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

to come to our place for Christmas, my lord. Mama has made a great show of the decorations and our cook came highly recommended.’
    â€˜I think not, Lady Lydia.’ His fingers unlinked her hand and he moved back.
    The Frobisher matriarch, however, was having none of it. ‘You said the same last year, my lord, and we heard that you had hardly celebrated the season. Besides, my daughters and I would be most happy to see you at our table with the children, of course.’
    The girl she presumed to be Lydia coloured dramatically. There was not much of an age difference between them, but Seraphina felt a hundred years older. Not wishing to be caught in the awkward position of an uncertain exit, she came forwards. Helen Frobisher raised her monocle, peering up at her with a quizzical expression and Seraphina saw the exact moment she recognised her.
    â€˜Good God, Stanford. This gel on your staircase is the lost Moreton chit, is she not? What on earth is she doing here and in such awful clothes when the whole of London town is searching for her? Come down, gel, and let me see you better.’
    The mouths of the three younger ladies behind were wide-open, eyes filled with shock as Seraphina moved to the last step. She was glad for the slight height that kept her above them all—it meant she did not have to meet their glances so directly.
    â€˜Why is she here, Blackhaven?’ The older lady’s voice had taken on a shrill tone, the flinted anger in her words mirrored in her eyes. ‘If she is alone in your company, then she is exactly as her mother was—a whore who pretended to be a lady.’
    â€˜No, you have it most wrong.’ Seraphina finally found her voice at such a brutal criticism. ‘I am at Blackhaven Castle because—’
    â€˜Because she is my intended.’ Trey Stanford finished the sentence for her as he strode forwards, taking her hand in his and pulling her close. ‘Just this morning, Lady Seraphina has done me the honour of agreeing to become my wife.’
    Seraphina felt the pressure in his fingers bearing down on her own. Keep quiet , they said, and we may yet get through this . Her heart was beating so fast at this unexpected new turn of events that she doubted speech could have come anyway.
    â€˜Your intended? There are rumours she is promised on the bequest of her father to Ralph Bonnington, the Earl of Cresswell, and now you say she is also your bride-to-be? If this is a trick, Stanford, you will pay for it. My Lydia was under the impression that it was her hand in marriage you had sought and to be so rudely compromised…’
    The young woman in question began to sob, softly at first, but then building, until the whole room was filled with her anguish.
    Trey stepped forwards. ‘I have been largely reclusive in Essex, Lady Frobisher, and I am sorry if you were under the impression that my one meeting with your family in town a month ago constituted anything like a proposal of such permanency. It was not my intention at all.’
    â€˜Lydia said there were other more clandestine arrangements made?’
    The howling heightened.
    â€˜I see.’ The woman pulled herself together and faced Seraphina straight on, the chagrin on her face because of her daughter’s lies sharpening her query. ‘I take it that you are without a chaperone?’
    Seraphina was relieved when the Duke answered for her. ‘My sister Margaret, Lady Westleigh, and her husband are in residence and she is a stickler for the correct.’ His lie sounded eminently authoritarian, but short of demanding the presence of these others, Lady Frobisher had no way of accounting for the truth or otherwise.
    â€˜Then be careful, Stanford, that this betrothal is not as foolish as your last one and hope that the daughter of Elizabeth Moreton failed to inherit the wanderlust her mother was cursed with.’
    The stillness in the Duke of Blackhaven was more menacing than