Gift-Wrapped Governess by Sophia James Page B

society where self-interest was generally predominant.
    And while Pippa had taken her place in society, Miss Miller had been obliged to take a job as an unpaid teacher at the school where they’d both spent their girlhood, just to secure a roof over her head.
    â€˜Do you know,’ he observed to Lady Springfield, ‘I find it impossible to despise any woman, gently born, who finds herself obliged to work for a living.’
    He didn’t suppose a spoilt, pampered creature like Lady Springfield would understand, but getting Miss Miller this post had been the cleverest and kindest thing Pippa had probably ever done. She’d somehow managed to persuade her husband to use his connections to find her friend a paid position, which was how she’d wound up here, looking after Lord Budworth’s brood.
    Lady Springfield raised her delicately plucked brows. ‘But we surely do not need to go out of our way to socialise with them?’
    It was a touch unsettling to find that he disapproved of sentiments he’d held not two minutes earlier. He hadn’t intended to so much as dismount from his horse or waste more than a moment or two in getting an unpleasant obligation over with.
    But he had decided to do the right thing, no matter how grudgingly, and was not about to change his mind because some chit barely out of the schoolroom disapproved.
    â€˜We?’ He smiled sardonically, turned his back on her andspurred Diamond through the thicket. He was going to pay his respects to a friend of his sister’s.
    She could do as she liked.
    He checked the moment he broke through into the clearing where a group of children of varying ages were charging around, ransacking the shrubbery for seasonal foliage with the aid of two youngish undergardeners. They all looked as though they were having a wonderful time.
    Miss Miller was sitting to one side, all bundled up against the cold in an ill-assorted collection of shawls, gloves and overcoat, topped off with the most unflattering bonnet he’d ever seen perched upon a woman’s head.
    â€˜Good God. Miss Miller, what on earth do you look like, perched on that tree stump?’ He couldn’t help it. The entire scene was so very far from anything he could have imagined her presiding over that he burst out laughing.
    She got to her feet. The light reflecting off her spectacles made it impossible to make out her eyes very clearly. But he would wager she was giving him one of her gorgon glares.
    From behind him, Lady Springfield’s voice rang out, clear as a bell. ‘A gnome! I do declare she looks just like a gnome.’
    Miss Miller stiffened. She said nothing, but a tide of red surged into her cheeks.
    â€˜Lady Springfield,’ he said reprovingly, turning his head to frown at her.
    He might have known it would be no easy matter to shake her off. She was due to make her debut in a month or two, and he was about the youngest and most eligible bachelor present at this house party. Last night, at dinner, it had amused him to let her practise her entire repertoire of eyelash batting, coy glances, fan fluttering and hair twirling upon him.
    He wished now he had given her a sharp set down. He wished he could do so now. It was incredibly unkind of her to mock a person who had not the luxury of answering back.
    It was not his place to reprove a lady publicly, but whenshe drew level with him, he said in an undertone, ‘That was not kind.’
    â€˜No, I suppose not.’ She shrugged, flicking a derisive glance in Miss Miller’s direction. And then added in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, ‘She cannot help what she looks like, after all.’
    The sneaky little cat. She’d made it sound as though he’d made another derogatory remark about Miss Miller, rather than attempting to remind Lady Springfield what she owed to her position.
    At that point Miss Miller dropped them both a perfunctory curtsy.
    â€˜Lord