Mr. Gardiner and the Governess - Sally Britton Page 0,44

begin our tour? I have refreshments waiting for us at Apollo.”

“I think at whichever statue is closest. I hurried by most of them before.” She tipped her head to the side, allowing him a clearer view of her profile. “As you might recall, I was not paying a great deal of attention to my surroundings at the time.”

“Ah, yes. You did become rather closely acquainted with a flowerbed.” He chuckled at the memory. Had it only been a fortnight since they met? It felt as though he knew her longer. Perhaps the amount of time she had taken up his thoughts made it so.

They walked along the path, pausing at each statue as they went. Alice—how he enjoyed the use of her Christian name—knew each statue’s identity with only the barest hints in the sculptures. She was well-versed in mythology, a subject he did not think most women knew.

Then he would point out the plants growing around each statue, telling her more about them, and noting when they flowered or slept for a season. Not once did she seem impatient or uninterested at his explanations. Alice listened, her eyes upon him, asking intelligent questions from time to time.

When they arrived at Apollo, within sight of the statue of Aphrodite, Rupert scooped up the basket at the base of the Greek god. He would have to thank Billings profusely for the man’s foresight. “Why don’t we venture over there?” he asked, pointing to the statue of the goddess where they had first met. “I understand there is a well-tended bed of narcissus.”

Alice’s laugh danced through the air between them. “I suppose that would be appropriate, given it was the scene of our first meeting. You were rather impatient with me, you will recall.”

“And you were certain I was concerned about the flowers you crushed.” He followed after her, admiring the grace of her walk.

“I thought you were a gardener,” she reminded him over her shoulder.

Rupert bit back a sigh of admiration. He had to get hold of himself. He had been around many a beautiful woman before. Had both charmed ladies and repelled them, at his choice, with either mild flirtation or stories about his insect collection. All his interactions with Alice Sharpe, however, had been different. She seemed charmed by his talk of crawling things and repelled by his attempts at flirting—at least at first. Things were markedly different now. Her reactions sent his head spinning, and their time together was never quite enough for him to determine what it was that drew him to her.

They settled beneath the statue, on a blanket Billings had thoughtfully added to the basket. Rupert served her a cup of lemonade from a small jug, then fruit and cheese.

“How did you become a governess, Alice?” he asked after he had settled in with his own refreshment. “You talked of your family before, when we tended to Geoffrey. Why are you not with them?”

Her eyes lowered to the flowers, and one hand idly plucked grapes from their stem. “My parents died when I was very young. I cannot remember my father at all, though I do remember my mother. We lived with one of her sisters for a time, before she fell ill and died. My aunt kept me for a few years, but she had several of her own children to occupy her time. I was sent to my father’s mother. Then she passed away, and I went to an uncle. Then another aunt, and then everyone blurs together.”

She had been like Geoffrey, passed from one guardian to another. Never quite settling, never belonging.

“My great-aunt, Mrs. Lucinda Beardsley, was the last person I was with. I acted as her companion for a time, but then she was summoned to help one of her granddaughters enter Society. That was when the family decided I ought to try for more independence.”

Though Alice spoke calmly, her words practiced and clearly carefully measured, something about her story struck him as terribly sad. Lonely, even.

“You became a governess.”

She plucked another grape but left it on the plate rather than sample it. “To the duke’s family. Yes. My great-aunt recommended me to the dowager duchess.”

“This is your first position?” Rupert sat back on his hands, considering her reluctance to help him with his work. It made more sense that she would worry so, given that her family had sent her away with such heavy expectations upon her shoulders.

Alice shrugged. “My very first, officially, though I have acted as a tutor