“And Miss Riley,” Henry called, pausing to look back at her. “Come to my study. I’d like to speak to you.”
An ominous notion. Maggie nodded, trying not to let her reluctance show. She fell into step behind Henry, who continued on towards the house. Henry’s friend walked beside her. “Well done,” he said. “Where did you find her?”
“By the lake,” Maggie said.
“By chance?”
“Woman’s intuition.”
“I could do with some of that,” he replied. If she hadn’t been so tired, she would have been amused. “You’re Miss Riley? The new governess?”
“Yes, my Lord. And you are?”
“Lord Jeremy Crawley.” He stopped to take her hand and kiss it.
“A pleasure, my Lord.”
“You needn’t be nervous,” he said, as they resumed walking.
“Why should I be nervous?” She asked, with a quirked brow.
“For your meeting with Henry. He can be rather intimidating, but he means well.”
She hardly kept herself from scoffing. “I’m accustomed to men like him.”
Lord Crawley blinked at her, clearly shocked by her remark. And Maggie recalled that she was not a lady at Radingley. She was a governess. “I mean that-” Maggie stuttered out, but she wasn’t sure what she could say to rectify her mistake. “Just that-”
“You needn’t worry,” Jeremy said, with a smile. “I admire your tenacity. I think most of Henry’s staff are frightened of him. But he isn’t as harsh as he seems, I assure you.”
Maggie wasn’t sure she believed that.
“As I said, I’m not nervous,” she assured him. “I am sure he’s a very kind man.” That was a lie, but she wasn’t going to admit the truth to Henry’s friend, who surely wouldn’t take well to her criticisms of the master of the house.
But despite her efforts at seeming amicable towards Henry, the gentleman didn’t seem to quite believe it. He was smiling and shaking his head.
Maggie was too exhausted to speak on the matter further. And now that her concern for Alicia had passed, she returned to thinking about Sarah. She’d need to ask Henry for the advance soon, but she couldn’t do it tonight. Not after the day had been so chaotic. In his current mood, she didn’t expect that he’d be likely to say yes.
Chapter 8
Lord Henry Rivers, the Earl of Radingley
When Henry had seen Maggie carrying Alicia towards him, he’d felt tears prick at his eyes. Fear had crumpled into a desperate, wild feeling. When Alicia had first gone missing, he hadn’t been too concerned. It was common for her to run off and hide in the gardens.
But with every hour that passed, his anxiety had risen. He’d reached his peak by the time Maggie had brought Alicia back to him. He’d been ready to explode from all the fright in his heart. Having Alicia back in his arms, it had come out all wrong. He’d wanted to tell her that he’d been worried. To beg her never to run off again.
Instead, he’d practically shouted at her, though she was clearly so very tired. The dying fear had rushed out his mouth in a display of rage. And though Maggie had tried to reel him in and keep him from being too harsh, he wouldn’t hear it.
Until Alicia had told him not to be afraid.
She’d seen right through him. A little girl. Henry had looked up at Maggie, as Alicia touched his cheek. Seeing her trying to hide her amusement, he realized that this was surely her doing. She’d been teaching his child to quip back at him. Had he not been so relieved to have Alicia back with him, he would have confronted Maggie on the subject.
Instead, Henry took his daughter inside and put her to bed. As he tucked her under the covers, she wriggled free of the cardigan she was wearing and handed it to him. “It’s Maggie’s,” she murmured, with sleepy eyes.
Henry took it. The fabric felt soft in his hand, and when he touched it he could smell a light, floral scent that made his head spin a little. “You mustn’t run off again, Alicia,” Henry whispered, as his daughter settled in.
“I’m sorry, papa,” she said, through a yawn.
“Why did you go, Alicia?”
But Alicia was already dozing off as he asked this. When she didn’t answer, and her breathing deepened, Henry touched her cheek with his knuckles and left her bedroom. He shut the door quietly behind him and went to his study.
Maggie was waiting for him outside. Her stare was level and calm. “My Lord,” she said, unsmilingly.
“Maggie.”
He gestured for her to step inside his study, which she did with obvious reluctance. Henry closed the door behind them, sealing them inside. It felt strange to be alone with her in a relatively small space, with moonlight spilling in through the windows.
He didn’t sit, and he didn’t invite her to do so either.
She waited, with her hands held in front of her, for him to speak. He expected her to look uneasy. He wanted her to feel uneasy. But Maggie wasn’t intimidated by him, as most people were. Which irritated him. Without intimidation, what did he have? And if she didn’t see him as formidable, what did she see?
Did she see right through him? That was, perhaps, his greatest concern.
“How did you find her?”
“I looked.”
“We all looked,” Henry replied. “But you managed it. How?”
She shrugged. “I thought about where I would go as a child.”
“Did you say something to her on the way back to the house?”
Maggie quirked a brow, slowly. There was a secret knowledge in her countenance, which made him feel transparent. “Why do you ask?”
“You heard what she said when-”
“When you were shouting at her,” Maggie cut in, with shameless derision.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “You disapprove of discipline.”
“I disapprove of frightening children unnecessarily.”
“Unnecessarily?” He balked, as he took a stride closer. “She was missing for the entire day. Is preventing that from happening again not necessary?”
“Why do you think she runs?” Maggie said, challengingly.
His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. “What are you suggesting?”
“I think you know.”
“Spit it out.” His voice became quieter, daring, but full of warning.
Maggie lifted her chin higher. “You neglect your daughter, Lord Rivers. She hides because she wants you to find her.”
The silence hung heavy between them. He let those words sink into his mind, and his hands started to shake. “What did you say?”
“I think you heard me, my Lord.”
“How dare you? Do you have any idea the extent of the kindness I’ve bestowed upon you and your brother?”
“I do, my Lord. And I hope to one day discern why you have done it.”
“Could it not be out of the kindness of my heart?”
Maggie didn’t answer, and Henry laughed bitterly when he realized what her silence meant. “I see,” he said. “You do not think me capable of kindness. Is that right?”
“I think you are capable of it,” she rebuffed. “But I do not think you are compelled by it. But I am not here to discuss your character.”
“And yet still we discuss it.”
“Your daughter loves you, my Lord. And yet you ignore her.”
Those words made him go still and tense. He didn’t want to hear it. It was harder to hear that his daughter loved him than it was to hear her criticize his character. The truth was ugly, and he didn’t want to face it. But he already knew the truth. The truth was that he’d been a bad father, because ever since his wife had left, he’d been so terribly afraid.
He’d spent the past year trying to hide that fact. And this woman was coming dangerously close to figuring that out.
In the weighted silence, Henry crossed the room towards her slowly, like a stalking predator. Her bold stance and expression wavered when he drew closer, and she stepped back a step. “I think you misunderstand
your position here, Magdalene.”
He saw her throat bob as she swallowed. He spoke quietly, but his voice was layered with tension. “You are not here to advise me. You are here to teach my daughter. But if I find that you are filling her head with rebellious notions, you will not find yourself employed here much longer.”
Maggie didn’t answer. He didn’t think she was able to. Her eyes were shining with feelings he couldn’t read. “Now that you have reflected on my character, do you want to know what I think of yours? I think that you are a haughty, spoiled woman, who refuses to accept the gravity of her situation. You are not a lady anymore, Miss Riley. You are governess. And governesses do not speak to their masters in that way. Do you understand?”
Still she would not answer. Henry put his hand against the wall beside her head, boxing her in. He was so close that he could feel her breath on his chin, and suddenly his anger felt… different. He found himself looking down at her lips. “Do you understand?” He whispered, through his teeth.
When her lips parted, he heard her take a quiet, shaky breath. “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
He saw a twitch of muscle in her cheek. “Yes, my Lord.”
Henry’s hand dropped from the wall and he nodded shortly. “Very good. Now, I think it’s time you went to bed, don’t you?”
Maggie dropped her eyes to the floor, but not in submission. Even as she inched around him and walked towards the door, he could see the fire in her lowered gaze. The tension in her body.
“Shut the door behind you,” was the last the thing he said to her before she left.
***
Miss Magdalene Riley, Daughter of the Baron of Brambleheath
In all her life, Maggie had never been spoken to in such a way. Like… like a servant! She stormed down the hallway towards her room and slammed the door behind her. She went to her bed, put her face in the pillow and screamed, pressing hard to muffle the sound.
How dare he? How did he have such nerve to speak to her in that way? It was clear to her now that he had not brought her here out of kindness. He’d brought her here to humiliate her. To degrade her. And she had no choice but to suffer his behavior, because she was in no position to go elsewhere.
Was this her lot now? Resigned to humiliation and treated like an insolent servant. In her rage, she told herself that she wouldn’t abide it.
But then she thought of Joseph.
She thought of watching him fight in the ring again. Watching him be hurt. And the very thought made her shiver from head to toe.
She wouldn’t let that happen again. She’d do anything to keep him safe. If that meant acting like a servant, being treated like a servant, leaving behind her rank and her station… then so be it.
Once she reached this conclusion, Maggie deflated. She was so very tired and feeling so very low. She stared up at the ceiling, as she always did when she was sleepless, and thought about Lord Henry Rivers. She imagined being in a position to scream at him. To mock him. To make him feel small, the way he’d made her feel small.
And though she hated him with every ounce of herself, there was another part of her that was responsive to him. It was like they were fire and wood. When they came together, they could be explosive and dangerous. But when was the last time she’d felt so much? There was something exhilarating in that. When he’d come so close to her in the study, and she’d felt his breath on her cheeks, a queer and intense feeling had plunged through her belly.
Maggie thought about that feeling for a long time. She put her hand on her stomach and tried to revive it, but it wouldn’t come back. Not without him.
Not without that intemperate, harsh, inconsiderate, intensely intriguing man.
***
Lord Henry Rivers, the Earl of Radingley
“Your new governess seems rather interesting,” Jeremy noted, as they sat eating breakfast together.
Henry made a gruff sound. “You mean insolent.”
“Unusual,” Jeremy corrected. “But intriguing, do you not think?”
Henry looked up from his meal and looked across the table at Jeremy. “Have you spoken to her?”
“For but a few moments.”
Henry resumed spreading butter onto his bread.
“She is not the type you’d usually hire,” Jeremy said.
That was very true. Henry liked to hire quiet, reserved folk. Certainly not entitled ladies with financial issues. “Her family have been in a spot of trouble,” Henry replied, as if that explained it. “Besides, she may be insolent, but she’s bright. I thought Alicia might benefit from the company of a woman so formidable as her.”
“Formidable?” Jeremy echoed, with clear astonishment. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you call a woman formidable.”
“And?” Henry rebuffed, before taking a bite from his bread.
“And it surprises me that you’d want the company of someone so outspoken.”
“I do not want her company. I want her to teach my daughter.”
“To be outspoken?”
“Would that be such a terrible thing? I don’t want Alicia trodden on when she’s grown. My only concern is that Miss Riley may not discipline Alicia as she ought to. I don’t want her to become rebellious.”
“Is your influence not formidable enough?”
Henry didn’t answer, because he knew that the remark was a veiled criticism. Like Maggie, Jeremy thought he should spend more time with his daughter too. Neither of them could possibly understand how difficult that was.
“Why are we talking about a governess?” Henry said.
“As I said, she is interesting.”
Henry rolled his eyes and resumed eating. When they heard a knock on the door, Henry called for whoever it was to enter.
It was Maggie, looking far more demure than she had the day before. “Miss Riley,” Henry said.
“Please pardon my intrusion, my Lords.”
“Please do not tell me my daughter has gone missing again.”
“She’s well,” Maggie replied. “And is currently having her breakfast.”
“Very good. Then what brings you here?”
Henry tried to read her countenance. She was keeping her eyes low for once, which looked wrong on her. He could see that she was gripping her hands together in front of her. Whatever she’d come to say made her extremely uncomfortable.
“My Lord… I was wondering if you might consider giving me an advance on my pay this week.”
Henry stopped eating and looked at her directly. He caught her peeking up at him from beneath her lashes, with her face still lowered. Had they been alone, he might have asked her why she needed the advance, as she so clearly did. But with Jeremy in company, he didn’t want to humiliate her. In fact, he was rather surprised and impressed by her willingness to ask him such a thing. He was sure that her pride must have taken a hit for having done so.
“Certainly,” he answered. “Alfred will arrange it.”
Maggie looked up, blinking quickly. She looked like she thought she’d misheard. Her lips parted, but it took her a moment before she was able to speak. “Thank you, my Lord…” she breathed. “You have my gratitude.”
Henry inclined his head and resumed eating. Maggie, still looking incredulous, bid them a good morning and slipped out of the room.
Chapter 9
Miss Magdalene Riley, Daughter of the Baron of Brambleheath
Maggie met with Joseph that evening and told him about the advance. Joseph’s relief was palpable. He put his hands in his hair and breathed a shaky sigh. “Thank God,” he whispered. “Send word to Sarah. Does she know where she’s going to go when she arrives back in England?”
“I imagine she’ll stay with her family in Bottlesbury village.”
Joseph looked disappointed. Bottlesbury was a three days ride away, and it was clear that Joseph had had his heart set on seeing Sarah again. He looked like he hadn’t slept since she’d shown him the letter the day before.
“T
hat was kind of Lord Rivers,” Joseph said. He looked visibly relaxed now, as if a weight had been lifted from him.
For once, Maggie had to agree. “It was,” she replied, with a small frown. “Very kind.”
“You don’t sound as if you believe it.”
Title Sinful Tales of Desirable Ladies Page 64