When a Duke Loves a Governess (Unlikely Duchesses #3) - Olivia Drake Page 0,46

folly of their embrace kept her tossing and turning. Her own mother’s experience should be a lesson that while a nobleman might woo a servant, he never had marriage on his mind. It would be madness to imagine Carlin’s intentions were honorable, or to think she could ever fit into his highbrow world. She had a more sensible dream for her future, a shop to open, a pinnacle to achieve as London’s top milliner.

It was best to relegate that kiss to the dustbin of memory.

Chapter 9

On the night of the lecture, Guy stood in the arched doorway of the Blue Drawing Room and greeted his guests as they entered. The long, cavernous chamber was done in royal blue with enough gold trim to blind the eye, a ceiling decorated with cherubs and nymphs, and Rembrandt paintings over both marble fireplaces. Much of the furniture had been removed to allow space for some two hundred gilded chairs.

This was a room he remembered from childhood visits when he’d been called down from the nursery to bid good night to his grandparents. The duchess had been warm and loving, but he’d always disliked facing the duke’s cutting criticisms, for try as he might, Guy had never succeeded in winning the approval of his stern grandfather. Even now, he felt like an interloper, as if he didn’t quite belong at Carlin House. A ludicrous notion, and one he meant to dispel by putting his own stamp on the place.

Tonight was one way to do so.

Although Aunt Delia had urged him to use the larger ballroom in order to invite the cream of the ton, Guy had overruled her. He’d limited the guest list to old friends and their wives, political bigwigs, and scholarly gentlemen. As much as he’d like to enlighten all of society, he was loath to turn the serious address into a frivolous event. The last thing he wanted was a swarm of ambitious mamas pushing their daughters into his path.

That sort of matchmaking nonsense was precisely why he’d returned home early from the Farnsworths’ ball three nights ago. The same night that he’d come upon Tessa in his study.

Guy covertly looked for her now as he proceeded to the front of the assemblage. The air hummed with conversations. His cousin and heir, Edgar, was seated at the edge of the throng, drumming his fingers on his knee and likely wishing himself out on the town with his friends. Aunt Delia, draped in funereal black, sat in the last row with her companion, Miss Knightley.

Guy didn’t spot Tessa anywhere. Disappointment gnawed at him, for she was a refreshing change from the toadying ladies of the ton. He could have sworn that her keen interest in his voyage would have tempted her downstairs tonight. Her absence, he presumed, must be due to that fiery kiss. No sooner had she leaned toward him with desire in her eyes than his resolve to keep his distance had shattered. At one taste of her soft lips, he’d been consumed by passion, and Guy couldn’t honestly say that he was sorry.

He’d seen her only once since then, when she’d brought Sophy downstairs the previous day to look at his animal sketches. Tessa had been cool and deferential as if that ardent embrace had never happened.

He released a long breath. Dammit, he yearned for his warm, alluring companion of that night. He wanted the chance to coax her into telling him all her secrets. For one, he suspected she’d never before seen a private library. For another, there was her occasional lapse into the common vernacular. She was especially adept at changing the subject whenever it centered on herself.

But her past would have to remain a mystery. Miss Tessa James was off limits. Any further dalliance would only invite trouble. He had no desire to marry ever again—let alone engage in an affair with his daughter’s governess.

Guy took up a stance in between the two fireplaces. His audience instantly quieted with only a few coughs and murmurs to disturb the silence. “Good evening, gentlemen and ladies. Four years ago I embarked upon a scientific voyage that would take me around the globe in search of strange and unusual plants. Along the way I expanded not merely my knowledge of flora, but also my appreciation for the diversity of the world.”

Recognizing that botany alone wouldn’t engage their interest, he started by relating a number of vivid anecdotes: outrunning a privateer off the coast of Tripoli, riding out a typhoon