The Governess Affair

“Express your admiration some other way. It makes me think—” She cut off, and took a step back. “What are you doing?”
    He took another step toward her. She held up her hands to ward him off. Slowly, Hugo extended his walking stick to her. “Take it,” he said.
    “But—”
    “Stop arguing, Serena, and take it.”
    Her hand closed around the head, and she pulled it from him.
    “That,” he said, “is a weapon. If I do anything you don’t like, hit me on the head. It’s dark. You’re unaccompanied. And I am seeing you home.”
    She looked up at him. “I don’t understand.”
    He didn’t, either. “Don’t make too much of it.” Hugo shrugged and set off down the street.

    S ERENA DIDN’T KNOW what to think as she trotted down the street beside the Wolf of Clermont, swinging his heavy walking stick. His strides were not long, but they were quick and steady, and her heart beat quickly as she kept pace with him. Her mind was whirling nearly as fast.
    When they slowed to pick their way across a street, Serena tried again. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
    “Yes, you do,” he said, not looking at her. “You understand perfectly well what is happening. We’re attracted to one other, and it’s inconvenient.”
    She sucked in a breath.
    “Don’t act so surprised. If I were a greengrocer, and you the charming shopkeeper’s daughter across the street, we’d be calling the banns this Sunday. Likely we’d anticipate our marriage vows while our parents looked the other way.”
    “I wasn’t acting surprised. But you’re trying to unsettle me again, and I—”
    “I am not. I am as far out to sea as you are.” He spoke in a rumble so deep she almost didn’t notice the complaint in his voice.
    Serena halted on the street corner; he turned to look at her. “If I were a footman,” he said, “and you a maid, we’d know every nook, every closet where we might hide away together.”
    Safe, her dastardly senses whispered. He’s safe . There was something comforting about his forthright recital—comfort with an edge that only sharpened when he took a step closer to her.
    “If I were a cobbler,” he said, “I’d offer you a discount on shoes.”
    “Now you’ve completely lost your mind.”
    “No. It would give me an excuse to measure your feet with my bare hands.” His lip twitched up. “And don’t think I’d stop at your toes.”
    She had both her hands on top of his walking stick. She felt herself lean toward him, ever so slightly.
    “But you’re not,” she said. “You’re the Wolf of Clermont, and I’m the woman you cannot drive away.”
    “Can’t is such an unforgiving word,” he said. “I prefer do not wish to. ”
    This was a man who had walked away from his family at fourteen. He had a reputation for getting what he wanted.
    But there was so much more to him than the boorish drone she’d once envisioned. He had talked about crushing her hopes and dreams, but when he stood next to her, he drove away the despair she’d carried for so long.
    She wanted to steal him away—not to deprive Clermont of his use, but to have him for herself.
    “Don’t tell me I can’t,” he was saying. “It implies an incapacity.”
    “Can’t,” Serena repeated with a smile. “Can’t can’t can’t.”
    “Ah, now you’re just taunting me.” He reached out and touched the side of the walking stick. “It’s a good thing this is between us, because otherwise I might forget that I’m not a footman. Or a cobbler.” He took another step in, and he was so close now that he warmed the night air around her. It scalded her lungs.
    She’d thought him safe. She was wrong; there was nothing safe about him. But he stood along the path to safety. If she could steal his loyalty for her own…
    For a brief moment, a dark shadow passed over her at all that would entail.
    She squelched it. Never mind how she was to accomplish it. There was no point looking down when climbing. She’d repeated the word can’t, but after months of can’t, she was just going to have to prove that she could.
    She uncurled one of her hands from the walking stick and laid it against his cheek. His jaw was rough and stubbled under her touch.
    His breath sucked in. “Not a good idea, Serena. I’m no simple grocer. I don’t intend to marry, and even if I did, it is my job to thwart you.”
    But he didn’t move back. He didn’t move forward, either. He simply waited, his eyes dark in the