Page 5 of One Night of Surrender
“It’s quite all right,” Val said, looking toward Caroline with a warm smile.“What do you need?”
“A schoolroom.”She glanced at lsabelle.“Mrs.Cortland suggested we might use your library.”
“Did she?”Val murmured.
Though Isabelle didn’t look at him—she was trying so hard not to—she felt his gaze sweeping over her like a warm summer breeze, welcome and invigorating.
“Ifyou have a library,” Beatrice put in.
“I most certainly have a library, and it is at your disposal.”
Lord Barkley frowned at his daughters.“We don’t wish to put you out.”He turned a flattering smile toward Val.“I’d planned to ask you about a space for them to learn.Later.”
“There is no inconvenience.”He looked directly at Isabelle, and she couldn’t ignore him.Nor could she afford to lose herself in the depths of his still-seductive gaze.“Tell me when you need the library, and it’s yours.”
She could almost imagine he’d said,Tell me when you need me, and I’m yours.But he hadn’t, of course, and she silently cursed her fanciful, traitorous mind.
Isabelle averted her eyes.It was so hard to look at him and not feel a jolt of awareness.Or worse, longing.“We conduct lessons in the morning and again in the afternoon, though I anticipate spending some afternoons on excursions while we’re in London.”
“The library shall be yours every morning and in the afternoons.I will make sure you are as undisturbed as possible.”
“Thank you.”Isabelle met his eyes again and was instantly taken back to a decade ago, to a time when someone had looked at her like that, as if he wanted to know her—as if hedidknow her.Aside from a close connection to Beatrice and Caroline as their governess, she’d been utterly alone these past six years, and to feel this sense of…belonging was almost overwhelming.
She spent the rest of the dinner struggling to appear serene and unaffected whilst the memory of her time with Val and his current proximity made her heart pound and her insides flutter.She feared Lord Barkley would detect the familiarity between them and demand to know what was going on.Would it be terrible to admit they’d known each other—platonically, of course—once?Perhaps not, but it was a risk she dare not take.
When dinner was over, Isabelle was relieved to remove the girls from the dining room with the utmost haste.After seeing them to bed, she’d hurried to her third-floor retreat, where she prepared for bed and immediately buried her nose in a book that couldn’t hope to hold her attention.
After an hour, she was about to give up when a light knock drew her to turn her head toward the door.Her first thought was that it could be Val.Just as quickly, she told herself that was silly.He wouldn’t be so foolish as to visit her up here.She was simply allowing him too much space in her head.No more.
It was likely Caroline, who sometimes grew scared in the night and would come to Isabelle’s room.It happened less now than it had in years past, but they were in a strange house.
Isabelle set her book on the tiny nightstand and slipped from her narrow bed.The room was smaller than what she was used to, but it had a window with a charming view of the garden below.
She opened the door and sucked in a breath.“Val.”
Garbed in the immaculately tailored suit of clothing he’d worn to dinner, he grinned, and her entire body heated in response.“Youdoremember my name.”
“You shouldn’t be here.”That was all she managed to get out before he pushed past her and strode into the room.
He frowned as he surveyed the chamber.“This is very small.”
“You act as though you’ve never been up here.”
“Not never, but not in some time.”He straightened and gave her a decisive nod.“I’ll move you downstairs.”
Closer to him.That was a terrible notion.“No, you won’t.”
He took a step toward her, the frown returning.“A governess isn’t a servant.”
“Nor is she a member of the family.”Footsteps on the stairs filled her with alarm.“You need to go.You can’t be in here.”
He rotated his head, presenting his ear toward the door and took another step forward.“Is someone coming?”
“Yes,” she hissed.
“Then I can’t very well leave.I’d walk right by whoever it is.”He sounded utterly unconcerned.
Isabelle closed the door with a firm click.Then she spun around to glare at him.“Are you trying to get me tossed out?”
