8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

T homas ran a hand over his face, his fingers stopping to rub his eyes.

What was he doing? Letting a woman into his home?

He should have been more specific in his request for a governess. He should have asked for old. For ugly.

Specifically, not a young, nubile creature that would be hard to ignore, in addition to the feral girl he’d already taken on that he had been trying extremely hard to not think about for the last two days.

It was a lot to ignore.

One girl he knew he couldn’t touch. Another he would have to turn away from in every corridor.

Thomas let his hand drop away from his face and he looked across the desk in his study.

There was a reason no woman except for Cook lived at Ravenstone.

This exact situation was it.

The vision across from him had light blond hair, a big bosom mounded ever so delicately over her proper day dress of light blue, eyes that twinkled with every look she gave him, and to top it off, a smile that rivaled the sun. Not to mention her full, heart shaped lips would be useful for any number of things his deranged mind liked to come up with.

She was not what he was expecting when Jensen had appeared in the doorway of the study to tell him the governess had arrived from Edinburgh.

Temptation was not something he dealt well with.

And the sudden surge of anger tearing down the middle of his chest that came with that realization made him cough.

His dipped his head down, his eyes drowning in the numbers of one of his father’s ledgers that never made any sense. Without looking up, he motioned for the woman to sit down as Jensen set her letter of employment in front of him. He scanned it as Jensen left his study.

Unfortunately, all looked to be in order, no likely reason to refuse her the governess post.

“Tell me, Miss…” He looked down at the letter in front of him sent from the servant registry in Edinburgh. “Miss Sylvie Derrington, do you have family?” He glanced up at her.

“No, sir.” Her posture perfect, Miss Derrington’s hands folded demurely in her lap, the smile on her face not shifting. Open, genuine—it was a smile he was having a hard time not staring at. “It was just my mother and myself until four years ago when influenza hit our village and she died.”

He tore his stare off her smile and looked down to the letter. “It says you are from Kent?”

“I am.”

“And your past employment as a governess was what, exactly?”

“For the last four years, I was employed as the governess for a young lady about to enter society in London. Her family lived almost exclusively in the Surrey countryside. I was tasked with preparing her for the rigors of society.”

“The marriage mart?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Were you successful?”

“From what my charge has written me, yes. She has had three offers of marriage, though her sizable inheritance has as much to do with that as anything I taught her.”

“Humble of you.”

“Realistic of me.”

He nodded. He liked the woman, even if he’d had the opposite approach planned once he’d caught sight of her. Disliking her would be so much easier.

He clasped his hands under his chin, staring intently at her.

“If you were that far south, why come north?”

“I was told it would be easy to find my next post through the Catskill Servant Registry in Edinburgh, as the need for English governesses was desirable in this area.”

“And you would leave Surrey because of a rumor?”

The smile slipped slightly and she leaned forward. “Forgive me for being frank, Lord Hedstrom, but there are many learned women that close to London. I am but one in a sea of them and I am easily replaced. I believed I might find better opportunities for employment in this area. I only arrived three days ago in Edinburgh and have already been sent out on this post, so I have no complaints about following a rumor northbound. It would seem the rumor has truth in it.”

He nodded. “And a governess position for a lord, no doubt. It would seem your gamble has paid off.”

Her head angled to the side as she looked at him, her golden hazel eyes aglow. “I do not know if I have the position yet, my lord. So I must withhold judgement.”

Thomas heaved a sigh. He was searching for a reason to send her on her way and he was finding none. “Two last questions. One, are you discreet? And two, how are you with…unusual young women?”

Her brow furrowed. “Unusual in what sense? And yes, I am most discreet.”

Thomas leaned back in his chair, looking to the study doorway and considering the undomesticated girl he had locked upstairs in a guest room. It had been harsh to lock Izzie in, but he couldn’t have her wandering the halls and getting lost in the maze of the castle. Plus, he didn’t want to see her again. He wanted her face to sink into faded oblivion, no longer haunting his every waking moment, his every dream.

He cleared his throat, refocusing on the woman in front of him, the initial glow of her somewhat tainted upon a second glance. Izzie’s big, dark blue eyes staring at him were much brighter than Miss Derrington’s. “The girl is unusual in the sense that I don’t know if she can even talk, or function appropriately, much less anything else about her.”

Miss Derrington’s head snapped back. “I don’t understand.”

“This girl has been brought to me as a last resort by her community. As she is of relation to me, I have taken her in, but she is a wild animal, to be forthright. Near feral, as far as I can tell.”

She nodded, considered understanding on her face. “You would like me to domesticate her?”

“I would like you to turn her from a wild animal into something that could reasonably be married off so I can get her out of my household. Her name is Izzie.”

Miss Derrington chuckled nervously, glancing about his study for a long moment, and then she looked at him directly. “You are rather blunt, Lord Hedstrom. May I be blunt as well?”

He flickered his fingers toward her. “I would appreciate it.”

“I can do the job. I know what it is to not be understood by those around you. I imagine I can approach this situation with a healthy modicum of understanding for the girl. How old is she?”

“I believe she is seventeen, eighteen, possibly more, possible less.”

“That is old to be feral.”

“It is that. But I am hoping that will no longer be my problem, it will be yours.” Thomas set his gaze directly on her. “That is, if you accept the position. Do you?”

The smile that would burn the sun to a crisp returned to her lips. “I look forward to the challenge, my lord.”

He nodded, then set her letter of employment aside and focused his gaze on the ledger before him. “You may find Jensen and ask him to find you a suitable room, then give you a tour of Ravenstone. After you are settled, I will bring you to Izzie.”

“Very good, my lord.” She stood and removed herself from the study.

Thomas let out a long sigh, deflating his lungs.

He needed to stay far, far away from that one.

Or he needed to keep her between him and Izzie.

He wasn’t quite sure which would be more disastrous.