She broke off, mortified at what had been about to come out of her mouth. “Gossip and blatant disclosure are not the same thing. “There is always gossip,” he quoted her sardonically, “below stairs.”
“My lord!” She was abruptly scowling at him nineteen to the dozen, as much disapproval as she dared show, short of jeopardizing her position outright. “In truth, I am in need of somebody to protect. “Somebody should,” she muttered, focused on the purple, green, and mottled brown skin surrounding the two mean gashes on his back. “So you would come along to protect me?” he challenged lazily. “What if you were unseated, and no one else about in the dawn’s early light?” Your injuries do not need the abuse, and I can see where you’ve pulled this cut open along this edge.” She drew a chiding finger along the bottom seam of a laceration. “You shouldn’t be out riding hell-bent, your lordship. “It’s too hot to ride later in the day, at least at the pace I prefer.” He winced again as she went at the second large laceration. They will heal more quickly if you don’t duck out of a morning-and skip your breakfast.” “Your bruises are truly magnificent, my lord. “We all need protection from time to time,” she said, dabbing gently at his back with arnica. “I suppose he is at that, though he knows I’d bite his head off were he to imply I need protection. “Val is protective of me?” Westhaven scowled as he eased forward to the end of the chaise, then dragged his shirt over his head and turned his back to her. “As when my patient disappears at first light, not to be seen until tea time, and then only in the company of his protective little brother.”
“Craven evasion,” she replied, stepping out onto the balcony.
Does nothing deter you from the conscientious prosecution of your duties?” “Your lordship?” Anna waited for his permission to step from his bedroom, feeling absurd for doing it and abruptly self-conscious. He lounged on his wicker chaise in lordly splendor, his waistcoat slung over the back of the chair, cravat folded tidily over that, his shirt open at the throat, and his cuffs rolled back. Grabbing her medical supplies, Anna went in search of her quarry, hoping to find him where he usually was at this pleasant hour of the early evening, out on his balcony. As housekeeper, it’s Anna Seaton’s job to deal with the petty maladies and wounds in the household, even when her patient is Westhaven himself…. He becomes engrossed in his lovely but secretive housekeeper, who would make the perfect Duchess. Weighed down by responsibilities, and determined to avoid the summer round of country house parties and matchmaking mamas, Gayle Windham, Earl of Westhaven, decides to summer in London.
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