Seeking Celeste by Hayley Ann Solomon Read Free Book Online Page B

unsaid. When Augustus arrived to usher the lady to a less objectionable accommodation, Lord Carmichael merely bowed with studied elegance, carelessly announced that Miss Danvers might make free with both his luncheon and the comfort of his smart, cherry red barouche, placed his hands upon his lips to silence any further admonitions and closed the door decidedly in her querulous face.

Five
    â€œAnne.”
    â€œMiss Derringer.”
    The earl sighed. “Very well. Miss Derringer. I trust, despite the false start, that you will truly stay?”
    â€œIt is very bad of me, but I’d do anything to disoblige that old tabby! I had one too many governesses like her, myself.”
    She neglected to mention that her dislike of Miss Danvers went far deeper than the schoolroom. It was just such prim and prissy cats who had made her two London seasons such unutterable misery.
    She chose not to think about it, but the earl noticed the momentary pain beneath the glorious, dark, featherlight lashes.
    He controlled the urge to take her in his arms. That would be the very thing to make her cry off the new arrangement, and Lord Robert Carmichael, confirmed bachelor and gentleman of the ton, knew for a certainty that whoever the devil she was, the intriguing Miss Derringer must be made to stay.
    â€œExcellent. Then, it is settled!”
    â€œMy lord, lest you forget ...”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œI am entirely unsuitable; the children will have me for breakfast ...”
    â€œâ€”and lunch and tea, too , no doubt! Don’t hold a fit of ill humour against me, my dear. I am unused to having my well-ordered plans overset.”
    â€œYou also have not viewed a single reference... I could be a ... a ...”
    â€œImposter? We have already established that!”
    Miss Derringer frowned. “Be serious, I beg! I have never acted as a governess before ...”
    â€œThen, you require practice!”
    â€œOn Tom and Kitty?” For the first time, she looked a tremulous combination of doubtful and wistful. The earl moved toward her and placed a finger upon her lips. Anne was silenced, shocked at her trembling, and at the honey sweet intimacy of the simple, silencing touch.
    â€œLord Edgemere, it is not fitting.” His finger remained on her lips, and she could taste him as she spoke. She stepped back, the better to break the invisible bond that was straining, against all odds, to tie them together.
    The earl inclined a little toward her, then stepped back briskly.
    â€œIf you mean that I am hopelessly attracted to you, Miss Anne Derringer of Woodham Place, then yes, it is unfitting.”
    Anne had never felt so self-aware before, of the beating of her heart, of the faint tightening in her ribs, of the straining of bodice muslin ... she could hardly breathe.
    â€œI shall procure my bandbox, my lord. There is nothing more to say.”
    â€œThe devil there is!” The earl seized her almost roughly.
    â€œLet me go!”
    â€œNot before you promise not to be such a straitlaced goose! You shall governess my siblings and governess them well !”
    â€œAnd you, what of you? Shall I governess you, too?”
    Anne’s well-modulated tone was caustic, for she could only ascribe her tumultuous passions to fury.
    A strange curve crossed the earl’s wide, masculine, hopelessly sensuous lips. Anne was too drawn to them to look up and see what might be reflected in the golden eyes that regarded her, she knew, with steady avidity.
    Amusement? She thought not, for her traitorous pulses were raging in her temples, and a wave of heat threatened to envelope her entire, untutored body.
    â€œThat could be arranged, my dear, though I fear the lessons I seek are not strictly as dry as the curriculum you have outlined.”
    Anne looked up sharply.
    â€œThen, you shall have to look elsewhere for your lessons, my lord.”
    â€œYou have a hard heart, Miss Derringer, but I accept your