Read Online A Woman Scorned by Liz Carlyle - Free Book Online

muster. She still stood by the window, rubbing her bruised arm.
    Amherst turned from the door to glare at her. “To find your butler, ma’am, who seems a good deal more reasonable than you. If I am going to spend my time squabbling with children, I should prefer it to be those whom I am intended to teach.”
    At that very moment, however, the door swung inward to reveal Donaldson, a tea tray balanced neatly on one hand. A round-faced, elderly woman stood behind him in the hallway, tufts of white hair springing from beneath her starched white cap. The butler stared back and forth between them inquiringly.
    “Oh, thank heaven you are here, Nanna!” Jonet said irritably, looking past Donaldson and his tray. “Take this
gentleman
—Captain Amherst—to the schoolroom, if you please. And stay near him at all times.” Nails digging into her palms, Jonet narrowed her gaze as Amherst strode from the room. Obviously aware of the strain inside the drawing room, Donaldson pushed shut the door and looked at her expectantly.
    Jonet jerked her head toward the closed door. “Charlie, send someone round to Bow Street with a message for Pearson,” she ordered, trying to steady her voice. “I am persuaded that we must learn all there is to know about Captain Cole Amherst. I want to know where he is from. Where he has been. Where he gets his shirts starched. Where he sleeps, and—” she paused for a heartbeat—“with whom.”
    “Of course, milady. And for the nonce, shall I set a footman on him?”
    Sharply, Jonet nodded. “An excellent notion! And one more thing, please. Send word to Lord Delacourt. Ask him to come early for dinner, if he may. As early as possible. Tell him . . . just tell him that I require his good advice most urgently.”

 3 
    In which Lady Mercer rallies her Troops
    S till wildly invigorated by his heated encounter with Lady Mercer, Cole found himself alone in the hall with the woman known to him only as Nanna. As round as she was tall, the woman was attired in a gown of dark gray worsted with a crisp white over-smock. The look she shot him could hardly have been called welcoming. Indeed, her small, dark eyes seemed to glare resentfully out at him from the nest of wrinkles which formed her face.
    Cole made a little bow and offered her his hand. “Good afternoon, Mrs.—?”
    “Nanna,” she said succinctly, fingers splayed stubbornly upon her wide hips.
    “Very well then, Mrs. Nanna.” He withdrew the proffered hand. “I suppose that would make me Captain Cole.”
    “Oh, you’re a right smart one, aren’t you?” She eyed him up and down.
    Cole managed to smile. “I should hope, madam, that I am not entirely without intelligence, if I’m to tutor two young boys.”
    Nanna shot him another quelling look, shrugged, then turned with amazing agility toward the stairs. “Aye, well you’ll be needin’ a good deal more than wit, sir, if you’re t’manage them two imps. Now, follow me, if there’s to be no getting rid o’you.” As she heaved her way up, she shook her head vigorously, and another iron gray curl sprung free. “Though what that Lord James is aboot a’ sending you here, I’m sure I have no notion. Her ladyship is perfectly capable of seeing to those lads, and Lord James has no call to go poking his nose where it’s nither wanted nor needed. Been nothing but trooble to her ladyship, he and his brother both.”
    Nanna’s oratory droned on as they labored up the two flights of stairs. Twice the elderly woman paused to sigh deeply, but otherwise, her breath was spent in complaining until they reached the schoolroom door. Then she set her hands back on her hips, puffing mightily. “And anither thing, sir! These lads are hellions, and I dinna mind to tell you so. They’re good boys, both, but too clever by half. And what’s worse, they run wild, though they’ve been raised up proper enough.” She drew another exasperated breath. “So I hope you and that fine Lord James know