To Bed a Beaty

“So did you, Miss Loring?”

Roslyn laughed. “Truthfully, this is the first I have heard about your cruelty, Mrs. Mathers-but I expect you know that. I am happy to make your acquaintance.”

“And I, you.” She let her knitting needles fall to her lap. “Come here so that I may see you, Miss Loring.”

“Ah, no, Mathers,” Drew intervened. “You cannot treat her the way you do me, with no respect.” He smiled fondly down at her as he murmured to Roslyn, “I am still six years old in her eyes.”

Mathers’s rasping laugh was more like a cackle. “I changed his napkins and taught him his manners. ’Tis hard to think of him as a lord, no matter how grand he has become. So, Miss Loring, I hear that you teach at a young ladies’ academy. That surprises me greatly.”

“Yes, I do, along with my two sisters. Several years ago our finances necessitated that we seek employment, so we opened an academy with the help of a very generous patron.”

“And do you despise teaching?”

“On the contrary, I enjoy it very much. We instruct the daughters of tradesmen and merchants on how to deal with society…develop their polish and refinement so they won’t be quite as disadvantaged if they make genteel marriages.”

Mathers nodded in approval. “I hope your pupils are better behaved than this scamp here was.”

Her blue eyes dancing with amusement, Roslyn glanced at Drew. “Was he a terror when he was a child?”

“Not a terror, just mischievous, as boys will be. But I encouraged it since the duke and duchess…” She shook her head sternly. “Never mind my tongue. It is impolite to speak ill of one’s employers.”

“I would very much like to hear some of your tales of him,” Roslyn said, covering up the awkward moment.

Mathers reached out a shaky hand. “Will you come closer, please? I want to see what manner of woman my lad is marrying, and my old eyes are not what they once were.”

“Yes, of course.”

When Roslyn complied, bending down, Mathers reached up to gently feel her face. Roslyn stood quite still while the bony fingers inspected her, a little to Drew’s surprise.

A look of satisfaction spread over the old governess’s face. “You aren’t some high and mighty lady, are you?”

“How can you tell?” Roslyn said, smiling.

“Besides the fact that you had to earn your own way in the world? You allowed me to touch you. Some proper ladies would be revolted.” She turned her glance toward Drew. “I think she’ll do, your grace.”

“You can determine that on such short acquaintance?” he replied teasingly.

The old woman cackled. “Yes, indeed. I’ll wager it didn’t take you long to determine it, either.”

“Barely a fortnight.”

“She will keep you in line, I have no doubt.”

“I expect so,” Drew said amiably.

“So, do you love him, Miss Loring?”

Looking taken aback by the question, Roslyn hesitated, as if not wanting to lie. “I am very fond of him.”

“’Twill be good if you come to love him. There’s been no love in this house for years, not since he left it when he was a wee child.”

“That will be enough, Mathers,” Drew said quickly. “You don’t want to bore Miss Loring.”

Her cloudy gaze turned toward him. “No, but even if I am boring her, she is kind enough to refrain from mentioning it. That warms my heart, dear boy. Only a special woman will do for you, and I have a feeling that this is a special one.”

He avoided looking at Roslyn as he lightly touched the old woman’s shoulder. “I won’t dispute you, love, but if you will you excuse us, I have promised to take Miss Loring riding.”

“Excellent! ’Tis a beautiful day with summer full upon us. You will like the grounds, I think, Miss Loring.”

“They are indeed magnificent,” Roslyn agreed.

With a final kiss to Mathers’s withered cheek, Drew took Roslyn’s arm to usher her from the room.

Their exchange with his former governess had been discomfiting for him, yet satisfying at the same time. Roslyn’s gentleness with the elderly servant was so different from his mother’s icy contempt. The contrast made him value her warm nature even more-and in some strange way soothed a little of the sexual frustration he’d experienced for the past five days, when he’d been unable to kiss Roslyn or even touch her. Being forced to bide his time had made him restless and irritable, not to mention aching.

But then, abstinence was not his strong suit, Drew acknowledged. Nor was patience. And he had to summon enough of the latter to get through tonight’s dinner with his illustrious mother.

But at least he could enjoy a companionable ride over his lands with Roslyn beforehand. Even so, he was careful to drop her arm as soon as he closed the door behind them, before he succumbed to the fierce temptation to do much, much more than simply savor her company.

Chapter Sixteen

I would be a fool to lose my heart to him, but I am tempted more each day.

– Roslyn to Fanny

In sharp contrast to her icy meeting with the Duchess of Arden, Roslyn found the lovely summer afternoon particularly pleasurable, riding with Drew over the Kentish countryside, viewing his beautiful estate grounds and tenant farms.

He put himself out to be the perfect companion, even more agreeable and charming than usual. And yet she noticed a distinct change in him. He seemed less guarded now. Less practiced. More at ease. More natural.

And she saw a different side of Drew than she’d ever seen before-the serious, responsible, generous side. He took unmistakable pride in his holdings and obviously cared for his tenants, unlike many great landowners in England, who cared only about bleeding the land and laborers for whatever revenues they could provide.

As a duke, Drew commanded respect and took it as his due, yet there was clearly a measure of affection between him and his people. But then, Roslyn had expected as much after seeing him with Mathers. The way he cared for his old governess had warmed her heart.

Toward the end of their ride, she learned why he was so fond of the elderly upper-class servant.

They were riding beside a small lake in a meadow when they came to a cottage on the edge of a wood and Drew reined his horse to a halt.

“This was my favorite place as a child,” he said a little wistfully. “This cottage belonged to our gamekeeper and his wife. Mathers would bring me here to escape the schoolroom. We would make paper sailboats and float them on the lake and play pirate. Afterward she plied me with hot scones baked by the gamekeeper’s wife.”

In other words, you were allowed to be a child, Roslyn thought with silent empathy. “It must have been lonely living here as a young boy,” she said aloud.

He shrugged. “I rarely saw my parents. And of course I wasn’t allowed to associate with other children- certainly not the staff’s children, since we had our consequence to uphold. But Mathers made it bearable. And after I met Marcus and Heath at school, I was never lonely.” Drew shot her a wry glance. “But you can see why I was glad to leave here.”

“Indeed I can.”

She would have been glad to leave, too, Roslyn thought with a shudder. The huge house, though magnificent, was cold and intimidating, devoid of life and warmth. She couldn’t imagine living in such a house.

Thankfully her own upbringing had been quite different from Drew’s. For the first eighteen years of her life she’d had the love of her mother and her sisters, and her father to some extent. Now she had her academy and her friends to provide mutual warmth and affection, in addition to her sisters.

Her own mother was very different from Drew’s, as well. Even though Victoria Loring was a noblewoman in her own right, she had sincerely loved her daughters. Thanks to Marcus, they had recently been reunited with