Free Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid by Maureen Driscoll Page A

to find her heart rate accelerate with
each step Ned took toward her.
    “I must express my surprise that you didn’t give each child
a dram of Scots whiskey to ward off the spirits of disease,” he said.
    “Did you come here solely to vex me?”
    “No, but it is an added bonus to my visit.  How often do you
teach the children?”
    “Twice a week, except during harvest when most of them can’t
be spared from home.”
    “Is there no school in the village?”
    “Not for the farmers’ children.  The vicar and his wife
offer classes in Greek and Latin to some of the older boys of the gentry who
can’t afford tutors, but they already have too many responsibilities with the
vicarage to expand their lessons.  All I do is offer reading and sums, with a
few pointers on how to stay healthy.  Now I suppose I must endure more mockery
from you.”
    “I’m afraid not, Jane.  At least not about this.”
    “And what has put you off, so I might thank God for it in my
prayers?”
    “I admire you.”
    It was true, Ned realized.  He really did like this woman. 
He’d known for years that he’d like to lie with her again and had done so
countless times in his dreams.  But as he’d watched her with the children,
sitting under the tree and wearing a drab grey gown with her beautiful hair
pulled back into a severe bun, he realized he liked her.  Admired her.   She
was hidden away in this dreary village, sewing up farmers one day and teaching
sums to their children the next.  And furthermore, the children had seemed to
enjoy their lesson.  Of course, if any of his tutors had looked the least bit like
Jane Wetherby, he would’ve enjoyed his lessons, too.
    “May I escort you home?”
    “No,” she answered, just a bit too quickly.
    Ned’s senses went on full alert.  Was she hiding something? 
A husband, perhaps?  No, Rigg would’ve told him if she’d been married.  A
lover?  A jolt of a strong emotion ran through him that might’ve been jealousy
in another man.
    “I must insist, Jane.  Who knows what could be lurking in
these woods.”
    “My lord, I assure you I do not need an escort.  I’m
perfectly safe.”
    “It’s not ‘my lord,’ it’s Edward.  Preferably Ned.  And I
must insist on a safe escort.”
    “I don’t need one.”
    “But I do.  I’m afraid I have a terrible sense of direction
and cannot find my way on my own.”
    “In that case, I’ll escort you to Barrington Manor.  I’m
sure Miss Merriman is missing her fiancée.”
    Before Ned could press his case again, Jane began walking in
the direction of Barrington Manor.  If he wanted to talk, he’d have to do it on
her terms.
    “I’m afraid you are under a misapprehension.  I am not now,
nor will I ever be, Miss Merriman’s fiancée.”
    “But she’s had an understanding since birth with a member of
the nobility.  You are a member of the nobility and have come to stay with her
and her family.  I believe the misapprehension is yours, my lord.”
    “Ned.  I would know if I were getting married and I can
assure you I’m not.  We could argue this point endlessly, but I don’t want to waste
this opportunity to speak with you.  How did you learn about such things as
spirits of disease?”
    “It’s something my father believed in quite strongly.  He
was a physician who studied medicine through the ages.  The Greeks believed
there were agents unseen by the human eye that cause disease.  I became a firm
believer in the existence of such agents or spirits when I worked in Belgium. 
It was too much of a coincidence that dozens of men would show the same
symptoms of a stomach malady after drinking from a stream that appeared clean. 
There had to be something we couldn’t see that made them sick.
    “I also learned those agents of disease could be on objects
like needles and scalpels.  One night we ran out of thread and were forced to
use horse hair for sutures.  The hair itself was too coarse to sew with, so we
boiled