The Mysterious Governess (Daughters of Sin Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

overcome by something quite unexpected.
    Lissa blinked rapidly several times and then glanced up at the Lamonts’ townhouse. Feeling completely tongue-tied, she said the first words that came to mind. “I hope Master Cosmo ensured the kitchen door remained unbolted.” She cast a dubious look at the stairs that led from the pavement to the basement. Then in enquiry to the young man’s look, explained that her employer’s son had taken her to a ball in return for a painting he’d asked her to do for him.
    “What an enterprising young lady you are. And an artist, to boot,” remarked Mr. Tunley, before insisting he do the “gentlemanly thing” which was to descend the stairs to try the door.
    A moment later he returned to her side. “I must say, your Master Cosmo is very neglectful since he’s clearly given no thought to how you might get in once the servants had gone to bed. You can hardly knock, can you?”
    Lissa was feeling distinctly forlorn by now, and Mr. Tunley gave her a bolstering pat on the shoulder. “If I could look forward to imminent elevation in my job, I would suggest that we eloped this very minute. Not only are you beautiful but you’re clearly wondrously talented, and sound as if you’d be a great asset to a young man trying to make his mark in the world.” He sent her a self-deprecating grin, then shrugged. “The fact is, I cannot offer you anything, and you face the prospect of being thrown out onto the street without a character if you don’t gain access.”
    Lissa put her hand to her mouth. The truth was terrifying. “I’m not sure whether to be flattered or not, Mr. Tunley. Though of course, it’s easy to make extravagant declarations when you follow them up with the caveat that they’re entirely impossible.” She liked this young man, whose humor and lightness of being was so different from what she was used to.
    He raked his fingers through the thatch of hair that flopped over his forehead. “One day I shall be a man of influence and plump enough in the pocket to make spontaneous offers of marriage to beautiful women I rescue from carriage accidents. Sadly, though, for now, I’ll just have to be ingenious enough to find a way to breach the stone fortress that stands before us.”
    Mr. Tunley might not have been flush with funds but he was incredibly daring, climbing the drainpipe and entering the house through an open window. Lissa had never been so frightened, watching his precarious ascent and then perilous acrobatics as he’d struggled to push up the sash while balancing on the narrow window ledge. It took all her willpower not to hug him again when he triumphantly opened the kitchen door and greeted her with out-flung arms and a grin of self-congratulation.
    ***
    L issa had not expected thanks but she was surprised by the force of her feelings when, the following day, Cosmo flaunted the portrait he claimed to have painted while his mama and sister gushed their admiration. Lissa, who was passing the breakfast room to take her two charges out of the house for a walk, hesitated in the passage and looked through the half open door. The eldest Lamont daughter, eighteen-year-old Maria, thought her brother’s talent prodigious, while Mrs. Lamont declared her son’s brilliance sufficient to ensure him all manner of lucrative commissions amongst the haut ton.
    “You tell your Miss Danvers that she’s to show it to the company when her mother entertains that new MP, Lord Debenham and his friends,” cried Mrs. Lamont as she held the painting up to the light. She patted her ringlets as she sighed pleasurably over the family’s future prospects. “I read all about His Lordship in the gossip sheets and he’d be just the man to help advance you, Cosmo. He’s not married but he has the look of someone in need of a wife, eh Maria? Or perhaps he has a nearly-betrothed in need of painting.”
    Lissa tried not to cough and thus alert Cosmo to her outrage at the smooth manner in which