Page 26 of The Governess and the Rogue

Maberly stilled. “What about Mrs. Farraday and the other ladies?”

“It will doubtless be unpleasant,” Jack allowed. “But it’s out of my hands now.”

Maberly looked at him in question.

“I revealed my identity to someone above deck last night,” Jack said.

The batman’s eyes darkened with disapproval. “Not that sad governess who works for those loud colonials?”

“No.” Jack frowned. “And she’s not a ‘sad governess.’ She’s rather resilient, in fact. A survivor.” He leaned back in the chair as Maberly stropped the razor. “Did you know she’s had over two dozen postings?”

“Is that meant to be impressive?”

“She’s been in India less than a decade. It equals out to nearly three postings per year.”

“So,” Maberly mused. “She can’t keep a job.”

“It seems not. Which goes a long way to explaining how she ended up working for the Dimsdale family.” Jack’s frown deepened. “It was he who I revealed myself to last night. The Dimsdale fellow.”

Maberly lathered Jack’s jaw. “Unwise, I’d have thought.”

“But necessary.”

“If you say so, sir.” Maberly began to shave him. “Don’t change the fact that it will set those Farraday women to chasing you again. And if I may point out⁠—”

“As if I could stop you.”

“—you ain’t as fleet of foot as you once was.”

Jack closed his eyes. “No. I’m not. But I am happy to be leaving this cabin, whatever the outcome.”

“Still, it ain’t going to be easy going for the rest of the voyage.”

“No,” Jack acknowledged grimly.

Relieved as he was to shed the confines of his self-imposed exile, he didn’t much look forward to the social interaction that would inevitably come with it. He’d have to be on his guard at all moments, wary of every trap and snare. It promised to be an exhausting business. Possibly a futile one too, given the determination of Mrs. Farraday.

As Maberly scraped the beard from Jack’s face and throat, Jack brooded over how much easier it all might have been if only Bea had been willing to tell the others that they were engaged.

Granted, she had agreed to think about it, but even if she did, Jack held out little hope that she’d change her mind. She was too sensible, that was the trouble. Too cautious.

Too scared.

It was that which troubled him. Knowing that she was frightened of being sacked, and left without a reference. That, absent his support, she’d be forced to face the consequences of Mr. Dimsdale’s actions alone.

And what could Jack do about it? Nothing at all. Not without a formal claim on her. And he couldn’t very well force her to pretend that he was her fiancé, could he?

Perhaps it had been a foolish idea anyway. Especially given the unsettling flashes of attraction Jack had lately been feeling for her.

A short time later, he emerged from his cabin, clad in a well-cut black coat and gray flannel trousers, his face cleanshaven and his hair combed into meticulous order. Breakfast was already being served in the dining saloon. To get there, Jack had to pass through the grand saloon on the main deck.

He heard the shrilly raised voice of a woman well before he arrived there.

“—unable to manage the slightest thing, and forever complaining to me, and now to my husband!” The harsh words rang down the hall. “Oh yes, he informed me of your disrespect. I daresay you thought it would go unpunished, dependent as we are on you to look after the children.”

“My disrespect?” Bea’s voice echoed. “It was your husband who behaved disrespectfully, ma’am. He was well in his cups, and made overtures to me of an inappropriate nature.”

Jack flinched at the brutality of Bea’s unapologetic honesty. Good lord, so much for throwing herself on her employer’s mercy! Somewhere between the anguished tears she’d shed last night, and facing Mrs. Dimsdale this morning, Bea must have decided it was as well to be hanged for a sheep as a lamb.