Page 67 of The Governess and the Rogue

Jack frowned. He didn’t like to think of her being an outsider. Always on the periphery. Never included. Never secure. “You have no memories of life with your own family?”

“Only happy ones,” Bea said. “Although, I confess, they are a little faded now.”

“My family is a happy one, too. Just complicated.” He gave her skirts a tug. “Not to worry. It’s nothing I can’t manage.”

The color in Bea’s cheeks turned a shade darker. She pulled her skirts from his grasp. “Must you disarrange my person in such a cavalier manner?”

Jack smiled at the tartness in her words. If not for her blushes, he’d think she was irritated with him. “I enjoy disarranging your person.”

“Really, Jack. How are we to converse if you⁠—”

“Yes, yes. Point taken. You were saying?”

“You were saying.” She straightened her skirts. “I believe you were about to tell me what it is that we’re going to do about this mess.”

Jack’s mood sobered. “We’re not going to do anything,” he said. “This is my problem, not yours.”

Her gaze jolted to his. “But I thought⁠—”

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s best that you slip away this morning. I’ll take you to a hotel in Maidenbridge myself. It won’t be as far removed from Beasley as if you’d stayed in Southampton, but in many ways it’s better.”

Bea shook her head. “Jack⁠—”

“You’ll be safer nearby, for one. And for another, I can more easily reach you with your reference and the direction of your new employer. I’ll speak with Hannah today.”

Her eyes narrowed. “After you’ve told her that I’ve surreptitiously abandoned you?”

“No one in my family will blame you for that,” he said. “They’ll think you an uncommonly sensible female. As for the rest of it… They can cancel the ball. Send word to the villagers that we’ve broken up. It will be a nine days’ scandal, but I’ve endured worse, and you’ll be well out of it.”

Bea didn’t appear at all mollified by this fact. Quite the reverse.

She stood abruptly. “And this is what you’d have me do? Slink away with my tail between my legs, leaving you to face the whole of your family on your own?”

Jack’s brows notched in a defensive scowl. “It was you who suggested it.”

She folded her arms across her midsection, pacing the muddy bank in front of him. “Yes, a very practical plan,” she muttered. “As well as being faithless, cowardly, and⁠—”

“You’re talking nonsense,” he said. “We both know that the wisest course⁠—”

She came to a sudden halt. “What if I didn’t go?”

Jack’s breath stopped in his chest. “What?”

“What if I stayed until after the ball?” she asked.

He regarded her warily, even as his pulse quickened. “Why on earth would you?”

“To help you,” she said.

“Yes, but why subject yourself⁠—”

“To help you,” she said again. “You helped me on the Pera.”

“We helped each other.”

“So you say. But I’ve never thought our positions equal. The service you did me has always been far greater than the one I did for you.”

“No, it hasn’t,” Jack said. “Not in terms of⁠—”