“And you, too, I imagine. You would hate not to have it to come back to.”
“I have always liked Stonely Grange. I cannot imagine not having it. I was thinking of asking in the town if there are any wealthy families nearby who have been looking for tutors and—”
“You wouldn’t?” Adam couldn’t hide his surprise. “Anyone hereabouts will know you as Lady Alice. And I do not care if this is the year of Our Lord 1851, titled ladies cannot be governesses or tutors. It is simply not done.”
“How else can I make money?” she asked. “How shall I survive?”
“You can marry me, and then you won’t need to worry about it.”
Chapter Fourteen
Alice’s mouth dropped open slightly, and Adam wanted to kiss it at once. This was his third time asking rather spontaneously, but in this instance, he had no regret, nor wish to reclaim the words.
His proposal was a reasonable solution, and he liked the idea tremendously.
Yet when she spoke, she surprised him.
“If I weren’t a lady by birth, would we be having this conversation?”
He failed to see what that had to do with anything.
“That’s not fair. I asked you twice before.”
Her mouth twisted. “You did it with great reluctance.”
Adam shrugged and dragged his spoon around in the smoothly cooked oats. “I was attracted to you from the moment I saw you on the street and retrieved your fallen package.”
“Because you thought I was a lady.”
He laughed. “Youarea lady who was playing the part of a governess. Regardless, at the time, you simply carried yourself in a way that was appealing, so yes, I thought you were a lady.”
“If you’d known I was a governess, you wouldn’t have spoken with me,” she insisted.
“You weren’t really a governess.”
“I was! I did the work and was paid for it. And may I point out that you didn’t speak to the housemaid with whom I was walking.”
“The blasted maid didn’t have honey-colored hair that caught my attention, nor a wiggle to her arse that made my blood boil.”
His statement was met with silence.
“If you want to say I am superficial,” Adam continued, unable to believe he had to defend his intentions, “then I say, yes, it was your appearance that caught me first. And then your violin playing, and after that, dancing with you and talking with you. Then, of course, kissing you and making you so angry I thought your head would shoot off your body like a cannonball from a cannon. And at every step, I expected there to be something that turned me away, something that dissuaded me from wanting you apart from the impossibility of my marrying a governess. Instead, everything about you drew me further in.”
She took a deep breath, and then she faced him.
“How about rashly giving away my innocence and marrying a man who was a scoundrel? Are those reasons for your admiration? I am a destitute earl’s daughter and disgraced, too. If recognized, I would bring only shame and embarrassment to any man associated with me, including you.”
He reached for her, but she bolted from the step, spilling her tea while scrambling out of his reach.
“As Mrs. Malcolm, wherever I go, I can live peacefully and respectably.”
“You’re living a lie,” he snapped, rising to his feet, “ifyou call it living.”
She drew herself up, shoulders back. “Now you are the one who is not being fair. I had no choice, and I made the best of it.”
He had pricked her pride, which was stupid of him.
“I apologize. You have done remarkably well in dire circumstances, fending for yourself, finding a place to live anda way to make money. All of those are things most pampered ladies would not be able to do, nor even conceive of, and if they did think of such a plan, they wouldn’t do it, believing such employment beneath them.”
