The night he’d told her he meant to ruin Fitchley to protect Lucy—and her.
The night she’d resigned her post, because he had too many scruples to seduce a woman in his employ, but she was too deeply in love with him to miss her chance for a moment of wild happiness.
The night she took the biggest gamble of her life.
I will not regret this, not in five years nor in fifty, echoed her own voice in her head.
She still didn’t regret it. For a moment her gaze lingered on the door, wondering if perhaps she could steal just one more night...
With an effort she looked away. Every bill came due, sooner or later.Tell him now, she commanded herself.Before it gets harder.
Before she gave in to the wicked part of her soul that whispered that Nick did what he wanted, and didn’t care for the opinions of mysterious and nebulous “people” who meant nothing to him, and that perhaps she too could get away with indulging her wicked urges. She’d learned long ago that it didn’t work that way, not for women.
She took a deep breath and went downstairs.
Nick stood outside the inn,watching the moon rise over the slate roof. It still felt novel to be outdoors after dark, and he was rediscovering his fascination with the night sky.
He was also, it must be admitted, hiding. Charlotte had been prodding him for days with little comments about Emilia, and how lovely it would be if the four of them became a real family. She teased him about wanting a baby niece for her and Lucy to spoil. She asked him if they would take a long wedding trip, and if she and Lucy could stay with Lady Arabella while Nick and Emilia were gone.
In aggravation he’d threatened to make her study geometry and Latin, and his sister had stopped teasing him. But she took one parting shot that found its mark.
“Just think how happyyouwould be, Nicky. It’s clear Miss Greene makes you very happy, and I fear you’ll be terribly sad if she leaves.”
No, not sad. He would be devastated if Emilia left.
So what was he going to do to keep her?
“Good evening,” came her quiet voice behind him.
Nick jerked around to face her. She wore the buttery yellow dress, glowing pale in the moonlight. Her hair was falling down, curls tumbling around her nape. She gave him a hesitant smile and his heart leapt with such joy, he knew what he was going to do.
“Fancy a stroll this fine evening?”
“Yes.” She fell in step beside him. “I must speak to you about something.”
“Oh?” His mind raced through probabilities, chances, how to better his odds. Should he go down on one knee? Was poetry required?
“Yes. I was going to wait until we reached London, but I think—I think it’s better to do it now.” She stopped walking, and a moment later Nick stopped, too. “I resigned my post,” she said.
Still scrounging his memory for a romantic bit of verse, Nick nodded. “I remember.”
She bowed her head. He could make her out now, a pale figure in the night. “You must know... I cannot resume it, when we return to London.”
That pulled him out of his thoughts. “What?”
“I can’t continue as both your governess and your lover,” she whispered. “Whatever you think about propriety, you must think of Charlotte and Lucy. It’s for their sakes that I’m telling you now. You must find a new governess for them.”
Nick looked at her for a long moment. He should have waited for her inside, so he would be able to see her expression. “Is that what you want?” he finally asked. Her head came up with a jerk. “You won’t need to be a governess, in six months,” he added. “Perhaps you’re just as glad to be done now.”
“No! I will miss them... so very much.” Her voice shook. “I amnotglad, I am—” She turned and started walking back toward the inn.
Nick took two long strides and caught her hand. “Then don’t leave.” He tugged gently, and she came easily into the curve of his arm, pressing close to his side. He rested his cheek against her temple, breathing in honeysuckle. “What if I offered you a different position?” he murmured.
“At your club?” She gave a weak laugh and raised one hand to disguise the swipe she gave her eyes with the other. “Look. There’s Vega.” She pointed at the sky. “I can find it now, thanks to you.”
Nick glanced up. His lucky star. “No, not a position at Vega’s.”
She seemed to shrink against him. “What position, then?”
