Free Deceived by Jess Michaels Page A

right to tell my servant what to do.”
    “Do you want her to sneeze all day? It sounds painful,” Evan asked. He had a smile on his face, damn him, for he knew she wouldn’t agree that Nell should hurt herself.
    “Of course not,” Josie sighed. “Come, Nell, we should go back. I’ll see if someone else can accompany me. Or wait for my mother and go tomorrow.”
    “No, no,” Evan said, swooping in to gently remove the basket from her arm. “This is beastly heavy, Josie, great God.”
    “What are you doing?” Josie asked, ignoring his comments and grimaces about the basket.
    “ I’m going to accompany you,” he said, blinking at her as if that should have been perfectly clear. “Go on, Nell, your mistress is perfectly safe with me.”
    “No one is perfectly safe with you,” Josie muttered and to her surprise Evan laughed. She frowned at him and turned to Nell. Her maid shifted with discomfort.
    “I don’t know, miss. Is that proper?”
    Josie glared at Evan, but then shrugged. “Not precisely, I suppose. But Evan is an old friend to our family and his brother is the marquis, so in truth, all our tenants are also under Lord Woodley’s charge. And Evan is right, you are going to suffer all day. I should have been more mindful of that fact and I apologize for my lack of care toward you.”
    Nell waved her hand. “My reaction has never been so strong.”
    “Go back, have tea and do not worry yourself,” Josie said, well aware that Evan was watching her every move. She rather wanted to slap him for it, actually. Or kiss him again. She would choose to do neither, though the second was so very tempting.
    Relief flooded Nell’s features. “Oh, thank you, miss. And thank you, my lord.”
    Nell scurried away and Josie took a long breath before she turned back to Evan. “What do you want with seeing tenants with me?”
    He laughed. “You said it yourself that the charges of your father are also in some ways the charges of my family.”
    “Well, all your charges got a good dose of Woodley wisdom and company while your brother and his wife were here. They visited every single person in the shire.”
    Evan blinked. “Edward and Mary did? I thought they went out for just a long ride.”
    Josie turned her eyes upward with a sigh. “Evan.”
    He moved a little closer. “Please don’t say my name like it’s a curse.”
    She jerked her gaze toward him. His tone was teasing but his eyes were serious.
    “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Old habits, you know.”
    “We should form some new habits,” he returned, his voice silky.
    She shivered despite herself and didn’t resist when he took her arm and led her across the main street to the phaeton that was parked there.
    “Oh,” Josie said with surprise. “Nell and I were going to walk.”
    “Don’t you like phaetons?” he asked as he set her basket in the tiny space behind their seat and then helped her up.
    She wobbled slightly in the high perch. “I-I don’t think I’ve ever ridden in one. My mother doesn’t own one and it isn’t as if I get invited to ride by the kind of fast gentlemen who do.”
    Evan laughed again as he took a place beside her and urged the horses forward. “Well, consider yourself in the company of a fast gentleman.”
    “I do,” she muttered under her breath, but his chuckle told her that he had heard her yet again.
    And in truth, she rather liked that he laughed at her little quips. In London, there were gentlemen who looked at her like she was speaking another language if she made a sarcastic remark. Certainly her intellect and wit had done her no favors in the marriage mart.
    Which was part of why the fact that she would likely never marry didn’t trouble her. Much.
    “My mother will likely give me a full report tonight,” Josie said, searching for a comfortable topic. “But how is Lady Woodley’s recovering going?”
    “Very well, actually. Ever since Mary suggested the healer. Mary—that is Edward’s new