The Governess's Scandalous Marriage

Three days after the Stourbridge ball found Linnet accompanied by Toby going into the city to make one or two small purchases. Linnet loved to come and browse the shops, with everything the merchants possessed displayed behind windows along the Strand and the courts and passages leading off it, even though she couldn’t afford to venture inside most of them. Today the Strand was crowded and bustling, with carriages and drays and sedans passing to and fro in a never-ending stream. Merchants and traders and hawkers of wares mingled with people of all occupations and positions and gentlemen in military uniforms. She breathed in the different smells from freshly baked bread and hot pies.

Suddenly confusion erupted when a dog appeared out of nowhere, yapping ferociously and baring its teeth. It ran into the street in front of two stationary bay horses hitched to a carriage. One of the startled horses gave a snort of alarm. It reared in the shafts, its hooves awkwardly flailing the air, before coming down to earth and lunging forward, unsettling the other horse. It tossed its head back and forth, the whites of its eyes rolling. The open carriage swayed precariously, the driver losing hold of the reins as he was flung out on to the ground, while the elderly lady and small child inside the carriage gripped it for dear life.

Linnet had completed her shopping and was heading towards the carriage further along the street where Toby had told her he would wait, when she paused to watch what was happening. Seeing the horse’s nostrils flared and its ears pulled back, Linnet suspected the horse was about to bolt with its partner in the shafts meaning the lady and child were in danger of being flung out on to the street. She had to try to prevent it from happening. Linnet was accustomed to handling horses, so, acting swiftly and unafraid, she dropped the bag that held her few practical purchases on the ground and stepped into the path of the agitated horse, holding her arms wide and uttering soothing words in an attempt to calm it down. Thankfully it seemed to work for the horse became still. Taking hold of a loose rein, Linnet continued talking to it while she ran her free hand gently along its quivering silky neck.

The driver had picked himself up and come to her aid, calming the other horse.

‘It’s all right, miss. I’m grateful to you for calming him down—that wretched dog, running out like that. I’ll take him now.’

Linnet passed over the rein and, retrieving her purchases, went to make sure the lady in the carriage was unhurt. She had a comforting arm around the child—a girl perhaps four or five years old with curly dark brown hair peeking out from beneath her bonnet. Her face showed confusion and she was clearly anxious and frightened. A tear rolled down her cheek. Linnet climbed up into the carriage and sat facing her. Leaning across, she smiled at the weeping child, producing a handkerchief. ‘Here, let me wipe your face.’ Gently she dabbed at the tears of the child, who was looking up at her with solemn brown eyes that reminded her of a wounded puppy. ‘What is your name?’ she asked.

‘Alice,’ she whispered.

‘Is that so. Well, I think that’s a lovely name.’

Linnet directed her gaze at the lady, who was of slight build and in middle age, dressed in black and unadorned—the same clothes a nursemaid or a housekeeper would wear. Her eyes were grey and melancholy surmounted by firm arched brows. The general impression was of physical frailty, but the face revealed pride and obstinacy, although she did look slightly shaken as she tried to comfort the child.

‘Everything is all right now,’ Linnet told her, speaking quietly in an attempt to calm the lady. ‘Your driver is with the horse.’

‘I can’t thank you enough for your brave intervention. But for your prompt action we would have been tossed out of the carriage. I am so grateful.’

‘You have no companion with you?’

‘Oh, yes. My employer is conducting some business further along the street. He will be back shortly.’

‘Then if you like, I will wait with you until he returns.’

‘I would appreciate that. You are very kind.’

Linnet smiled into the lady’s kindly face. Despite the shock of being rocked about in the carriage, she now sat ramrod straight. Apart from her hat being slightly askew she appeared recovered.

‘It’s the least I can do.’

‘This is Alice,’ the lady said. ‘She is my charge until my employer can find a governess for her. I am Mrs Marsden.’

‘You are Alice’s nursemaid.’

She nodded and smiled. ‘I suppose I am—although I’m getting a bit long in the tooth now to be looking after little ones. I’ll be able to take a back seat when she has a governess to take care of her.’

Linnet glanced at her sharply. ‘Your employer is looking for a governess, you say?’

‘That is correct.’ Seeing she had pricked Linnet’s interest, she tilted her head to one side and studied her with interest. ‘Do you know of anyone who would be interested by any chance?’

‘Why—I—I was thinking of myself. I have been considering seeking employment for a while now.’

‘Do you like children, Miss...?’

‘Osborne. Linnet Osborne and, yes, I do like children.’

‘And your education?’

‘I was educated at Miss Reid’s Academy in Kensington.’

‘Splendid. Well—if you are interested I will mention it to my employer—although he is a very busy man and tends to leave household matters to his housekeeper and where Alice is concerned to me, of course. Would you consider the position?’

‘I will—although I shall have to speak to my brother. Since our parents passed on there are just the two of us.’

Mrs Marsden looked down at the child, who had been listening intently. A little smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She seemed to be assessing her and when her eyes ceased to regard her so seriously and her smile gradually broadened, which was a delight to see, Linnet returned the smile.

Linnet enjoyed talking to Mrs Marsden. It made her realise how isolated she was at Birch House with just Toby and the housekeeper for company. Glancing down the street and seeing Toby striding towards their carriage, she excused herself on the understanding that Mrs Marsden would contact her at Birch House when she had spoken to her employer.

* * *

Having witnessed the entire incident, but being too far away to be of immediate assistance, Christian hurried towards the carriage which contained Alice and her nurse, their safety paramount to all else. He had seen a young woman step out into the path of the frightened horse and calm it down. He was too far away to see her clearly, but her prompt action had brought what could have been a serious situation under control, although it was an extremely foolish thing to have done. Stepping in front of an out-of-control horse was dangerous, but he was glad that she had.

Seeing that all was well and the normal order of things had been restored, he paused momentarily to acknowledge an acquaintance.

* * *

Walking in the direction of her carriage and seeing the tall gentleman ahead of her, Linnet’s eyes opened wide in overwhelmed disbelief. Thankfully he was in deep conversation with another gentleman and was unaware of her presence. He had appeared too suddenly for her to prepare herself. Momentarily immobilised in the cataclysmic silence that seemed to descend on her, her right hand pressed to her throat, Linnet was incapable of speech or action as she stared at the man as though she had seen a ghost. There was hardly a moment when she didn’t relive the humiliation of being caught by the stranger. Now, three days later, the scene was as raw and mortifying as it had been when it had taken place. The memory brought with it a black mask and dark eyes and the memory of frustration and desire mingled with her embarrassment.

As her mind raced in wild circles, her thoughts tumbling over themselves, Linnet thought she must be seeing things—that she must be suffering from some kind of delusion. But even without his mask, all her senses remembered the tall and arrogant-looking man with the dark penetrating eyes. It was the stranger she had met at the Stourbridge ball, the man who had kissed her so ardently and suggested she spend the night with him. She knew him by the rich, hypnotically deep voice as he spoke to the other gentleman and the sudden heat that sprang to her cheeks that was her own response to him.

Linnet had adamantly tried not to think of him, but despite herself a tremor of remembered passion and bittersweet memories coursed through her. The continuation of the desire he had awoken in Linnet confounded her. She was still reeling from the impact of him, shattered by the power of the physical attraction she felt for him. She had never realised she had been capable of such intense passion. Nothing in her experience had prepared her for what he had done to her, or the emotions he had aroused, triggering off an explosion of sensuality the like of which she could never have imagined, prompting her to respond in a way that astounded her. As shock waves tingled up and down her spine, she hurried on by, averting her face.

* * *

But Christian, his acquaintance having said farewell and gone on his way, had seen her and gave her his full attention. He saw a young woman attired in a dark blue informal dress, fitted jacket and matching bonnet covering her hair. Looking into her tawny-coloured eyes when she looked his way, he felt a frisson of recognition. It was the young woman who had so intrigued him at the Stourbridge ball. Even without her white wig and the concealing mask he knew it was her. He was as surprised as she clearly was and didn’t realise she was the young woman who had just averted a major disaster when one of his carriage horses had nearly bolted.

Taking her arm when she was about to hurry on, he smiled. ‘So, it is you. I thought I recognised you—even without your mask.’

The two stared at each other for a long moment and Linnet was conscious of an odd feeling wrenching her stomach as she helplessly berated herself and the instinct that had driven her to leap unthinkingly to the rescue of the elderly lady and child about to be flung out of their carriage. Pulling herself together, Linnet wanted to turn on her heels and run, but in a moment, common sense prevailed over the embarrassment which had taken hold of her.

Stepping back, she said, ‘I beg you will excuse me, sir. I am in a hurry.’

‘Not in such a hurry that you cannot pass the time of day with—how shall I put it—an old friend.’

‘You are not an old friend and we have nothing to say to one another...’

His smile deepened and a look came into his eyes that Linnet did not care for. ‘I seem to remember that we had a great deal to say to one another at the Stourbridge ball.’

* * *

Momentarily distracted, Christian glanced at the driver of his carriage who had climbed inside. Taking advantage of the distraction, the woman dragged her arm from his grip and turned and slipped into the crowd. By the time he looked again, she had disappeared. His eyes searched for her among the crowd of people milling about on the street, but there was no sign of her. His disappointment was profound. He could not believe that he had allowed her to slip through his fingers.

The simple truth was that he was strongly attracted to the young woman and she was far too beautiful for any man to turn his back on. Having seen her today without her disguise, he was astounded by the force of his feelings. He was quite bewildered by the emotion he felt in his heart. He couldn’t really describe what he felt for her because he didn’t have any words. All he knew was that he felt strange—different from anything he had ever expected to feel.

Only now when he had returned from Egypt after sorting out his father’s affairs was he beginning to get his life under control. Eventually he would marry, but until that time he did not want a woman in his house, at his table or in his bed. He could satisfy his physical needs well enough with women seeking diversion for a few night hours, women who wanted from him what he wanted from them.