LITMIR.BIZ

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to his better nature to allow the girls to stay. And he had long ago buried his better nature well out of reach. He set his jaw.

      ‘Miss Grensham, perhaps you are not aware of the pressures that are brought to bear on the head of any family to marry and provide an heir. Old family friends, relatives I have never even heard of all think they have the perfect right to interfere in my life.’ His lip curled. ‘It is assumed that I shall find a wife before the year is out. My intention is to show the world that I will not be coerced into marriage. I want to hold the biggest, most scandalous party of my career here at Chantreys. It is close enough to town for me to invite the ton to see just how disreputable an Arrandale I am and to put paid once and for all to their infernal matchmaking!’

      There, he thought grimly. That should do it. But when he glanced at the dainty figure beside him she was displaying no sign of shock and outrage. Instead she had the nerve to laugh at him.

      ‘That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard and I shall certainly not remove the girls from Chantreys merely to allow you to indulge such selfishness.’

      He brought the curricle to a stand and swung round to face her. He held his anger in check as he said with dangerous calm, ‘Miss Grensham, have you forgotten that I am now the earl? These properties are mine, to do with as I will.’

      She met his eyes steadily, in no wise troubled by his impatient tone.

      ‘I think you have forgotten, my lord, that you promised the girls might remain at Chantreys.’ Her smile did nothing to improve his temper. ‘You wrote to me, do you remember?’

      ‘Yes, I remember.’

      He forced out the words, recalling the letter he had received from Diana Grensham shortly after the news of the shipwreck, asking his intentions regarding his brother’s wards. He remembered his own grief-racked reply, assuring her that Chantreys would be the girls’ home for as long as she thought it necessary. The terms of the will had been quite specific. He and Diana Grensham were joint guardians of Meggie and Florence, but James had added a rider that Diana was to have sole charge of their education, being the person most fit and proper for that responsibility.

      ‘I have kept your letter very safe, sir.’

      ‘The devil you have!’

      His hands tightened on the reins and the horses sidled nervously.

      ‘Perhaps we should move on,’ she said in a kindly voice that made him grind his teeth. ‘There is a chill in the air and I should not like your team to come to any harm.’

      * * *

      Diana folded her hands in her lap as the earl set off again. She resisted the temptation to cling to the sides of the curricle, so noted a Corinthian as Alex Arrandale was unlikely to overturn her. Not physically, that was, but she could not deny that sitting beside him was causing no little disturbance to her spirits. Her conscience was already pricking her for the way she had questioned his reason for offering to take her up. It had been a civil invitation and she had responded childishly, doing the very thing she hated most, drawing attention to her infirmity. Her only excuse was that his arrival had caught her unawares. Suddenly she was confronted by a man she had only previously seen from a distance, a sportsman renowned for his strength and prowess. To look around and see him sitting in his low-slung curricle, easily holding in check those spirited greys, had thrown her own shortcomings into strong relief. She had no doubt that when he saw her take those first, hobbling steps towards the house that he had looked upon her with pity, if not disdain.

      Not that he had said as much and she berated herself for being over-sensitive. It was a relief to turn her thoughts to the future of Meggie and Florence. She felt on much safer ground there but even so, to oppose the new earl at their very first meeting was not an auspicious beginning to their acquaintance. It could not be helped, the well-being of her charges was paramount. The new Lord Davenport had shown himself to be selfish and insensitive, but that was the case with most rich and powerful noblemen so it did not surprise her. What she had not expected was the attraction she felt towards the new earl. It was so strong it was almost physical and it shocked her. Whenever he had visited his brother in the past she had made sure she remained in the schoolroom, sending the children downstairs with their nurse to join the family. James and Margaret had been more than happy to include Diana in any family party, but they knew how much she hated her deformity and respected her wish for privacy when guests were present.

      The late earl and his wife had been doting parents and, apart from short visits to other Davenport properties, the children had spent their lives at Chantreys. Diana had become their governess four years’ ago. She had been just eighteen and declared that she did not want to be presented, hating the thought of being paraded around Court and all the required parties, to be gawped at and pitied because she could not walk gracefully. Her parents had been relieved, not only to be spared the cost of a court presentation but also the embarrassment of having to show off their ‘poor little cripple’.

      She had met Alex at James and Margaret’s wedding, of course, but a vigorous young man just entering Oxford had given no more than a cursory glance to the eleven-year-old sister of his brother’s bride. Since then Diana had kept out of his way, but she had followed his career and knew his reputation as a fashionable sporting gentleman devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. He was a perfect example of the notorious Arrandale family and nothing like his staid and respectable older brother. Now, sitting beside him in the curricle, she was very aware of the size and power of the man. His shoulders were so broad it was impossible not to bump against him as the vehicle swayed on the uneven carriageway, and he was not even wearing a many-caped greatcoat to add to their width, merely a close-fitting coat that was moulded to his athletic body with barely a crease. His hands, encased in soft kid gloves, guided the team with the ease of a master and the buckskins and top boots he wore could not mask the strength in those long legs.

      It was not that he was handsome, she mused, considering the matter. His features were too austere and rugged, the nose slightly crooked, possibly from a blow, and there were tiny scars across his left eyebrow and his chin that were doubtless from some duel. His dark-brown hair was untidy, ruffled by the wind rather than by the hand of a master, and beneath his black brows his eyes, when they rested on her, were hard as slate.

      No, thought Diana, as he brought the team to a plunging halt at the main door, he could not be called a handsome man, yet she found him disturbing. Possibly because he was now the earl, and technically her employer, even if her late brother-in-law’s will gave her joint guardianship of Meggie and Florence. There was no doubt he could make life difficult for her, if he so wished. She would have to tread carefully.

      ‘Can you get down?’ he asked her. ‘I cannot leave the horses.’

      ‘Of course.’ She jumped out. ‘Take them to the stables and I will fetch Meggie and Florence to the drawing room.’

      She thought he might argue and want to continue their discussion indoors but to her relief he drove off without a word and she limped up the steps into the house.

      * * *

      Word of the new earl’s arrival had preceded her, thanks to his lordship’s groom and she found Mrs Wallace bustling through the hall. She stopped as Diana came in and beamed at her.

      ‘Ah, Miss Grensham, I have taken the liberty of putting cake and lemonade in the drawing room, and Fingle is even now gone to draw off some ale, since we know that Mr Alex—Lord Davenport, I should say!—is quite partial to a tankard of home-brewed.’

      ‘Thank you, Mrs Wallace. I will go up to the children.’

      ‘They are with Nurse now,’ said the housekeeper, chuckling. ‘They was all for dashing out to meet his lordship, so excited were they to hear he was come, but I sent them back upstairs to have their hands and faces washed.’

      Smiling, Diana made her way to the top floor, where she found her two charges submitting reluctantly to Nurse’s ministrations.

      ‘Diana, Diana, Uncle Alex is come!’ cried Meggie, running to meet her.

      ‘I know,

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