Read Online Gift-Wrapped Governess by Sophia James - Free Book Online

too big nor too tight overcame reticence. With real anticipation she slipped off her old dress and stood in her many-times-patched chemise and petticoats as the measuring and fitting began in earnest.
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    The wind had died down and the rain had held off, though the clouds were thick and dark above as Seraphina sat on a wooden bench in the ornate inner gardens of Blackhaven as the evening was about to fall.
    Reaching out to the bare wood of a bush beside her, she smiled as she touched the vibrant orange of a rosehip, the only colour besides green and black and grey in the snow-tossed square. It was good to be outside at the end of a long and noisy day, the silence of the place welcomed as she tucked her chin into the worsted wool of her borrowed cape.
    The kiss from the morning turned in her mind, again and again, compelling and intense. She had kissed Trey Stanford back, too, pressing herself against his body like a wanton woman. The thought had her eyes opening and she stared into the amber glance of the very man she dreamt of.
    â€˜I saw you come out here through the window of my library,’ the duke explained, gesturing to a room behind a row of barren espaliered fruit trees, light showing through diamond-panelled windows.
    His hair this evening was tucked carelessly into the generous collar of a military coat: a soldier, a hero, a man whosevery accent summoned the amount of years that he had served in Europe for England. She imagined just what he must have experienced.
    â€˜It was quiet out here, my lord, and a sheltered place to rest.’ She wondered if she should invite him to sit, but he seemed restless, his fingers playing against intricate gold buttons in a line down his front, the same fingers that had caressed her neck and threaded through her hair as he had kissed her.
    No. She must not think of this now, for she sensed a barely held anger broiling beneath the careful surface.
    â€˜My sons like you, Lady Seraphina. Gareth informed me last night that he wished we might keep you.’
    Astonishment leapt quick, though he was not finished.
    â€˜I have no wish for them to be disappointed again, for they would not weather it. The boys’ mother was…’ He hesitated. ‘She was not the sort of woman who held the maternal instincts in high regard, you understand, and they have suffered. Therefore, if you feel in the light of what happened today that you no longer wish to remain at Blackhaven Castle until the end of January, I would provide you with transport back to London and a generous stipend for the trouble taken for coming here in the first place.’
    For the only time since she had met him he looked slightly abashed, a peer of the land who was also a father and a man.
    â€˜I should also like to say that I have come into the gardens to find you in order to personally apologise for my lack of regard.’
    â€˜You speak of our kiss?’ Anticipation sizzled amidst an unsettled anger. If he should say their kiss was a mistake or an error or a lapse in judgement, she would scream because to her it was none of those things. To her the very soft rightness of it still made the blood race in her veins, and the hope of more was in her answer. ‘I could have refused your advances, Lord Stanford, easily, but I found myself not wishing to.’
    At the words Seraphina stood, the evening wrapping around them both and her breath white in the half-light when she spoke. ‘I do not consign what happened under the mistletoe as an error, but see it as a gift that was precious to me beyond words.’ The vulnerability creasing his face made her reach up to his cheek and place her finger across the hard angles.
    He felt warm even despite the chill, a twelve-hour stubble roughening his skin: a man who was solid and reliable and honourable. ‘If, indeed, there is anything I might say, it would be to ask you to kiss me again,’ she simply stated, standing on her tiptoes so that