significant thing and stood very little chance of ever securing it. That he should suddenly be afflicted with the desire to lie with Miss Vinegar and Propriety in his arms in that grand feather bed all night was anathema to him, and would certainly be to her if she ever found out! He’d come here, after assuring himself that Kit Alstone was as indestructible as ever, with the noble object of curing himself of Miss Wells with as large a dose of disapproval and uninterest as a man could physick himself with.

      And she’d let him down! Even now he almost refused to believe it, but while Miss Charlotte Wells might hate him for it, she would kiss him right back if he were ever fool enough to risk it and why did that make him more confused, instead of re-armoured against her? Over in her isolation corner, he could tell she was as conscious of his every move and mood as he was, and he felt her sensitivity like a fever running over his skin. She would never admit it, of course; he could imagine her fighting the attraction between them with every fibre of her being and with a slightly bitter twist in his gut he couldn’t blame her. No doubt she’d been born a lady, and remained one despite her dependent situation. She might be impoverished, but his Miss Wells would never weaken and seek the primrose path to damnation by accepting a rich man’s protection and, as he hadn’t the slightest intention of getting married, now or ever, there could be nothing else between them. He should avoid her as if she had the plague and see as little as possible of his adoptive family until Kate was safely settled, and Izzie firmly closeted in her schoolroom and keeping her governess too busy to disturb him.

      ‘Really, Ben, you’re as bad as Miss Wells for wandering off into dreamland this morning,’ Isabella informed him disgustedly and watched him artlessly with those astounding Alstone eyes he wondered idly how Kit had missed. He needed to take care in the face of the sparkling intelligence he knew lay behind them, and gave Isabella a mock frown to try and distract her from considering the cause of such mutual distraction.

      ‘However much your sister pays Miss Wells, she needs a raise,’ he told her with a sternness that wasn’t entirely assumed. ‘You’d drive me to distraction in half a day.’

      ‘Miss Wells is made of sterner stuff, or we’d have parted company years ago,’ she informed him, unimpressed with his attempt to distract her and bringing him back to the subject of her personal dragon instead.

      ‘I am here, you know?’ she told them mildly, looking up for a moment from her infernal stitchery with a slight smile that jarred at something inside him and reminded him he was in no danger of forgetting.

      ‘My admiration for that fact is growing by the moment, ma’am,’ he informed her with a slightly mocking bow. ‘I’d have departed for the Americas myself rather than endure two weeks of trying to instruct this ungrateful urchin alone—two years of it must be considered heroic.’

      ‘Oh, it’s not so very bad when you get into the way of it,’ she told him mildly and he knew she was informing him that she was perfectly content with her lot and had no intention of seeking another—particularly not one that might end with her spending each and every night rendering his rest disturbed for a very different reason than she had last night.

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