To Love a Governess by Josi S. Kilpack & Heather B. Moore & Julie Daines

Author:Josi S. Kilpack & Heather B. Moore & Julie Daines
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical romance, Regency romance, Victorian Romance, Clean & Wholesome Romance, inspirational romance
Publisher: Mirror Press, LLC
Published: 2019-11-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The children’s laughter had been plaguing Hudson for the past hour. Well, perhaps plaguing wasn’t the right word. Distracting? That was better. He currently had the account ledger open and bills of sale scattered across the library credenza. Numbers had always been his forte, but not his brother’s. And his ledger showed it.

Another burst of laughter came from the front parlor, where Miss Finch was teaching the children how to play whist. They were taking a break from their lessons and had begged Miss Finch to play games with them. Then Andrew had asked Hudson to make it a foursome, but he’d cited the need to work. So he assumed Miss Finch was playing two hands. Yet what was so funny?

In his dim memory of his mother playing the game, he’d never heard such laughter surrounding the event. Concentration had disappeared from his mind like a low mist burned off by the midday sun, and Hudson set down his quill. Then he rose to his feet and paced to the tall bookcases that edged the room.

Miss Finch had only been at Branhall Manor a handful of weeks, yet he couldn’t imagine how this household had run before her appearance. She was light, laughter, and sweetness all rolled into one. He still thought about that morning when he’d almost kissed her in the upper hallway. He didn’t think she would have minded, either.

It was plain she was an innocent, and that only attracted him more to her. To know that if he kissed her, he’d be her first experience with a man. This thought only made him dwell on the idea more and more. She didn’t flirt with him, not exactly. Her honesty and natural charm left no room for the need of flirting.

Besides, he couldn’t imagine her in a stuffy ballroom with the elite. Being regaled with poetry from the young bucks looking for a fortune. Of course, Miss Finch had no fortune that he knew of, and neither did he. Yes, he was well settled, and he supposed he could provide well enough for a wife.

But his first priority, from the day he had arrived to find Jasper and his wife deceased, had become his niece and nephew. They would come first, before any woman, before any potential wife. And Hudson wondered if there was such a woman out there—one who’d take on two children, a modest living, and a man who spent more hours than possibly anyone on earth pacing the night floors.

When Miss Finch had asked him about what he thought about all night long, he had supposed he was going to give her a simple answer. Be a bit evasive. He wasn’t about to tell a young woman who was all light and sunshine that he was afraid to sleep. Afraid of the dreams. Afraid of the memories that returned like he was reliving the war.

No, it was a burden that no wife deserved to share.

Besides, he now had the responsibility of two children, and it was like he had a ready-made family.

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