Seeking Celeste (5 page)

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Authors: Hayley Ann Solomon

BOOK: Seeking Celeste
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“Augustus?”
The butler coughed. “May I present to you, my lord, Miss Elizabeth Danvers? I understand you have been expecting her.”
His lordship was just about to inquire whether Augustus had been indulging in a little too much of his port wine when light dawned. Elizabeth Danvers ... the name rang a bell. He searched his elusive memory, all the time feeling the burning stare of Miss Anne Derringer upon his elegant person.
Hell and damnation! It was Miss
Danvers
who was to be Kitty's travelling companion! Lady Markham had mentioned her quite specifically by name. Then who, in tarnation, was ...
Anne smiled. “I believe you now understand my circumstance, your lordship.”
“Understand? That is a strange term to describe my confusion! I shall let that pass, however and—”
“Your lordship!”
The tone was ringing. The eighth earl guiltily felt caught in the schoolroom. It was only a mad moment, however, before he retrieved his dignity and turned to the lady in question.
“Miss Danvers, welcome to Carmichael Crescent.”
“Thank you, your lordship, and it looks as if it is not a moment too soon, either!”
“Beg pardon?”
“That gown is
far
too low cut for a young lady, miss! It reveals invitingly, and that is one thing I cannot hold with. I am sure his lordship will agree that such an unbecoming expanse of flesh is improper and unsuitable. I shall see, at once, to the alteration of your gowns.”
Anne was stunned, startled, then blatantly amused at the impertinence.
“I collect you believe me to be Miss Kitty Carmichael?”
The woman glared at her crushingly. “Naturally, though artifice makes you appear a trifle older. We shall deal with that, too, young lady!”
Robert's brows furrowed. Was this why his siblings went through governesses like he went through glasses of Madeira? If this old crab was a sample... .
“I think not.”
The woman stared at him in incomprehension. “My lord, I must ask you to be silent on this matter. As a man, you cannot know—”
“As a man, I believe I am best
qualified
to know, Miss Danvers!”
“Oh!” The wicked implication caused Miss Anne Derringer to smother a most unladylike chuckle of amused comprehension. This mirth was not, however, reflected on the leaner Miss Danver's countenance. She poked at the earl with her stick and demanded to know if he had dared sully her ears with gross innuendo.
When he solemnly nodded an affirmative, she gasped in outraged virtue and took a seat upon the instant.
“My lord, I have been sorely deceived!”
“I, too, Miss Danvers!” His eyes danced across the room and caught Anne's in a fleeting embrace of the spirit.
“I have references from no less than Lady Markham, Miss Rochester-Smythe and at least a handful of minor peeresses!”
“I am relieved, for you shall then have no difficulty in procuring employment elsewhere!”
“I have been hired to escort Miss Carmichael, here, to Miss Parson's Academy for young ladies and that I shall do!”
“Miss Danvers, whilst you shall most certainly have your fee for your obvious inconvenience, I have to advise you that Miss Kitty Carmichael is going nowhere, least of all to Miss Parson's Academy!”
“Lady Markham—”
“A
pox
on Lady Markham! Miss Kitty is not travelling anywhere and that is my final word on it!” His lordship crossed over to the mantelpiece and extracted a fine cigar from the silver box marked with his crest and emblazoned, in crimson, with his initials.
“Profanity, my lord!”
“I believe so, Miss Danvers. Now, at the risk of further offense, I must beg you to withdraw to the blue salon, where I assure you your ears shall not be further smirched by my unruly tongue.” His lordship smiled so charmingly that the prim Miss Danvers felt slightly mollified at this obvious concession to her gentility. She was moved, however, to question the earl further, something he considered a sad error.
“Miss Danvers, cease worrying at me like a ... like a ...”
“Beaver?”
His lordship looked up and grinned. “Thank you, Miss Derringer! How eminently helpful of you. Miss Danvers, desist from worrying at me like a beaver. Miss Carmichael has no need of your services, for she and her brother are to be tutored at home.”
“By
you?”
Miss Danver's genteel voice dripped sarcasm.
The earl's voice was gentle, but there was no denying the steel behind the tone.
“Have the goodness, ma'am, to credit me with a modicum of common sense. By the veriest good fortune, I have managed to procure for myself one of the finest governesses in all of London. May I present to you Miss Anne Derringer, of ...”
“Woodham Place.” Anne supplied the information automatically. The earl did not blink or so much as glance in her direction.
“Woodham Place.”
“Well!” Miss Danvers eyed her rival in a new light. “Well! And do you teach the finer arts?”
“Naturally, ma'am, I am passing proficient in watercolours, dancing ...”
“Are you indeed?” The eighth Earl Edgemere turned once more to address her. He smiled lazily, but his sleepy lids did not fool Anne for a second. Her heart began to stammer in that strange, exhilarating manner.
“But, of course, your lordship ...”
“Familiarity, my lord, not excellence!”
“Very well, then, familiarity. I do, however, require excellence in the
celestial
globe,” his lordship stated.
“But naturally.” The undercurrent between the pair was now palpable. Miss Danvers, regarding both parties with rising distaste, announced that she had most certainly been sadly deceived, for a household that prized such flimflammery nonsense above basic accomplishments was not at all what she had expected in one distinguished enough to house a peer of the realm.
The said peer came perilously close to a rather wicked comment that upon reflection was best left unsaid. When Augustus arrived to usher the lady to a less objectionable accommodation, Lord Carmichael merely bowed with studied elegance, carelessly announced that Miss Danvers might make free with both his luncheon and the comfort of his smart, cherry red barouche, placed his hands upon his lips to silence any further admonitions and closed the door decidedly in her querulous face.
Five
“Anne.”
“Miss Derringer.”
The earl sighed. “Very well. Miss Derringer. I trust, despite the false start, that you will truly stay?”
“It is very bad of me, but I'd do anything to disoblige that old tabby! I had one too many governesses like her, myself.”
She neglected to mention that her dislike of Miss Danvers went far deeper than the schoolroom. It was just such prim and prissy cats who had made her two London seasons such unutterable misery.
She chose not to think about it, but the earl noticed the momentary pain beneath the glorious, dark, featherlight lashes.
He controlled the urge to take her in his arms. That would be the very thing to make her cry off the new arrangement, and Lord Robert Carmichael, confirmed bachelor and gentleman of the ton, knew for a certainty that whoever the devil she was, the intriguing Miss Derringer must be made to stay.
“Excellent. Then, it is settled!”
“My lord, lest you forget ...”
“Yes?”
“I am entirely unsuitable; the children will have me for breakfast ...”
“—and lunch and tea,
too
, no doubt! Don't hold a fit of ill humour against me, my dear. I am unused to having my well-ordered plans overset.”
“You also have not viewed a single reference... I could be a ... a ...”
“Imposter? We have already established that!”
Miss Derringer frowned. “Be serious, I beg! I have never acted as a governess before ...”
“Then, you require practice!”
“On Tom and Kitty?” For the first time, she looked a tremulous combination of doubtful and wistful. The earl moved toward her and placed a finger upon her lips. Anne was silenced, shocked at her trembling, and at the honey sweet intimacy of the simple, silencing touch.
“Lord Edgemere, it is not fitting.” His finger remained on her lips, and she could taste him as she spoke. She stepped back, the better to break the invisible bond that was straining, against all odds, to tie them together.
The earl inclined a little toward her, then stepped back briskly.
“If you mean that I am hopelessly attracted to you, Miss Anne Derringer of Woodham Place, then yes, it is unfitting.”
Anne had never felt so self-aware before, of the beating of her heart, of the faint tightening in her ribs, of the straining of bodice muslin ... she could hardly breathe.
“I shall procure my bandbox, my lord. There is nothing more to say.”
“The devil there is!” The earl seized her almost roughly.
“Let me go!”
“Not before you promise not to be such a straitlaced goose! You shall governess my siblings and governess them
well
!”
“And you, what of you? Shall I governess you, too?”
Anne's well-modulated tone was caustic, for she could only ascribe her tumultuous passions to fury.
A strange curve crossed the earl's wide, masculine, hopelessly sensuous lips. Anne was too drawn to them to look up and see what might be reflected in the golden eyes that regarded her, she knew, with steady avidity.
Amusement? She thought not, for her traitorous pulses were raging in her temples, and a wave of heat threatened to envelope her entire, untutored body.
“That could be arranged, my dear, though I fear the lessons I seek are not strictly as dry as the curriculum you have outlined.”
Anne looked up sharply.
“Then, you shall have to look elsewhere for your lessons, my lord.”
“You have a hard heart, Miss Derringer, but I accept your terms.”
“Beg pardon?”
“You shall invest my siblings with some modicum of common sense, some degree of formal education and a good dose of happiness. I am not so shortsighted a brother that I cannot see what is at the end of my nose. As for myself ... much as I may desire to be schooled by you, I shall forgo the pleasure in the interest of your ongoing virtue.”
“Oh!”
“However ... if you continue to blush so rosily at every utterance I make, I cannot answer for the consequences.”
“Consequences, my lord?”
“Consequences, Miss Anne Derringer.”
The eighth Earl Edgemere drew a little closer. Anne thought she was likely to faint, for she could swear she could taste his mead-sweet tongue even as he drew back and rested lazily against the imposing marble pillar that formed so elegant a feature of the breakfast room.
“My lord, you are pleased to tease!”
“Very pleased, Miss Derringer.”
“You shoot yourself in the foot, you know, for you leave me with no option but to decline your quite extraordinary offer.”
“Young ladies are not in the habit of declining my offers, Miss Derringer!”
“I warrant you are not in the habit of making them, my lord. Not, at all events, respectable ones!”
“Perspicacious as well as beautiful!” His voice lowered to almost a whisper. Anne could feel his gaze, willing her to step forward. She could push him against the pillar... .
“I am leaving right now. With any luck, the countess Eversleigh will overlook my tardiness. My lord, you will excuse me.”
Anne turned resolutely to go.
An arm shot out and palpably restrained her. The air of laziness evaporated from the earl's features as he swung her round.
“I will
not
excuse you, Miss Anne Derringer! The children shall never forgive me, and God help me, I should not forgive myself. You will stay, and if my presence is so noxious to you ...”
“It is
not
noxious!”
“No?” The aquiline features relaxed, slightly, as the twinkle returned.
“You know it is not.” Anne abandoned herself and her virtue to truth.
For her pains, she felt her cheeks stroked with infinite gentleness and the pins pulled expertly from her quick coiffure. Not surprisingly, her hair responded by falling around her face and cresting slightly at her waist.
“Silky.”
“Mmm ...”
“You are not to slap me.”
“It is a governess's duty to discipline where required.”
The twinkle reached his lips and became a quite indisputable grin.
“Bearing that in mind, Miss Derringer, will you warn me before such severe correction is implemented?”
She nodded. “I shall, my lord.”
“You are aware that I am liable to kiss you at any moment?”
She nodded. “I disapprove, Lord Edgemere.”
“Disapprove but countenance the notion nonetheless?”
A small smile played around delicious pink lips. “In extraordinary circumstances, I countenance the notion.”
“Then, come here, Miss Anne Derringer.”
She stepped forward with decision. Twenty pounds a year was being thrown recklessly to the winds. She could not, in all conscience, take up Countess Eversleigh's position. Her thoughts were too impure for a highly referenced paid companion.
His lordship's kiss was all that Miss Derringer had anticipated. It was full, satisfying and slightly bittersweet, an apt reflection of her turmoiled emotions. Her wanton surrender to the sensation was a terrifying loss of habitual control. Nevertheless, the passions evoked were so strong, so... .
“Lord Edgemere?”
His tongue lingered, for a moment, before he held her from him.
“Miss Derringer?”
“I feel a cautionary slap may be necessary.”
“Miss Derringer, if you had the smallest idea of what I would
like
to do right now, I fear that nothing short of a severe beating would correct me.”
“Shall you cut the willow cane or shall I?”
He grinned. “Neither, for I shall be virtuous and desist from all temptation. I leave for London tonight.”
“So soon?”
“Say things like
that,
Miss Derringer, and you shall overset, completely, my iniquitous sense of honour! So long as you are a governess in my home, your virtue shall be safe.”
“Very well, my lord, on those terms I accept. My fee, however, is quite exorbitant! I shall ask twenty-five pounds a year.
“Miss Derringer, you drive a hard bargain. You shall, however, not get a sovereign less than forty a year.”
“Forty pounds! My lord, you trifle with your fortune!”
“Miss Derringer, I am no gambler. I believe it a perfectly safe bet that you will earn your forty pounds in the first month. Kitty and Tom are not without spirit!”
“Excellent, for I shall expect them to apply themselves with passion.”
“They are fortunate children.”
“Help me with my hair, my lord. Your fortunate siblings will be
unmerciful
if they catch sight of me like this.”
“As
I
should be.”
“Beg pardon?” Anne flushed, not quite taking his meaning, but understanding, at once, his tone.
He sighed. “Never mind. Give me the wretched pins.” She did, and turned around obediently as he set the coiffure to rights, allowing only a small kiss to drop down at the nape of her silky neck.
“Lord Edgemere!”
“Your virtue is safe, Miss Derringer! I merely trifle with your affections!”
“Desist, then, my lord! Whatever became of that woman?”
“Which woman?”
“Miss Danvers.”
“Gone, I hope.”
“Oh, I hope not!”
“Have you lost your wits, you silly woman?”
Anne glared at him, then chuckled. “Possibly, but I have just had the most excellent notion.”
The earl eyed her wearily. “That is ... ?”
“She would be perfect for the countess Eversleigh! If she were just to take your barouche to Kingsbury, then change at Hampton for—”
“Do you always meddle like this?”
Anne's answer was firm. “It is not meddling, my lord, merely
managing ...”
“Do you always
manage,
like this?”
“But of course!”
The eighth Earl Edgemere nodded and sighed. “I suspected so, Miss Derringer. I am devastated to have to inform you, however, that I loathe and despise managing females!”
“Excellent, my lord, for I find the attraction between us troublesome. Since you are bound, at some stage, to loathe and despise me, we shall deal together perfectly!”
“Mmm ...”
“Now, about that awful woman ...”
“You do not give up, do you?”
“Never!”
“Very well, I shall speak to her about it. If necessary, I shall convey her to ... where the devil shall I convey her to?”
“Staines.”
“Very well. I shall convey her to Staines myself.”
Anne smiled sweetly. “Thank you, my lord.”
The earl bowed. “It is a pleasure, Miss Derringer.”
Anne walked from the room without looking back. Lord Carmichael fingered the last of her pins absently. Anne Derringer of Woodham Place ... now why did that name sound strangely familiar? Not alarmingly so, or obviously so, but the name nevertheless triggered something. . . some hazy half thought ... . He would look into it. Something told him that if matters were permitted to take their course, he might have every reason to be interested in
any
affair bearing upon that name. He pocketed the pin, had a last, lingering glance at the ormolu clock, then clicked the door shut quietly.
 
 
“Kitty, if you persist in leaning over the rails, at least do it, I beg, with some style! Climb on the flower box so that your back can lean elegantly against the pillar. That way, you will not tumble precariously to a hideous death and I shall not be immediately turned off without a character! ”
Miss Carmichael reflected on her governess's instruction. It seemed reasonable even if it erred, slightly, on the cautious. Nevertheless, full of boundless amiability, she altered her position and continued to stare at the proceedings below.
The earl's team had been called up and were now pacing the courtyard a trifle friskily. Lord Carmichael, much to Tom's disgust, had decided upon the landau. This absurdity came in spite of the delightfully clement weather and the fact that his lordship had a spanking-new phaeton at his disposal.

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