Never Kneel to a Knight by Regina Scott

Author:Regina Scott [Scott, Regina]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: children, friends to lovers, governess, Regency romance, reunion romance
Publisher: Edwards and Williams
Published: 2019-03-21T07:00:00+00:00

~~~

“Since when are you and Miss Worthington friends?”

At Gentleman Jackson’s question, Matthew nearly dropped his guard. As it was, he had to step back to avoid the boxer’s punishing right.

“You know I served as bodyguard to her and her brother,” Matthew said, raising his fists and circling. “Likely she feels a certain loyalty.”

He’d come to the salon on Bond Street two days after the trip to Gunter’s in hopes of practicing. Now he and Jackson were stripped down to shirts and breeches, fists wrapped in mufflers, and feet positioned forward and back. Behind the boxing champion, drawings on the walls laid out proper techniques and impressive stances, while near the door other devotees hurried to divest themselves of their coats and top hats in hopes of following Matthew onto the hardwood floor.

“Loyalty, eh,” Jackson mused. He threw a punch. Matthew blocked and counter-punched, but the boxer jumped back in time to escape the blow.

“Loyalty to my sisters, especially,” Matthew insisted. “She’s helping them enter Society.”

Jackson grunted, but from the statement or the punch Matthew landed, Matthew wasn’t sure.

He wasn’t any more sure of the matter when he put on his coat to leave a while later. For a moment, in the coach yesterday, he’d considered again whether Charlotte might care for him. Why did he torment himself? He’d seen how she interacted with her maid, their family cook Mrs. Hestrine—always polite, always kind and thoughtful. She wasn’t so different with him.

Usually.

But once in a while, there was a look in her eyes, a tone in her voice, that could set a man to dreaming.

He snorted, and the couple who had been approaching on Bond Street hastily stepped out of his way. He tipped his hat in apology. The wife smiled. The husband did not.

Well, what did he expect? Even in a fancy new coat and breeches, he would still appear the brute to some. Charlotte had ever treated him as if he might be more. He still didn’t understand why she had taken on the role of etiquette teacher to his sisters, but it was clear she cared about their welfare. She wasn’t attending his family for his sake.

Was she?

He could call it doubt; he could call it hope. It persisted in raising its head, for all he tried to quell it. He was a baronet now, a knight. That inched him closer to her position in Society. He was doing all he could to be a gentleman. Was it possible Charlotte returned his regard? He had to learn the truth or go mad.

He didn’t wait for Charlotte to come up to his study when she arrived the next day. He joined his sisters in the fussy sitting room, where they were making plans for the at home. He tried not to interfere, sitting and watching instead.

Charlotte didn’t look his way any more often than was necessary for good company. When she poured tea, she gave him no more than she gave his sisters. She didn’t linger in his company before taking her leave, offer him any kind of encouraging look.

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