Miss Smith poured while Lizzy gathered sandwiches on a plate. Despite himself, Leo’s gaze caught inappropriately on Miss Smith’s inviting bosom before he hastily glanced away. His cock stirred, and he resisted the urge to shift its position. Curse his galling attraction to the woman.
“Milk or sugar, Mr. Notley?”
Stifling the urge to scowl—his mood soured by the past and his inability to satisfy his wants or needs—Leo rolled his shoulders and attempted a smile. “Both, please. Two lumps.”
With a curious glance at him, she turned to her task.
“For you, Uncle Leo!” Elizabeth said brightly, thrusting the plate of sandwiches at him.
Something panged in his chest, and he suppressed another frown. “Thank you.”
His little niece beamed at him, her gap-toothed smile full and wide, and that dratted pang tightened his chest once more.
They lapsed into silence as Leo accepted his tea—and had a verbal jousting match with his inner demons. The girl seemed so sodding pleased by his attentions, and yet if she knew the truth of him, if she knew just how much her association with him was damaging her future, she would surely wish to be free of him. And this Machiavellian, interfering woman thought to force them together.
And he was bloody well falling in with her plans. Just one look at his niece’s hopeful features had him entirely under her spell.Blast it.
Under her governess’ watchful eye, Elizabeth stiffened her spine. “What do you think of the weather we are having, Uncle Leo?”
Leo hid a smirk behind his cup. His niece had clearly rehearsed the question, and he wondered briefly if their entire discussion would consist of similar inquiries.
“I think,” he responded, “that it is cold, but also beautiful.”
“Indeed.” She nodded, a blonde ringlet falling loose over her brow. “And what do you think of the latest fashions?”
Just like that, a small piece of the wall erected around his heart was chipped away. With each one of his niece’s questions throughout tea, with every one of her glances to Miss Smith, searching for reassurance, Leo’s chest warmed just a little bit more.
It was precisely what he didn’t want.Damnation.
He couldn’t afford to grow attached to the girl, and she certainly wouldn’t want such an attachment once she was old enough to understand… Leo gave her a tight smile as she offered her opinions on their horses.
The remainder of their tea progressed much the same. Leo ate the sandwiches and washed them down with tea while Lizzy interrogated him. Miss Smith joined the discussion when addressed, her eyes glittering with amusement and pride as Lizzy held the reins. He was decidedlynotcharmed. No, indeed.
The organ in his chest fluttered. He was, he would admit, haunted, for it was the woman’s amused eyes—crinkling in the corners—and the hint of dimples on her cheeks that he pictured for the remainder of the day.
* * *
Juliana inhaledthe familiar scent of books, ink, and parchment, the faint trace of burning wood from the hearth, and…beneath all of that, the hint of the wildly intriguing man sitting across from her: coconut, cinnamon, and trees.
She flipped the page in her book but recalled nothing of what she’d just read. Seated in a matching armchair on the hearth’s other side was Mr. Notley, his chin resting in his hand, as though in contemplation, and a book open on his lap, his legs stretched toward the fire. He appeared for all the world a man at his ease. Would that Juliana felt that way. Instead, her muscles strained and her pulse skittered at his nearness.
When she’d entered the library, she’d sought a moment of solitude in which to read after Miss Notley had fallen asleep, but soon after she’d entered, so had Mr. Notley.
He cleared his throat, his gaze lifting from the pages of his book to meet hers.
A zing travelled down her spine, and Juliana suppressed a shiver.Blimey.
“Do you truly enjoy tales of adventure, or were you merely attempting to encourage Lizzy to read?” Mr. Notley asked, his eyes glittering with twin reflections of the firelight.
Juliana closed her book and set it on the round table at her elbow. “I crave adventure, Mr. Notley.”
His left eyebrow lifted, but he remained silent. Somehow, she knew what he must be thinking, and she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. The truth of it was, shehadexperienced something that had…scarred her soul. But it hadn’t diminished her anticipation of what was to come of her meeting with Grace Huntsbury. A new life awaited Juliana.Adventureawaited her.
“Lift that eyebrow all you please, Mr. Notley,” she said. “My first adventure mightn’t have gone to plan, but I intend to have others.”
“And you’re a governess,” he drawled. “I find that astonishing.”
“What is so astonishing? It is a perfectly respectable—”
