Chapter Nine

A lice couldn’t stop reflecting upon the unexpected yet delightful treat of taking tea with Lord Diamond. She had deflected his questions while answering some as best she could without lying. When they’d parted, she wondered when or how she would see him again, which was a scary spark of hope in her heart.

Try as she might, she couldn’t eradicate it. Moreover, she ought to be insulted by his transparent proposal to begin an affair. She supposed he thought that wholly acceptable to a widowed woman of her class. Any other type of proposal was unthinkable from a man in his position.

And strangely, despite knowing the danger, she had considered it.

Thus, a day later, when Lord Diamond came to the house, her pulse raced, even as she doubted he could have come regarding her. Even more unlikely when Alice learned he had asked to speak with Lord Beasley. The news that he’d requested a meeting with the master of the house spread from the butler to the housemaid. Swiftly, by way of a tea tray and another maid, the tidbit made it all the way up to the salon in which the girls were identifying continents on an atlas while Alice gave them a geography lesson.

“I thought Lord Diamond and Susanne were no longer keeping company,” Pauline said after Leila gave a squeal of excitement.

“But why? They seemed a good a couple as any,” said Pauline pragmatically, pouring the tea for all of them after the maid departed. “Anyway, why else would a man want to speak to Father unless it were to ask for our sister’s hand?”

Alice’s stomach clenched. Was he going to offer for Susanne? If he did, she ought to speak with Lord Beasley to mention her own doubts about his future fidelity. A man who could spend time freely with her while still having an intent toward another woman could not possibly remain faithful. She knew this from experience.

And what of Susanne? Alice couldn’t imagine she would want a husband whom she had witnessed kissing another woman.

“Let us stop speculating, girls,” Alice said, although her own brain continued to do precisely that. “Pauline, please locate Madagascar. That is where our bountiful empire gets most of its vanilla.”

A few minutes later, the same maid who had dashed up with the tea service and the pot of gossip water returned with a request from Lord Beasley that Alice go to his private study.

“Me?” she exclaimed.

“Father wants to speak with our governess?” Leila exclaimed. “Oh dear! I hope you are not sacked.”

With her heart pounding under the speculative looks from Pauline and Leila, Alice touched a hand to her hair and went downstairs.

She was going to be let go. Adam had asked Susanne for her hand, and the young lady had accepted as long as Alice was sent packing.

It made perfect sense, and no sense at all!

She knocked on the door to the room which she hadn’t been into once in nearly two years of employment.

“Enter,” came Lord Beasley’s sonorous tone.

Feeling light-headed, she pushed it open, watching as both Lord Beasley and Adam rose to their feet. Susanne was nowhere to be seen.

Alice nodded by way of greeting to Lord Diamond, who was looking at her intently as if studying a butterfly pinned to a board, and then she greeted his lordship, a man with whom she’d had few encounters.

“You wished to see me, my lord?”

“Yes, Mrs. Malcolm. Come in. Take a seat so we may resume ours.”

She did so, finding herself next to Adam while Lord Beasley was seated opposite.

“I shall get directly to the point. This young man wishes to court you. Are you amenable?”

Her mouth opened, but she snapped it closed when she realized she had no words.

Was it a trap? If she said yes, she might be sent away within the hour.

“You may speak freely,” Lord Beasley said. “That is why I am here and not my wife, who might be displeased to know Lord Diamond favors you over our daughter.”

Alice felt the heat rise in her cheeks.

“It is our own fault,” his lordship continued. “This young man obviously prefers brains to beauty. Susanne is too old now to stuff sense and facts into her head. Nevertheless, as pretty and amiable as she is, I have no doubt my daughter will find a suitable husband. But we are here to speak of you. Although you are a widow, you are a single female. Under my roof, Mrs. Malcolm, and thus, you are under my protection.”

“Thank you, my lord. My mind is spinning, I admit. I would hate to displease Lady Beasley, who has been a good and kind employer, and I would be equally loath to give insult to Lady Susanne.”

Lord Beasley nodded. “Well said. However, my wife chose to employ a widow, not a confirmed spinster. Thus, she knew the risks that hiring a marriageable woman entailed. Moreover, Lady Beasley considers you the best governess we’ve ever had. Thus, as far as I am concerned, your position is not in any danger up until the moment you marry. And then, of course, we will be sorry to see you leave.”

She spared a glance to Lord Diamond, who was staring at her and nodding at everything Lord Beasley said. Apparently, they were in complete concurrence despite Alice thinking it was the strangest thing she’d ever heard.

“My lord, are you saying you are granting permission for me to be courted in public by Lord Diamond?”

“If you wish, yes.”

She blinked and turned to Adam. There was no question she would like to spend time with him, even while accepting that a courtship leading to marriage was unthinkable. Her past precluded it. Moreover, he had been rather direct in saying they would keep company only until he left. Thus, letting him spend time with her seemed pointless, destined to lead to heartbreak, at least for her.

Yet while her mind flitted from side to side, she couldn’t deny how much she liked being with him. Perhaps, after two years of solitude, not to mention a year and a half of misery before that, she deserved some happy moments with an attentive, intelligent man.

Without Lord Beasley being able to see, Adam winked, and her decision was made. If she told him plainly at the start what distance they must keep — for she was unwilling to risk becoming pregnant — then perhaps he would be agreeable to a casual friendly arrangement until he had to leave Bath.

At the very least, she would greatly enjoy a companion to take her to concerts, despite how others might think they were truly courting with an eye toward engagement and marriage. As long as he knew her limitations, then she would maintain her self-respect.

“I would like to spend time with Lord Diamond,” Alice said, carefully choosing her words.

“That’s settled then.” Lord Beasley looked at Adam. “As far as I know, Mrs. Malcolm needs no chaperone. If she wishes to employ one, that is her prerogative. All I can say is that I want no scandal, no impropriety, nothing that will shine an unfavorable light upon my household or my daughters’ governess. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” she answered.

“Good, but I was speaking to Lord Diamond. I know your parents, do not forget.”

Adam nodded. “Even without the threat of incurring their wrath, I assure you, my lord, I will do nothing to disparage either Mrs. Malcolm or your household.”

“Very well,” Lord Beasley said. “We all agree it is an odd circumstance, but this is not the Middle Ages. If you wish to court my governess, so be it. Meanwhile, I have work to do.”

He stood once again, and Alice and Adam did the same.

“May I have a word with her alone in the drawing room?” Adam asked.

“Briefly, for I am paying her to instruct, not to flirt.”

Alice’s cheeks warmed. And then she thought of the other two concerned females.

“My lord, will you explain your decision to Lady Beasley and Lady Susanne?”

He sighed. “Indeed, I shall. And heaven help me when I do it.”

Alice led the way to the drawing room, amazed at the turn of events. But Adam didn’t wait until they were in the relative privacy of a room, even one with servants’ ears at every door.

“That went well. I hope you are pleased.”

“I am bewildered,” she confessed, “both by your wish to court me and his lordship’s acquiescence.”

“But are you pleased?” Lord Diamond persisted.

That was the primary emotion, so she told him, “Yes. I look forward to an outing.”

They entered the drawing room, and Adam even closed the door behind them.

She stared, then smiled. “I confess I feel like a naughty child.”

He grinned back at her. “As do I. But I thought hard about this and could see no reason why we shouldn’t enjoy ourselves while we are able, as long as Lord Beasley agreed not to terminate your employment. I didn’t want to incur your anger from the start.”

“I am amazed at your courage in speaking to his lordship on such a matter. You were like a dog in a doublet.” She chuckled. “And Lord Beasley shall have to be equally brave to tell her ladyship of his decision.”

Suddenly, he reached for her hand. “Will you accompany me to a concert and after, let me finally be alone with you. Recall I reside in a townhouse on the Royal Crescent.”

She recalled only too well, but she was not going to see it.

“I am only agreeing to attend a concert or go riding with you. Anything we can do in public. Nothing more. I must emphasize that I am pleased to have your companionship while you remain in Bath, but I intend to stay here and keep my employment.”

He grinned. “I trust one thing will lead to another.”

She shook her head at his cocky manner. “You cannot mean what you are intimating.”

“I know we’ve only known one another a brief while —”

“Very brief, indeed,” Alice said.

“But you feel it, this thing between us, like magnetism, if I had to name it.”

She wouldn’t lie and say she didn’t, but she didn’t have to bare her soul or her desires.

“I would be very happy to go to a concert.”

Lord Diamond stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, making her shiver. Then he released her.

“Tomorrow night. I shall collect you at eight.”

Going to evening events would expose her to those from whom she wished to hide.

“Since I do not have an appropriate wardrobe,” she protested, “I would prefer to go to daytime concerts, meaning we must wait until the week’s end.”

“You may wear a bed sheet for all I care,” he shot back. “I predict you’ll end up doing so by evening’s end, anyway.”

Her insides fluttered at the way he was looking at her. It was going to take every ounce of self-respect — not to mention the fear of any ramifications should they go too far — to keep her from giving in to her attraction for him.

“An afternoon concert,” she insisted. There was less chance that the high society types visiting from London would be awake and out any earlier than dinnertime.

“I would prefer the evening one,” Lord Diamond said.

Alice sighed. “I think we must delineate precisely what can be between us.”

“Between you?” came Lady Beasley’s voice. “What on earth is going on here?”

“Not again,” Lord Diamond muttered.

Adam left the Beasleys’ home satisfied everything was going along better than he could have hoped. By being frank with Lord Beasley and later, more awkwardly, with Lady Beasley, he’d been given permission to court Mrs. Malcolm.

In his heart, he didn’t believe he even needed their consent. However, better to have a smooth path at the outset. Besides, he doubted Alice would have agreed to anything if she hadn’t received both of her employer’s blessings, albeit rather ungraciously provided by the lady of the house after she’d heard what her husband had to say.

“If you prefer a governess to my daughter,” Lady Beasley had quipped, “then I wonder at your judgment. Regardless, while there is no accounting for taste, young man, I understand there is also no way to fathom the mercurial and oft-spontaneous yearning of the human heart.”

With that statement, she had left him to invite Alice to go riding again. It was the best way he could spend time with her until he could get tickets to the daytime concert.

And she had agreed. He had never been happier than when Alice was at his side. While she only had Saturday afternoons and Sundays free during the day, she had nearly every night to her own devices, too. He found it the strangest thing, having to wait a week to be able to tour the Roman Baths with her, climb the Gothic abbey’s clock tower and bell tower and see the city from the top of the cathedral, or ride again through Victoria Park.

However, after some persuading and him being on his best behavior for two weeks, she agreed to let him take advantage of her evenings, too. He filled them with any event in which she showed an interest, never a dance or place where she had to mingle with the ton .

Adam restrained himself from taking advantage of anything else until she was ready, although time was not in his favor. Determined to win her over like a gentleman should, he treated her as if she were a lady of his class. Doing anything else, such as pressuring her into being alone or plying her with jewelry, would be reprehensible, no matter how tempting her soft lips. Thus, while his ultimate aim was a torrid affair before his imminent departure, he took his suit slowly, as if truly courting her.

Strangely, even after a few weeks in which she comported herself as well as any lady, she was reluctant to return to the assembly rooms for a ball or accompany him to a private dinner party.

“Absolutely not,” she declared when Adam said they had been invited to the home of a friend of his from London.

“They will love you,” he assured her, but she was adamant.

He assumed she felt herself a fraud amongst the titled and wealthy people. She would have to get over that were he to convince her to attend. Any female accompanying him anywhere, as long as she wasn’t crude or behaved in a low manner, would be accepted by his acquaintances. Members of his class would understand that he was enjoying a special friendship. It was done, and often. Nearly every king, in fact, had a lover chosen from the middle class or lower, even actresses!

But with Alice, convincing her to enjoy a dinner party had to be undertaken slowly. Everything to do with her had to be done at a leisurely pace.

Except the workings of his heart . That spontaneous organ Lady Beasley had once mentioned had charged ahead as fast as a fully stoked steam engine zipping along the track from interest to admiration to love.

Adam knew it for what it was because when Alice wasn’t with him, he was thinking of her. When she smiled, he was happy. When she was nearby, he felt contented — and, naturally, he was also growing exceedingly frustrated. An entirely different kind of yearning than Lady Beasley had meant tortured him, both daily and every night.

Each time their gloved hands brushed against one another, he wanted to pull Alice into his arms. When their arms touched and her warmth seeped into him, he could imagine her naked beneath him. He did, in fact, imagine that, and all too often.

Was it any wonder, he finally asked her consent to kiss her again?

He could have got down on his knees and thanked the good lord when she said yes in her breathy way, which indicated she was as affected by their close proximity as he was. Instead of dropping to the damp grass like a supplicant, he drew her close in the safety of the Beasleys’ back garden, hoping none of the family were watching. But truly, he didn’t give a tinker’s damn if they were.

When he claimed her mouth under his after weeks of behaving like a monk, Adam had never felt more like a parched man being given a sip of delicious water. He drank her in, every soft nibble he took of her lips, every taste of her tongue, every sweet brush of her skin against his.

“Marry me,” Adam breathed against the skin of her neck, feeling her freeze instantly.