My Lady Governess by Elise Clarke

Author:Elise Clarke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Australia Pty Ltd

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Fortunately, Marina was not as oblivious as Tam to the realities of ton gossip, and so was fully prepared when they were deluged with morning callers the very next day. The first of these, claiming informality, were the Duchesses of Douglas and Braddan, Tam’s mother’s sisters, both faded fair beauties with fragile figures and airs, both keen to extract from Lucy all the information they knew she had been withholding about their nephew’s affairs, including who exactly this Mrs Campbell was.

But here Lady Kilpheric proved stronger than she seemed. Denying any knowledge of her nephew’s affairs, she suggested his other aunts ask him—neither looked keen—then introduced Mrs Campbell as the Irish relation’s daughter, which killed off any attempts to find out about her background. It killed off more than that, for after three days Marina realised that the ton was being very kind to her. Very kind. They paid calls. They smiled upon her. They told her she positively must be at their soiree.

She was grateful. But when Mrs Holland, who had three daughters out, was utterly charming to her, she was suspicious, even if Aunt Lucy told her that people just liked her.

Nobody liked her that much, thought Marina cynically, having witnessed the marriage mart’s sordid underside all too often. No, this was a testament to Lord de Waare’s position, his connections and his ability to bring those connections under his sway. It was also a testament to the respect he commanded, as she soon found out that quite a lot of the ton did indeed find Tam as intimidating as she had expected. This she thought hilarious, because Tam in London was just a nobleman. A splendid one, but compared to the Northumbrian king he was at Waare, slightly diminished, as if he had to shrink to fit the role and constrict his reactions along with it. He was so very punctilious, so well-behaved, so controlled, that even knowing him she thought it unnatural for a man of twenty-seven, and hoped he ran amok in St James’s in the small hours to make up for it.

Nor did she see him much. The Season had not yet started properly, so Lord de Waare had decided not to feed the odds at White’s. Not that Marina needed him to nursemaid her anyway when his aunt was there, and he probably didn’t want to. Accordingly, he disappeared to Jackson’s, Manton’s, Tothill Fields and, more surprisingly, the House where he was interested in mining rights and foreign affairs, leaving the ladies to entertain themselves.

Unable to move on her own affairs, Marina managed this with aplomb, and was enjoying herself very much when an exceptionally tall young man walked into her on Conduit Street because he was reading, nearly knocking her over. She had no need to be introduced. The height, his thinness and a strong family resemblance revealed him at once as Lord Darenth’s ‘little’ brother Stephen.

Painfully embarrassed, he had insisted on accompanying her back to Charles Street, despite all her protestations that she couldn’t keep up with him.

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