Page 33 of Indecently Employed
“Seems your governess is the pious sort as well.” He climbed out of the cleared ditch, last bucket in hand. He tossed his spade into the cart and set the bucket down, ambling over to Ajax’s side to pick up the water jug.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Ajax said. He immediately felt guilty. Miss Abbotts had never given him reason to mock her faith. Even as he’d blasphemed right and left, and perhaps ogled her a time or two. Three times, possibly? He silently apologized to her, for all the good it did.
“Pretty gal, too.”
“Oh, you noticed?” He’d meant to sound cheerful, but somehow the words came out clipped. He avoided Gideon’sgaze, instead reaching into the cart for his discarded tie and wetting it with water from the jug.
“Suppose that’s not why you hired her.”
“Actually,” Ajax said, wiping the sweat from the back of his neck, “I had little say in the matter. My hand was forced by my niece.”
“Forced?” A rare frown was audible in Gideon’s voice.
“Yes. Seems she’d had a bit of a run-in with her former employer and Harmonia thought me a safe harbor. Always thought she had better sense than that.” He threw his wet tie back into the cart. It hit the wood with a satisfying smack.
Ajax looked to Gideon, who was grinning once more.
“What’s that now? Out with it, Faine.” He arched an eyebrow, bracing himself for the dig.
But it didn’t come. Instead his estate manager chuckled, shaking his head.
“Just a habit of yours now, isn’t it? Rescuing us poor, lost souls for whom nearly all hope is gone.”
Ajax was so wrapped up in his own affairs that it took him a moment to take Gideon’s meaning. When he finally did, he gave him a gentle smile as the younger man patted the horse.
“Who’s rescued whom? I get a master scenographer to smarten up my country pile, while that pathetic sod is struggling to save face and placate his furious wife. Hasn’t directed anything of note ever since. I’d say you saved yourself from that one, and me from my poor planning skills, while we’re at it.”
“Well,” Gideon started, checking the horse’s bridle as he spoke, “heaven knows where I’d be if you hadn’t taken me on. I appreciate it, Sedley. You know I do. And I’m sure she does as well. Miss Abbotts, I mean.”
Ajax climbed up into the seat, then plunked himself down in defeat.
That was exactly what he was afraid of.
He didn’t want her appreciation. He didn’t want her gratitude. He wanted her curls loose and wild, her nightgown pulled down to her waist as he lavished attention on her neck, her shoulders, her breasts. He wanted her gasping in his ear, her dainty fingers digging into his biceps with every thrust. He wanted to wrap himself around her as the snow fell gently outside his solar and she whispered the secrets of the universe to him, more about the stars and the god she still managed to believe in.
He was utterly besotted. But he was her employer.
Gideon climbed up next to him, then twitched the reins. The cart began rumbling back toward the house.
Ajax glared at the landscape before him, finding solace in it no longer.
Susanna awoke to find herself in another dream of a bedroom, this time a cozy, wood-paneled space with a wooden ceiling, tastefully done up with needlework, tapestries, and Tudoresque furnishings. For a moment Susanna wondered if she had fallen backward through time, until she recalled Mrs. Nathan’s reassurance the previous evening that the room was modernized, insulated, and even wired for electricity.
It seemed Mr. Sedley had spared no expense in recreating a modernized facsimile of Gallox Castle’s past. His love for the place was evident.
Unfortunately, Susanna couldn’t say that last night’s rest had come easy, not even after the long day of travel. She’d unpacked her scant belongings as thoughts of Mr. Sedley and Mrs. Edith Kenney twisted through her mind. Doing what exactly, she couldn’t quite name, but her imagination was happy to illustrate what two attractive, unclothed adults might achieve if they so desired. This envy felt so foreign to her, she didn’t know what to do with it.
She had meant to rise early, to inspect and set up her schoolroom before Charlotte could manage to disappear. Even as Mr. Sedley had instructed Susanna to lie in and catch up on sleep.
He was too generous.
She found her hand wandering idly, sliding down her neck and grazing the lacing on her gown as her mind began to fill with thoughts of her employer. Her handsome, generous employer. With piercing blue eyes and a deep, rich voice that she could almost hear now, its low tones practically caressing her when he said her name.
She writhed under the bedlinens, her body taut with this yearning, this feeling which had first come upon her after the Earl of Clifton had kissed her. One kiss, and her body wouldn’t let her forget how it felt to be desired, to come alive. She squeezed her eyes shut at the thought of Francis de Vauville, and she imagined Mr. Sedley in his stead, bent over her, his hand skimming over her hips, her waist. That lock of dark hair streaked with gray falling into his face. Eyes intense with longing. Longing for her.
The heaviness of sleep still resided in her limbs, her head foggy and susceptible to the last remnants of her lurid dreams. Something from that hazy realm possessed her, and she unlaced her gown, then slid a hand underneath, cupping her breast.
She sighed in relief. She’d seen the way he’d looked at her, that night in the library. And when he’d touched her at the rail station—just a hand against the small of her back, but still…
