Gift-Wrapped Governess by Sophia James Annie Burrows Marguerite Kaye

Author:Sophia James, Annie Burrows, Marguerite Kaye [Sophia James, Annie Burrows, Marguerite Kaye]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

‘Well, have you nothing to say in your defence?’

Honeysuckle looked at Lady Budworth with a sinking heart.

She could not gainsay Lady Springfield, not while she was standing right there. Besides, she had been kissing Lord Chepstow and she had only been wearing her nightgown.

Useless to protest it had gone no further than kisses, or that she had not permitted him to set foot inside her bedroom. For if she were to deny that part of Lady Springfield’s tale, it would be to call her a liar to her face. Lady Budworth would have to decide which of them was telling the truth.

And how likely was it that she would take the word of a lowly governess over that of an earl’s daughter?

‘Your silence is an admission of guilt,’ said Lady Budworth. ‘You will leave my employ at once.’

Honeysuckle felt the blood drain from her face.

‘You will not return to your room,’ Lady Budworth continued. ‘I cannot have you walking through the schoolroom. My guests will not want their children exposed to the corrupting influence of a person such as yourself.’

‘B-but am I not to be permitted to bid Annabel and Mary farewell?’ She had grown very fond of them and, she thought, they of her.

Lady Budworth made a slashing motion with her hand. ‘Absolutely not. The fact that you have abused your position of trust in my home by acting like a…like a…’

‘Harlot?’ Lady Springfield helpfully supplied with a malicious smile.

It was all Honeysuckle could do to keep her hands meekly folded at her waist, rather than curling them into angry little fists. How could Lady Springfield be getting so much pleasure from causing her to lose her job? What kind of person was she?

Leaving that aside, there were more practical matters to consider.

‘Surely you cannot mean to turn me out without letting me pack my things?’

‘I will have them sent on.’

‘But I don’t know where I shall be going. I have nowhere…’

Her middle section clenched into a block of ice as the full horror of her predicament sank in. She had no family. No close friends apart from Pippa. But how could she possibly go to his sister, telling a tale that would make him sound like a…like a rake! Well, he was a rake, but he drew the line at seducing innocent girls of good birth. Besides, if she ran to Pippa, her husband was bound to want to call Lord Chepstow to account. He might even insist that he marry her. And if Lord Chepstow had really wanted to do so, he would have asked her last night, not muttered something about his horses and sauntered away.

It would be completely unfair to make Lord Chepstow pay such a terrible price. She had been the one to give in to temptation. For once in her life, she’d snatched at the chance to taste an experience she had known full well to be wrong. If she really had dashed into that baker’s shop when she’d been a schoolgirl

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