Read Online Don't Bargain with the Devil by Sabrina Jeffries - Free Book Online Page B

smock and set out her sketch pad and charcoals. “Now then, ladies, according to your previous teacher’s notes, you left off with landscapes. Is that correct?”
     
“Yes, Miss Seton,” the girls said in unison. Then Tessa’s hand shot up.
     
“Miss Dalton?” Lucy asked.
     
“She told us we would start on figures next.”
     
Lucy bit back a smile. The girls were always eager to go right to figures, so they could sketch their parents and beaus and friends. But it wasn’t wise to rush them beyond the limits of their competence too quickly, no matter how eager they were for it. It would merely frustrate them.
     
“Let’s leave the figures until a day when the weather is not so fine.”
     
Another girl raised her hand, followed by two others.
     
Suppressing a sigh, she called on the first. “Yes, Miss Pierce.”
     
“Our teacher promised that if we practiced drawing hands enough last term, we could go on to figures this term,” she protested. “And we’ve been drawing our left hands for weeks and weeks!”
     
“And you’ll be drawing them for weeks more if you keep complaining,” Lucy said with a teacherly scowl.
     
The other two girls’ hands went down.
     
“Now then,” she said firmly, “today you will draw one of the views surrounding us—there are plenty to choose from.”
     
Eleven heads bent quickly to their sketch pads.
     
That went rather well, she thought as she settled herself on one end of the landing, where she could observe all of her pupils.
     
Fortunately, only Tessa knew her as a friend. The others were too young to have attended here when she had, which would make it easier to maintain the proper distance. But for tomorrow’s class with the older girls, she’d have to make it clear that she was Miss Seton, drawing teacher, and not Lucy, the colonel’s daughter famous for never holding her tongue.
     
She flipped through her own sketch pad, hurrying past the sketch of Peter to find an empty page. After her shameless response to yesterday’s hand kisses, she needed no more reminders of her flawed character.
     
Today she would do better.
     
“What a fine picture you ladies make,” said a male voice.
     
Startled, she looked up to see Seńor Montalvo striding up to the landing. Just the sight of him in a chocolate-hued riding coat, tight buckskin riding breeches, and well-polished Hessians sent her pulse racing. And a racing pulse didn’t augur well for good behavior.
     
“What are you doing here?” she snapped.
     
He laughed, the throaty sound making her go all shivery. “Such a welcome! You told me I might come, remember?”
     
“I said later! ” She rose to her feet. “After our lessons are done.”
     
“I wanted to see you teaching your class,” he said smoothly.
     
“But Mrs. Harris—”
     
“I spoke to her when I entered. That’s how I knew where to find you. She thought my joining you a fine idea.” A devilish smile curved his mouth.
     
A likely story. When Lucy had broached the possibility of taking Diego around the school yesterday, she’d had to twist Mrs. Harris’s arm to get her to agree. But apparently, even though Mrs. Harris wasn’t entirely sure that Seńor Montalvo could be trusted, she did trust Lucy. Of course, that was only because she didn’t know about their previous encounter.
     
“Very well, sir,” she said, determined not to let him intimidate her. “Feel free to watch, but I’m afraid you’ll be bored. The young ladies and I will merely draw for a bit, and then I’ll stroll around to observe and make comments.”
     
“May I ask what you’re drawing?”
     
“We were supposed to draw figures,” Tessa grumbled.
     
“Miss Dalton—” Lucy warned.
     
“I suppose you can’t draw figures without a model,” he jumped in, eyes twinkling. “Why not let me be your model? I might as well make myself useful.”
     
Eleven pairs of hopeful eyes swung her way. She would have refused, except for one thing: being a model required utter stillness. He couldn’t distract her with magic tricks or