Free Gift-Wrapped Governess by Sophia James

any raised shout. ‘You have said enough, Lady Frobisher. It would be wise if you went now before you say more.’
    â€˜Now listen here, my lord…’ A man at the rear of the group had taken up the argument, his face florid with anger.
    But the Duke was at the very end of patience. ‘Get out.’
    With a heavy click of her fan the woman turned, then thought better of it. ‘I feel it to be my God-ordained duty to let the magistrate in Maldon know of this contretemps. If I were you, Stanford, I should keep all the silver ewers well out of sight before you, too, feel the heavy weight of the Moreton temperament descend upon you just as Cresswell did.’
    With that they were gone, the door shut behind them and a servant Seraphina did not recognise standing at attention by the door.
    Trey unlaced his grip on her hand in a quick movement and waved the man away, the tension in the room building as all the shouted insults of the woman were remembered. Finally, he spoke.
    â€˜Lady Frobisher will probably calm down once she has had the time to think things over. I doubt she will want to alert the magistrate.’
    â€˜How could she know anything about me?’
    â€˜The papers are full of the mystery of your disappearance from London and with you gone…’
    He stopped as she looked up at him.
    â€˜With you gone anyone can say anything. And they have.’
    â€˜I see.’ He had not mentioned the matter of her being his intended at all. Rather he moved back and poured himself a drink from a decanter on a small desk. Brandy, Seraphina thought by the colour, so shocked that she had begun to shake. Trey Stanford swallowed his tipple in a single shot and poured another. This one he handed to her.
    â€˜I find a clear mind often only makes matters worse,Seraphina.’ The first time he had ever used her Christian name and she liked the sound of it off his tongue. Upending the liquid just as he had, she coughed as the burn crawled down her throat.
    â€˜Lady Frobisher is a woman who could ruin your reputation in a heartbeat,’ he said at length. ‘And to find you here at Blackhaven without a chaperone would constitute a great scandal.’
    She smiled, fortified by the effects of the drink, for if only everything could be so very easy.
    â€˜Oh, I think my reputation is already ruined, my lord.’
    â€˜Perhaps not. The world will be wary of the word of a man who is both a gambler and a heavy drinker. Although Ralph Bonnington might say you attacked him, he is without witnesses. Conjecture is all anyone has to work with.’
    Seraphina had had enough. ‘I can see no conjecture bigger than the false news of the betrothal you confided to the group who have just left, sir.’
    He laughed at that. ‘Surely you understand that a governess looking as you do would be fodder for endless debate. No one would believe you were here merely to watch over my children and you would never again be accepted back into the society you are used to.’
    â€˜I had no mind to go back, my lord.’
    â€˜Your mother said exactly the same thing to me after Terence died, but she was at odds to find another place to be at peace in, no matter how hard she tried to.’
    This truth made her sad, but she could not leave it there. ‘My parents’ marriage was as false as you profess your own to have been and both ended badly. I should never agree to marriage unless there was love.’
    â€˜Indeed, those are my sentiments exactly.’
    Such words confused her and a hope long missing from her life bounded into possibility. Was he saying he could love her? Did he mean to keep to the words given to LadyFrobisher because of such an emotion? She shook her head. A man like him would have the choice of any woman he wanted, one spotless of reputation and from a family well able to bring in a substantial dowry.
    But what if it was she he desired? What if even for this small moment