With a tilt of her head and a serene sip of her tea, Frances took her time to respond. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Your Grace.” She paused. “I am Lady Frances Whitlock, eldest daughter to the Earl of Highbridge. However, as I mentioned, Ibelongto no one.”
Rich laughter spilled from Hugo’s throat. “I did not mean to offend, Lady Frances.” He leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. “But tell me for I have to know, what is a lady of thetondoing here, playing governess to my cousin’s daughter?”
“That is none of your business, Uncle,” Harriet leaped in defensively. “You should not ask her that.”
Hugo nodded, a sly glint in his eyes. “Ah, so she is running from something? I confess, I have not had an opportunity to read the most recent scandal sheets. Might I find your name there, Lady Frances?”
As he sipped his coffee, Dominic noticed Frances’ hand tighten around her cup, a faint dusting of red coloring her cheeks. A muscle twitched in her jaw, her expression frozen with thinly veiled irritation, to the point where he could almost see her teeth clenching beneath.
He has gone too far… as always.
“Uncle, stop it!” Harriet snapped before Dominic could say a word. “Frances is my guest and my teacher, and she is doing more for me than anyone else has, so you will not make her feel bad!”
“You give away too much, Harriet,” Hugo replied, a pleased grin upon his face. “I cannot make her feel bad if she has not done something bad. Besides, you can hardly blame me for being curious; I cannot recall the last time there was someone new in this house. What did you do, Lady Frances? A family quarrel? A courtship gone awry? A delicious scandal?”
He rubbed his hands together like some sort of insect, relishing in Frances’ discomfort as if it were entertainment.
All of a sudden, Dominic could not stomach it anymore. “She is here at my request, and that is all you need to know, cousin.” He shot sharply to his feet. “I have no appetite for breakfast, and we are interrupting my daughter’s lesson. We can have a late breakfast after we ride.”
He walked to the door and looked back expectantly. With a groan and a mumbled apology of, “Truly, I meant no offense,” Hugo lurched out of his chair and wandered straight out into the hallway.
Dominic was about to follow without delay, when he caught sight of those summer green eyes staring right at him. He frowned, puzzled by Frances’ mercurial nature, but he could not ignore the small dip of her head nor the grateful smileupon those raspberry-pink lips: a thank you, for ending her discomfort before the truth could be revealed.
I did not do it for you,he wanted to tell her but, in truth, he did not know why he had. The only thing he could conclude as he turned and left was that he did it to set an example for his daughter, to teach her that even when visitors were unwelcome, they deserved a certain level of respect.
But as he stepped out into the mild morning air, annoyance prickled in his veins, so strong that he nearly marched right back to the breakfast room to adjust his response. Despite everything he had said last night, hehadprotected her after all.
CHAPTER FIVE
The wind whipped at Dominic’s face as he urged his horse onward, faster and faster until the landscape of hills and forests and fields and blue skies became a blur of color. There was no feeling like it, racing through the countryside; the closest thing to flying he reasoned man would ever reach.
It was freedom itself… and it did not hurt that the speed of the ride made it impossible for Hugo to ask him any questions about his new guest. If he could have galloped forever, he would have.
But as his horse came to the top of a small hill that offered breathtaking views of his estate, and what seemed like an endless world of spring greenery beyond, he knew he would have to rest his gelding for a short while at least.
Hugo arrived a few minutes later with a wicked look in his eyes. “Explain everything,” he said, without preamble, as he drew alongside his cousin. “Why on earth do you have an earl’sdaughter in your household, teaching Harriet how to sip from a spoon and hold her chin up?”
“I do not believe they have got to that lesson yet,” Dominic replied dryly.
Hugo chuckled as he let go of the reins, his horse snatching up tufts of grass. “Come now, do not keep me in suspense.”
“She answered an advertisement,” Dominic answered, the beautiful view losing its charm. “She arrived last night. As no one else responded to the advertisement, I have no choice but to employ her, to see if she is up to the task. Society’s daughters are frequently found as companions to dowagers and other ladies, as chaperones to debutantes, so why should it be so strange for a noblewoman to be a tutor?”
Hugo snorted. “Because she is clearly not unmarriageable or married, she is theeldestdaughter of an earl, not the seventh daughter of a baronet, and she is exceptionally beautiful.” He quirked an eyebrow. “If you were not who you are, I would be concerned that you might be inclined to woo her.”
“Ridiculous,” Dominic shot back. “She is… perfectly ordinary.”
He heard the hesitation in his voice, the truest sign of a lie, and cursed inwardly. If he had noticed it, Hugo certainly would too; he did not miss that sort of thing.
“There is nothing ordinary about her. Even you can see that, blind to beauty and charm and wit as you are,” Hugo insisted, fixing Dominic with a curious stare. “I will not believe, not for a second, that you did not notice when you employed her. I doubt I have seen a prettier woman, and those eyes: they are like a cat’s, and I am certain she has the claws to match.”
Turning to look at his cousin, Dominic’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Do you know of her or not?”
It was a curious thing for Hugo to say if he was entirely oblivious to the scandal that had brought Frances to Alderwick.
More incriminating, however, was the fact that Hugo savored the scandal sheets, gobbling up gossip like Harriet and her eggs. There was very little chance that Hugo had departed London without reading the latest, where Frances’ name was etched as viciously as the handprint that she had likely left on Lord Sherbourne’s cheek.
“Why?” Hugo wiggled his eyebrows. “Are you interested to know more? Would you like to jump ahead in the getting-to-know-her stage? I do not usually condone cheating, but, seeing as you are my cousin, I might make an exception.”
