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She had a point.
“We’ll see,” Edgar said, in an attempt to maintain some control over his household.
But the smile that his sister and Miss Perkins exchanged revealed that the two females knew exactly what had happened.
They’d already won.
“Mind Miss Perkins closely,” India said to the twins. “I’ve a feeling she has much to teach you.”
His sister departed in her swaggering fashion, after one last triumphant over-the-shoulderI-told-you-soglance.
As Miss Perkins passed him on the way to the stairs, he caught the warm scent of her skin. A lingeringly sweet floral soap. Lilies. Or lilacs.
The fading afternoon sun lit the coronet of her braids and set it aflame.
Those prim, tightly woven braids. He had a sudden image of those braids unbound.
Of his fingers buried in her hair.
Drawing her closer to map her freckles with his lips.
Did she have freckles on her shoulders... or sprinkled across her breasts?
This would never work.
“Perkins,” he called sternly.
She turned. “Yes, Your Grace?”
Trepidation in her eyes. Desperation. Hope.“Good afternoon to you,” he finished, unable and unwilling to disappoint her.
A smile flirted with her lips. “Good afternoon, Your Grace.”
She disappeared up the stairs, the children trailing after her like tired little ducklings.
She may be fashioned specifically to tempt him, but Miss Perkins was far too sunny and guileless, she was in his employ, and she must be an example for his children.
Which set her entirely off limits.
Thrice forbidden.
And never to be explored.
She’d evaded the executioner’s block, at least for today.
As the twins led her to the nursery, Mari wondered what had changed the duke’s mind.
He’d had such a long list of objections: she was too small and weak, too inexperienced, too hypothetically distracting to footmen.
That last one had been unexpected, to say the least.
She had one week to overcome all of his objections and to prove her indispensability.
That is, if Mrs. Trilby didn’t find her out and ruin everything.
A new life in London and the princely sum of thirty-five pounds hung in the balance.
A small fortune,her heart sang.
