His gaze found hers, guarded. “Of course not.”
“I know better than any that—”
He did not speak. She turned to Lydia, hoping for help, and the governess simply shook her head, wide-eyed. And guilt spread through Mara, hot and unpleasant. She had to repair the damage. She returned her attention to Temple. “You are schooled in the courtly arts?”
He met her gaze for a long moment before executing a perfect bow, and looking more ducal than Mara had ever seen him. “I am.”
A truce.
“And appropriate conversation with ladies?” Lydia was grateful for the détente, her gaze flickering to the paper in Mara’s hand. “We may need a bit of that.”
“I have had few complaints.”
He was an excellent conversationalist. Mara had no doubt.
Lydia continued. “And sport? I think sport has been neglected from the boys’ education for far too long.”
Mara huffed at that. “The man is built like a Greek god. I think sport is the one thing he can teach them.”
The words rattled around the room, shocking everyone. Lydia’s eyes went wide. Temple went still.
Mara’s mouth dropped open.
She hadn’t said it.
A Greek god?
It was his fault. He’d scrambled her thoughts. And he was interjecting himself into every aspect of her life—every bit for which she’d worked so hard and fought so long. Surely that was what had made her say it.
A Greek god??
She closed her eyes and willed him to lose the power of speech. Immediately and irreversibly. “Obviously, I didn’t mean—”
“Well. Thank you.”
In the entire history of time, had willing ever worked?
She straightened. Soldiered on. “I would not take it as a compliment. The Greek gods were a strange bunch. Always turning into animals and abducting virgins.”
Dear God. Could she not keep her mouth shut?
“It’s not such a terrible fate, that,” he said.
Lydia snickered.
Mara glared at her. “You just asked him to teach the boys to be gentlemen.”
Lydia turned enormous eyes on Temple. “Your Grace, you do realize you cannot speak to the boys in such . . . innuendo.”
“Of course,” he said. “But you do realize that your employer started it.”
Mara wanted to tread upon his foot. But seeing as he was a great giant of a man, she doubted he would feel it at all.
“Well then. It’s settled,” Lydia said, as though it were. Which it seemed to be, despite Mara being against the entire thing. “You shall spend the morning with the boys, and they will no doubt learn a great deal.” She turned to Mara, immense meaning in her eyes as she finished, casually, “And perhaps once you have spent the day with the boys, you and Mrs. MacIntyre can discuss a charitable donation to our very good work.”
Lydia was nothing if not shrewd. Where Mara looked at Temple and saw a dangerous foe, Lydia saw a wealthy potential ally. A man who could pay all their bills.
Temple raised a brow. “Your business acumen rivals that of your employer.”
Lydia smiled. “I shall take that as a compliment.”
She shouldn’t, of course.
Temple would not simply decide to give to the orphanage. He, too, was shrewd. And their best chance of paying their bills was for Mara to continue on her path. A thread of unease slid through her at the mercenary thought. She ignored it.
This was about the orphanage and the boys’ safety.
Her means would justify that end.
Lydia stood then. “Well. This is a treat. It’s not every day a duke gives up his title to take on work.”
“I hear it happens quite often in novels,” Temple said.
“This is not exactly a novel,” Mara said. In a novel, she’d be a perfect, beautiful maid with an unblemished past to match her complexion. And he’d be a handsome, brooding duke.
Well, the last bit was rather like real life, she supposed.
“Really?” he teased, “I confess, the events of the last week have been strange enough to convince me otherwise.”
Lydia laughed. “Indeed.”
Mara pointed at her. “Do not come to like him.”
The laugh turned into a grin. “That might prove difficult.”
Temple bowed.
They were flirting now, and it occurred to Mara that if this were a novel, she would not be the heroine. Lydia might be. The kind, pretty, blond governess, with bright laughs and big eyes, just the thing to turn the brooding duke around.
Mara scowled. It was not a novel.
“Lydia, prepare the boys for a special lesson with His Grace,” she said, meeting Temple’s eyes. “You remain here.”
Curiosity flooded Lydia’s expression, but she knew better than to linger, leaving immediately to collect her charges. Once the door closed behind her, she came around the desk to face him. “You needn’t do this.”
“It’s kind of you to think of my comfort.”
“I did not mean to imply that I was doing that.”
His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “I shall infer it nonetheless.”
He was distracting. She could smell the clove and thyme on him—the salve she’d spread on his wound while he’d waited patiently, her fingers sliding over his warm, smooth skin.
And from there, it was a quick leap to the memory of his lips on hers.
She couldn’t believe she’d kissed him.
Could believe even less that he’d kissed her in return.
And she would not think on the fact that she’d liked it.
Or that like seemed not at all a strong enough word for how the caress had made her feel.
He was smirking now, as though he knew the thoughts that were running through her mind.
She cleared her throat. Straightened her shoulders. “The boys do not have much time with gentlemen. They will be interested in you.”
He nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Don’t . . .” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “Don’t make them like you.”
His brows rose.
“It will only make it harder when you leave and never return. Don’t let them grow attached to you.” Suddenly, the possibility of becoming attached to him did not seem so unrealistic.
There was a thick hesitation before he said, “It’s just a morning, Mara.”
She nodded, ignoring the way the words twisted in the air between them. “I’ll have your word on that.”
He exhaled on a little huff. Humor? Frustration? “As a gentleman? Or a scoundrel?”
“As both.”
He nodded. “My word, as both.”
She opened the door, turned back to him, trying not to notice how handsome he was. How tempting. “I hope at least one of them sticks.”
He left, and she closed the door behind him. After several moments of wanting to follow him, she turned the lock, and returned to her desk.
One hour.
That was how long it took for her curiosity to get the better of her, and for her to go hunting for him.
She found Lydia standing sentry in the main hall of the orphanage.
“Where are they?” Mara asked.
Lydia tipped her head in the direction of the firmly shut door to the dining room. “He has been with them for three-quarters of an hour.”
“Doing what?”
“I haven’t any idea.”
She approached her friend, lowered her voice to a whisper. “I cannot believe you asked him this.”
Lydia shrugged. “He seems a decent man.”
He was. “You don’t know that.”
Lydia’s blue gaze turned knowing. “I know indecent men. And you yourself said he did not do what the world thinks
he did.” She paused, then added, “And he’s rich enough to save us all.”
If only he knew they were in danger.
Nothing you could say will make me forgive.
Nothing she could say would make him help.
Lydia was still talking. “ . . . but they seem to be enjoying it.”
Laughter and excited chatter streamed from the dining room, returning Mara to the present. She knocked and opened the door, the laughter noise immediately subsiding.
Temple looked up from his place at the head of the table and immediately stood when she entered. The boys followed suit. “Ah,” he said, “Mrs. MacIntyre. We were just finishing our discussion.”
She looked from one boy to the next, each more tight-lipped than his neighbor, appearing as though they’d been instructed in a series of mysterious arts. When her gaze fell on Temple once more, she said, “I trust all is well?”
He nodded, circumspect. “I believe it was a success.”
She left them again, vowing to leave them alone.
That vow lasted a full two hours, until she could no longer stop herself from leaving her office to ostensibly check on the status of luncheon, which happened to take her through the main foyer of the orphanage, where she was unable to miss the line of serious, attentive boys snaking along its edge, each one watching Temple, who stood in the middle of the room, Lavender in hand, Daniel and George with him.
She hesitated at the foot of the stairs, immediately backing away from the space to watch.
“He made me angry,” George was saying, simply. It was not the first time he and Daniel had gone head to head. It would not be the last.
Temple nodded, his attention focused on the boy. “And so?”
“And so I hit him.”
Shock flooded Mara. Physical aggression was not allowed inside MacIntyre’s. Obviously, allowing a bare-knuckle boxer into the orphanage was a horrible idea. She started into the foyer when Temple said, “Why?”
She stopped at the strange question, one she would not have though to ask. One George had trouble answering. He shrugged, looking down at his shuffling feet.
“A gentleman looks into the eyes of those with whom he is speaking.”
George looked up at Temple. “Because I wanted to make him angry, too.”
Temple nodded. “You wanted revenge.”
If the building had collapsed in that moment, Mara could not have stopped watching.
“Yes,” George said.
“And Daniel, did he have it?”
The other boy did not hesitate, pulling himself up straight. “No.”
Temple wanted to smile at the bravado; Mara could see it. Instead, he turned to face the other boy. “Truly? Because you seemed to grow quite angry once you were hit.”
“Of course I did!” Daniel said, as though Temple were mad. “He hit me! I was defending myself!”
Temple nodded, “Which is your right. But do you feel better now that you hit back?”
Daniel scowled. “No.”
Temple turned to George. “And do you feel avenged for whatever slight Daniel inflicted?”
George considered the question, his head tilted as he looked at Daniel for a long moment before he realized the truth. “No.”
Temple nodded. “Why not?”
“Because I am still angry.”
“Precisely. And what else?”
“And now Daniel is angry as well.”
“Exactly. And Lavender?”
The boys looked to Lavender.
“We didn’t see her!” Daniel said.
“She came from nowhere!” George cried.
“And she was nearly caught in your fray. Which could have been painful for her. Perhaps worse.” The boys were horrified. “Let that be the lesson. I am not telling you not to fight. I am simply telling you that when you do, you should do it for the right reasons.”
“Revenge isn’t the right reason?”
He went quiet for a long moment, and Mara held her breath, waiting for his answer. Knowing that he was thinking of something bigger than whatever had started the sparring match between the two boys. “In my experience,” he said, finally, “it does not always proceed as expected.”
What did that mean?
Another pause, and he added, “And sometimes it ends with a piglet in danger.” The boys smiled, George reaching out to pat Lavender’s little pink head as Temple moved on. “Now, more importantly, I would imagine your fists hurt no small amount.”
George shook out his hand. “How did you know that?”
Temple held out his own hand, the size of one of the boys’ heads. He made a fist. “You tucked your thumb inside.” He opened his hand and closed it again. “If you leave it on the outside, the blow hurts less.”
“Would you teach us how to fight?”
He did smile then, one side of his mouth turning up. Lord, he was handsome. And from here, tucked behind the stairs, she could look her fill. No one ever need know.
“I would be happy to.”
She should stop him before she had a battalion of well-trained pugilists on hand. And she might have, if he hadn’t turned to look at her, his gaze finding hers quick and true, sending her heart straight into her throat.
“Mrs. MacIntyre,” he said, “why don’t you join us?”
She’d been watching him for an age, quiet and still in the corner. If she were another woman, perhaps he wouldn’t have noticed.
But she was Mara Lowe, and he’d resigned himself to the realization that he would always notice her. That he was consumed with awareness of her, even as he wished he wasn’t. Even as he mistrusted her, and doubted her, and raged at her.
Even as he stood in her place of business and willed her to tell him the truth.
And so, when her young charges gave him an opportunity to bring her closer, he used it, enjoying the look of surprise on her face when she realized she’d been seen.
She came forward, doing her best to seem as though she hadn’t been eavesdropping. “Good afternoon, gentlemen!”
They faced her like little toy soldiers, each executing a perfect little bow. “Good afternoon, Mrs. MacIntyre,” they intoned as one.
She came up short. “My goodness! What a fine greeting.”
She loved the boys; that much was clear. A vision flashed. Mara, smiling down at a row of boys on the wide green grounds of Whitefawn Abbey. A row of dark-haired, dark-eyed boys, each happier than the next. His boys.
His Mara.
He shook his head and returned his attention to the situation at hand. “Mrs. MacIntyre, the boys are asking for a lesson in fighting, and I thought perhaps you would like to help.”
Her gaze went wide. “I wouldn’t know how to begin.”
The woman carried a knife on her person. Temple was willing to wager everything he had that she knew precisely where to begin. “All the more reason for you to learn.”
The boys, who had remained quiet up until that point, began to protest. “She can’t learn; she’s a girl!” one called out.
“Right,” another chimed in, “girls learn things like dancing. And sewing.”
The idea of Mara Lowe sewing anything but a knife wound was fairly laughable.
“She can learn,” George said, “but she doesn’t need to. Girls don’t have to fight.”
He did not like the memory that came quick and powerful, of Mara trapped on a Mayfair street by two animals stronger than her by half. He wanted her safe. Protected. And he could give her the tools to keep herself that way. “First, gentlemen don’t refer to ladies as girls,” Temple pointed out. “Second, you will all be learning to dance soon enough, I would think.” That bit drew a chorus of groans from his pupils. “And third, everyone should be prepared to protect him or herself.” He turned to Mara, extending his hand, “Mrs. MacIntyre???
?
She hesitated, considering his hand for a long moment before making her decision, approaching, sliding her fingers into his. Once again, she was not wearing gloves, and in that moment, he wished that he wasn’t wearing them, either.
Perhaps this had not been a good idea. He’d meant to unsettle her, to draw her out.
He had not expected to be the one unsettled.
But this was the way of things with Mara Lowe.
He turned her to face the boys, and wrapped his hand around hers, moving her fingers into position, until she made a perfect fist. He spoke as he did so, attempting to ignore her nearness. “Try to keep all the muscles loose when you make your fist. It’s not the tightness of it that hurts your opponent, but the force. The tighter your fist, the more the blow will hurt you.”
The boys were nodding, watching, making their own fists, arms flailing about. Not so Mara. She held her fists like a fighter—close to her face, as though someone might come at her at any moment. She met his gaze, focused on him. Warming him.
He turned back to the boys. “Remember that, lads. The angrier you are, the more likely you are to lose.”
Daniel paused in his shadowboxing, his brow furrowed with confusion. “If you aren’t to fight when you’re angry, why then?”
An excellent question. “Defense.”
“If someone hits you first,” one of the other boys said.
“But why would they hit you first?” George countered. “Unless they’re angry, and breaking the rules?”
“Perhaps they’ve bad manners,” Daniel suggested, and everyone laughed.
“Or they’ve poor training,” Temple added with a smile.
“Or you’re hurting someone they care for,” Henry said. “I would hit someone if they hurt Lavender.”
The boys nodded as one.
“Protection.” Temple’s knuckles still ached from the night of Mara’s attack. He looked to her, grateful for her safety. “That’s the very best reason to fight.”
Her cheeks pinkened, and he found he enjoyed the view. “Or perhaps they’ve made a mistake,” she said.
What did that mean?
Something was there, in those strange, beautiful eyes. Regret?