the time to appreciate the odd sight. Behind him, two children came barrelling into the corridor. They skidded to a tardy and incomplete halt behind him and … oomph!
Their momentum set off a chain reaction, sending them all down in a heap, Maura at the bottom, looking up over the tangle of arms and legs into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. Even with two children heaped higgledy-piggledy on them, she was not immune to the fact that those blue eyes went with an entirely masculine body of hard ridges and muscled planes which, at present, had landed on her in a most indelicate manner.
‘Hello.’ He grinned down at her, walnut-dark hair falling in his face with casual negligence.
‘I’m here about the position,’ Maura managed to get out, but she immediately regretted it. ‘Position’ wasn’t quite the best word to use, although given the situation, she was fortunate to formulate any coherent thoughts with all that well-muscled maleness pressing down on her.
‘I can see that.’ Mischief twinkled in those blue eyes, suggesting he wasn’t oblivious to their unorthodox circumstances, circumstances, she noted, he didn’t seem to mind. Whoever he was, he should be chagrined. No tutor or footman worth his salt would be caught in such raucous behaviour if he valued his post. But it was clear this attractive mess of a man wasn’t the least bit worried. He was laughing, quite possibly at her, as he rose and helped the children up.
Everyone apparently thought the accident a great lark. The children were both talking at once. ‘Did you see the way I came around the corner?’
‘I grabbed hold of the banister post and sling-shotted myself into the hall!’
Slingshotted? Great heavens, was that even a word?
‘You were amazing, William. It was like you were a cannon ball!’ the blue-eyed man put in with an inordinate amount of enthusiasm.
‘We broke Aunt Cressida’s vase!’ The little girl giggled nervously.
The man ruffled her hair. ‘Don’t worry, it was ugly anyway.’
Unbelievable! Had they forgotten about her? Maura was halfway to her feet, struggling with the tangle of her skirts and luggage when a large hand reached down for her. ‘Are you all right?’ The rich baritones of his voice were easy and friendly, further sign he was a man who took nothing too seriously.
‘I shall recover.’ Maura tugged at the fitted jacket of her travelling costume and smoothed her skirts, trying to restore some proper order to the encounter. ‘I am the new governess. Mrs Pendergast assigned me just this morning. I should like to speak with Lord Chatham, please.’ That should get some results.
His eyes twinkled with more mischief, if that was possible. ‘You are speaking with him.’ He gave her a gallant half-bow at odds with his dishabille. ‘The Earl of Chatham at your service.’
‘You’re the earl?’ Maura tried not to gape. Dissolute earls weren’t supposed to be handsome, hard-bodied males who flirted with their eyes.
The corners of his eyes crinkled in amusement. ‘I believe we’ve established that. Now, what shall we call you?’ He fixed her with a white-toothed smile that probably made most women go weak at the knees. Maura liked to think her knees were weak from having been ploughed over on the doorstep instead. He turned to the children, who were staring up at him with wide eyes full of obvious hero worship. ‘We can’t very well call her “new governess”. That’s no sort of name at all.’ They started to giggle again.
The little girl smiled up at him and clapped her hands. ‘I know! I know! We’ll call her Six.’ The little girl curtsied very prettily. ‘Hello, Six, I’m Cecilia and I’m seven. This is my brother, William. He’s eight.’ She laughed again. ‘Six, seven, eight, we’re all numbers in a row. That’s funny. Uncle Ree, did you get my joke? Six, seven, eight?’
‘I most certainly did, my dear. It was the funniest one yet.’ The earl smiled down at her indulgently and wrapped his hand around her considerably smaller one. The gesture was endearing and it succeeded in doing queer things to Maura’s stomach.
‘Perhaps we should step inside,’ Maura suggested, well aware, even if they weren’t, that their little coterie on the porch was drawing stares from the street.
‘Oh, yes, do forgive me.’ The earl jumped into action and ushered them all indoors to the hall where the remnants of Aunt Cressida’s vase were being swept up by a maid. ‘Now we can have proper introductions and …’ He paused, his brow furrowing as he groped for the right words. ‘And a pot of tea. That will be just the thing. You’ll have to excuse me; I seem to have left my manners on the floor with the vase.’ He pushed a hand through his dark hair, looking entirely likeable.
She’d not been ready for that. She hadn’t planned on liking him, Maura realised as they settled for tea in the drawing room, children included. What she had expected was a middle-aged man with greying side-whiskers, lecherous eyes and wandering hands, a man like her uncle’s crony Baron Wildeham.
Tea came and Maura discreetly looked towards the doorway. ‘Are your wards going to join us?’ There were four tea cups on the tray. Surely the children weren’t staying for tea?
The earl looked at her queerly, gesturing to the children. ‘They’re already here.’ Then he laughed, his mouth breaking into his easy smile. ‘Mrs Pendergast didn’t tell you, did she? That tricky old woman, no wonder she got someone here so quickly.’
Maura sat up straight, feeling defensive. ‘She mentioned the wards were young.’
‘She’d be correct. It’s William and Cecilia I need a governess for,’ the earl explained, motioning that she should pour out.
Maura was glad for something to do, something to occupy her hands while her mind restored order. There’d be no young girls to shepherd into society as she was expecting. Instead, there were two slightly precocious children who slid through the hallways in stockinged feet. She told herself she could manage. She’d helped her aunt with her young cousins, after all. She just needed to readjust her thinking.
‘How do you take your tea, milord?’ Her hand hovered over the sugar and cream.
He dismissed those offerings with a wave of his hand. ‘I take it plain and you can call me Riordan or Mr Barrett if you wish.’ There was a tinge of bitterness in his voice. What had Mrs Pendergast said about the death of his brother? The new earl seemed a reluctant heir. Maura wished she’d listened more closely.
‘Neither is appropriate, as you well know.’ Maura passed his tea cup and tendered a smile, hoping to ease the disagreement. Arguing with one’s employer on the first day was no way to start. ‘I should call you Lord Chatham.’ She smiled again, looking for a better subject of conversation. What had her governesses done on the first day? She sipped her tea and racked her brain for an appropriate next step.
‘Lord Chatham?’ He arched a dark eyebrow in query. The expression drew attention to his eyes, twin-blue flames flickering with life and mischief.
‘I think that would be best, under the circumstances.’ She knew that would be best. He was a dangerous sort of man when it came to a woman’s sensibilities with his good looks and penchant for informality. A half-hour in his company had proven it. He hadn’t even bothered to put his coat on or tuck in his shirt-tails.
To her surprise, he laughed and leaned forwards, smiling
