If? Of course she’d take it. She couldn’t afford to be choosy at this juncture. Maura was starting to see how precipitous her flight had been, even if it had been necessary. ‘It will be fine. Thank you. You won’t be sorry.’ She would have gone on gushing her gratitude, but Mrs Pendergast held up a hand.
‘I won’t be sorry, but you might. Did you hear a word I said, Miss Caulfield?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ It wasn’t exactly a lie. She’d heard most of the words. She’d heard ‘new earl’ and ‘two wards’ and something about the suspect nature of the former earl’s death. The situation didn’t sound as bad as Mrs Pendergast was making it out. She had a position, that was all that mattered. Life could now proceed according to plan.
Mrs Pendergast communicated her doubt with a hard stare. ‘Very well then, I wish you luck, but either way, I don’t want to see you back here. This is the only position you’ll get without references. I suggest you find a way to make this work where the other five have failed.’
Maura rose, hiding her surprise. Clearly, she’d missed a little something while she’d carried on her mental celebration. ‘The other five?’
‘The other five governesses. I did mention them, Miss Caulfield. Did you miss the dissolute-rake part, too?’
Maura’s chin went up, determined not to show her surprise. She hadn’t listened as well as she’d thought. ‘You’ve been very clear, ma’am. Thank you again.’ The ‘dissolute’ part was unfortunate. She might have launched herself from the frying pan and into the fire, exchanging one dissolute male for another. But she doubted anyone could be as dissolute as Wildeham, the man her uncle had chosen for her to marry. Besides, she doubted she’d see much of this roguish Earl of Chatham. Dissolute rakes weren’t exactly the stay-at-home types when surrounded by the entertainments of London. It was difficult indeed to be rakish at all by staying home.
An hour later, a hired hackney deposited her in front of the Earl of Chatham’s Portland Square town house and departed with the last of her coins. In her estimation, it was money well spent. On her own, she would have walked for hours and never found the place. To put it mildly, London was daunting! Never had she seen so many people crammed together in one place. The traffic, the smells and the noises were enough to intimidate even the heartiest of country souls. Maura shaded her eyes and looked up at the town house.
It fit in perfectly. It was daunting, too, all four soaring storeys of it. There was nothing for it. The only way ahead was forwards. She picked up her things and walked up the steps to face her future. Forewarned was forearmed. She would focus on the positives. One positive was that her plan was proceeding according to schedule. Another was the address.
When she’d set out from Exeter, she’d imagined being placed in the comfortable home of a well-to-do family, possibly one hoping to launch a daughter on to the bottom rungs of society. Never had she thought to find a position in an earl’s home. Of course, she’d also never thought to have to find a position in the first place. For that matter, she’d never thought to leave Exeter. She’d faced a lot of ‘nevers’ in the past month she’d not expected to encounter.
As a gentleman’s daughter, the granddaughter of an earl, she’d been raised to expect more, although those assumptions had been misplaced. She could have kept those assumptions intact. Her uncle had made it clear she could live in comfortable luxury and marry a title, but for a price she’d been unwilling to pay. Even now, with Exeter a week and miles behind her, that price made her shudder in the noon sun.
Her lack of co-operation had made it impossible to stay so here she was, a stranger alone, ready to start her life afresh, which was a nice way of saying she’d cut all ties to her uncle’s family. It had either been cutting ties with them or cutting ties with her true self and in the end she’d hadn’t been able to bring herself to that ultimate sacrifice. So, they’d been left to their own devices and she was now left to hers. There could be no going back, although she was certain her uncle would try. She wouldn’t let him discover her. She’d disappear into the earl’s household and her uncle would eventually give up and find another way to fulfil his obligations to the odious Baron Wildeham.
Her resolve firm, Maura raised the carved lion-head knocker and let it fall with a heavy clack against the door. Inside, she could hear the undignified running of feet and a yelp, followed by a giggle, followed by a crash. Maura winced at the sound of something shattering. There was a shrill scream. ‘I’ll get it! It’s my turn to get the door!’ Then chaos spilled out on to the front step.
Maura saw it all happen in slow motion. The door flew open, answered by a man in stockinged feet and dishabille, dark hair ruffled in disarray, shirt-tails flying. He looked like no butler she’d ever seen. But Maura hadn’t the time to appreciate the odd sight. Behind him, two children came barrelling into the corridor. They skidded to a tardy and incomplete halt behind him and … oomph!
Their momentum set off a chain reaction, sending them all down in a heap, Maura at the bottom, looking up over the tangle of arms and legs into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Even with two children heaped higgledy-piggledy on them, she was not immune to the fact that those blue eyes went with an entirely masculine body of hard ridges and muscled planes which, at present, had landed on her in a most indelicate manner.
‘Hello.’ He grinned down at her, walnut-dark hair falling in his face with casual negligence.
‘I’m here about the position,’ Maura managed to get out, but she immediately regretted it. ‘Position’ wasn’t quite the best word to use, although given the situation, she was fortunate to formulate any coherent thoughts with all that well-muscled maleness pressing down on her.
‘I can see that.’ Mischief twinkled in those blue eyes, suggesting he wasn’t oblivious to their unorthodox circumstances, circumstances, she noted, he didn’t seem to mind. Whoever he was, he should be chagrined. No tutor or footman worth his salt would be caught in such raucous behaviour if he valued his post. But it was clear this attractive mess of a man wasn’t the least bit worried. He was laughing, quite possibly at her, as he rose and helped the children up.
Everyone apparently thought the accident a great lark. The children were both talking at once. ‘Did you see the way I came around the corner?’
‘I grabbed hold of the banister post and sling-shotted myself into the hall!’
Slingshotted? Great heavens, was that even a word?
‘You were amazing, William. It was like you were a cannon ball!’ the blue-eyed man put in with an inordinate amount of enthusiasm.
‘We broke Aunt Cressida’s vase!’ The little girl giggled nervously.
The man ruffled her hair. ‘Don’t worry, it was ugly anyway.’
Unbelievable! Had they forgotten about her? Maura was halfway to her feet, struggling with the tangle of her skirts and luggage when a large hand reached down for her. ‘Are you all right?’ The rich baritones of his voice were easy and friendly, further sign he was a man who took nothing too seriously.
‘I shall recover.’ Maura tugged at the fitted jacket of her travelling costume and smoothed her skirts, trying to restore some proper order to the encounter. ‘I am the new governess. Mrs Pendergast assigned me just this morning. I should like to speak with Lord Chatham, please.’ That should get some results.
His eyes twinkled with more mischief, if that was possible. ‘You are speaking with him.’ He gave her a gallant half-bow at odds with his dishabille. ‘The Earl of Chatham