Free Rules for a Lady (A Lady's Lessons, Book 1) by Jade Lee

to send him a grateful smile. "You were magnificent, by the by. Wherever did you learn to fight? And will you teach me how?"
    Stephen gaped at her. "I most certainly will not!"
    Gillian shrugged as she turned back to Tom. "Oh, well. Perhaps I can find someone else."
    "Amanda—"
    "Oh, do not start lecturing me now," she interrupted. "It is Tom we should think of."
    Stephen paused, clearly torn between scolding her outside or hauling her inside to rake her over the coals in private. She never gave him the chance as she addressed Tom.
    "Well, what have you to say for yourself, young man?" she asked.
    The boy shrank even farther into the shadows.
    "Do not try to hide from me, Tom. Stand up straight and tell me he was a horrible, mean brute, and he frightened you."
    "But—"
    "Say it."
    "E—'e was a 'orrible brute, and 'e—" The small voice slid away.
    "He frightened you into doing things you never would have done on your own."
    Tom appeared to think. Then, when he spoke again, his voice contained a good deal more earnestness. "I never would, mum, never, 'cept 'e frightened me 'orrible."
    Gillian nodded, sparing a glance over her shoulder to see if this little speech had any effect on Stephen. It did, but not in the manner she hoped. Even in the pale yellow light, she could see the rigid clench of his jaw and the still-tight balls of his fists.
    Hastily she turned her attention back to Tom. "And... and now that you are safe from him, you swear you shall not do anything like that again. You will not sneak off in the middle of the night, you shall tell me immediately if you see him again, and you will serve the earl to the best of your ability."
    "Oh, I will, I swear it! I will."
    Gillian smiled as the color came back into the child's dirty cheeks. Not daring to look behind her at the earl, she flashed Tom a reassuring smile and shooed him toward the mews.
    "Very good then, Tom. You may go back to bed."
    Not one to miss an escape, Tom scampered away, disappearing into the mews before she could draw a second breath. Now if only she could manage a similar disappearing act. She turned to the earl, giving him her best smile. "Well, that is taken care of. I believe I shall be off to bed as well. I am still adjusting to these town hours."
    Stephen made no answer, and Gillian felt a surge of hope. She might actually escape unscathed. Then she felt his hand on her chin, tilting her face upward with hard, uncompromising fingers.
    "You will come to the library in ten minutes." He glanced significantly down at her bare toes. "After you have suitably attired yourself." Then he hoisted the saddle onto his shoulders and walked away, his heavy tread ringing on the cobblestones.
    He stopped at the servants' entrance, holding the door open wide as he waited for her. She followed him slowly, pausing briefly at the base of the trellis, but he cut off the thought before it fully formed.
    "Through the doorway, Amanda!"
    His bellow gave her feet wings. She scampered past him up the stairs before the echoes died away.
    * * *
    "Do you know I am accounted a generally good judge of character?" Stephen did not stop to hear her answer, but continued to pace behind his desk, only occasionally glancing up to make sure Amanda maintained her demure pose. "Well, I am. So when you promised to behave as a lady, conducting yourself as would befit the ward of an earl, I judged you to be honest and forthright. I took you at your word. Was I incorrect? Did you not indeed intend to behave like a lady?"
    He stared at her as she sat so sweetly, with her hands folded in her lap. She looked remarkably pretty for an incorrigible, recalcitrant hoyden. She had brushed the leaves out of her hair and scrubbed the dirt smears off her face. Her feet were once again shod in pale pink slippers, and her dress was a fresh white and pale yellow confection that covered the essential parts of her anatomy. In fact, the only remaining indications of her ordeal were the rapidly darkening