Read Online Sacked (To Love a Governess Regency Short) by Jane Charles - Free Book Online

 
     
     
    Chapter 1
     
    Elizabeth Claywell yawned as her foot hit the landing of the second floor.   Her charges, five young girls, were barely awake.   The nurse would see to their breakfast and lessons were hours away. She needed a strong cup of tea before she even contemplated teaching.
    Images of her uncle telling her that he arranged a marriage merged with images of one of his old friends who came to the estate to offer for her had kept her tossing and turning. The gentleman in question was sixty-years-old if he was a day. Toward the early morning hours she dreamed of Lord Fairfield, his blond hair and laughing blues eyes, a hand held out to her, beckoning.   She took it and her body warmed at his touch.   Elizabeth hated waking from that part of the dream.   She felt safe with Fairfield , and in this home, but she also knew it was short lived. As soon as her uncle found her, he was certain to drag her back to Berkshire to marry the gentleman he had chosen.
    It was six months ago she ran away, heading toward Scotland where her mother’s family still lived. She stopped briefly in Northumberland and stayed when offered the position as governess.   Lord Fairfield was beside himself with what to do with his new charges, nieces, and she happened upon them as he was trying to put them all into the carriage.   They wanted a trip to the confectioners instead, though one had set off after a bunny.   Elizabeth came upon the family and helped Fairfield get each of the girls situated.   After an impromptu interview he offered her the position of governess.
    Elizabeth looked up just as she rounded the corner and stopped.   The door to Lord Fairfield’s chamber was open and he stood in the center of the room, next to a chair, wearing nothing but his britches.   The hard planes of his smooth chest robbed her of breath and the flat planes of his stomach rippled when he bent forward. A blond curl fell against his forehead and her hand itched to comb it way from his face while the other one wanted to explore the ridges of his abdomen.  
    She knew that she should move on, pretend she hadn’t seen anything and allow the man his privacy, but she was rooted in that spot at the end of the stairs.   He raised his arms above his head and stretched.   Elizabeth likened it to a feline just awakening from its nap. Not just any cat, but a tiger or lion, or perhaps panther.   Her pulse quickened and as much as she told herself to avert her eyes and continue onto the kitchen, she just couldn’t.   She had been intrigued by Fairfield since their first meeting and her attraction to the man had grown daily.   Alone, at night and in her room, she wondered what it would be like to know him not as employer and governess, but as gentleman and lady.   Had her uncle decided her fate belonged with a man like Fairfield , she would have never run away. She was just as certain Fairfield saw her as nothing more than the woman who taught his nieces and kept them entertained and out of trouble. And, it would be highly improper if he did view her in any other light than his employee.
    He bent to one side and then the other and she was mesmerized. When his hands dropped and he turned his eyes locked on hers.   Elizabeth knew her face must be as red as the poppies from her uncle’s garden if the heat was any indication.   Lord Fairfield didn’t say anything but the side of his lip curled into the hint of a smile and he took a step in her direction.
    Elizabeth willed her feet to move but they wouldn’t. Her body had a mind of its own and was not obeying her today.   When he was half way to the door he stopped. “Please, come in, Miss Claywell.”
    On their own accord her feet finally decided to move.   But not in the direction of the kitchen, as they would on any proper young lady, but right into her employer’s bedchamber.
    “Yes, Lord Fairfield?”
    “Is there anything I can help you with?”   His eyes skimmed down her person and