Rules of Engagement Read Free Page B

other two, wanted the Distinguished Academy of Governesses to be a success, and she had worked like a madwoman to obtain temporary positions so Hannah could find suitable candidates and begin the teaching process.
    "This school is my only chance to end my life in some kind of prosperity," Pamela said. "I won't give up on my dream now. Our dream."
    Hannah realized what the problem must be. "It's been too much for you, hasn't it? You've been working too hard, going from house to house teaching those dreadful children.
    You'll take anything to avoid doing it any longer, but I told you, Pamela, I would be glad to—"
    "No!" Pamela took a deep breath, then grasped Hannah's hand. Taking her fingers, Pamela carried them to a place on the left side of her back. "Here."
    Hannah found a tear in the soggy woolen gown. A tear that went deep, past Pamela's corset. "What… ?" Pulling her fingers away, she stared at the spot of crimson that stained one finger. "Pamela?"
    "It happened on the way home."
    "Cusheon!" Hannah shouted, then took Pamela's arm. "You must sit down. You're hurt."
    "I'm not, really. It's just a pinprick." But Pamela allowed Hannah to lead her to the chair. "I gave in as soon as the point touched my flesh."
    Cusheon arrived at a run. "Madams?" Seeing Pamela's pale face, he shouted for the housekeeper.
    Mrs. Knatchbull bustled in with the two older trainees in her wake.
    "We need bandages," Cusheon commanded. "And hot water. At once."
    "I was robbed. I lost all the money for the last month." Pamela's firm chin quavered. "Unless I take this position, we are ruined."
    CHAPTER 3
    His butler announced her with an air of gravity befitting a woman of her age and situation. "Lord Kerrich, Miss Pamela Lockhart from the Distinguished Academy of Governesses is here."
    Kerrich looked up from the accounts spread before him to stare critically at the lady making her way into his large, book-lined study. A fire burned in the grate, candles flickered in candelabras placed throughout the room, the heavy velvet curtains were open over the tall windows to let in whatever light there was, but the gray and cloudy day made it difficult to observe all the particulars of her appearance. Yet the scent of lavender preceded her as she walked briskly toward him. Then the candlelit circle of light around his heavily carved mahogany desk embraced her, and for the first time in a fortnight his heart lifted. There was no mistaking it—Miss Setterington had indeed produced a governess who fit his needs. Dour, unattractive, yet not so old she would scare the child.
    And Miss Setterington had produced this miracle one day earlier than his deadline. He never doubted the power of money.
    Rising, he bowed. "Miss Lockhart."
    She curtsied, then examined him quite as if he were a recalcitrant pupil and she his instructor.
    Lifting his monocle, he returned the favor. She bore a worn, hideous, flowered carpetbag of mammoth proportions, large enough that the handle dangled off her wrist and the bottom bumped at her knee. She carried a black umbrella with a primitively carved wooden handle. Her ill-fitting purple dowager gown hung about her shoulders and showed damp spots from the monotonous rain, yet she sported a generous bosom and neat waist.
    Ah, but he was well acquainted with the corset tricks women used to conceal figure defects and enhance deficiencies. Undoubtedly, Miss Lockhart was acquainted with them, too.
    She wore tinted spectacles, he noted, a sign of weak eyes and excessive learning. Her complexion was bloodless and her lips pale. Her brown hair was pulled back so tightly from her face that any sagging around the chin and neck had been reduced—another feminine trick, and one that would scarcely fool a connoisseur such as himself. A tangled, spidery thin net of gray lace covered her hair, and she sported an absurd decoration that looked like nothing so much as two knitting needles stuck in right angles through the knot at the base of her neck.
    He