Gallant Waif by Anne Gracie (the alpha prince and his bride full story free .txt) 📗

in good time, you should leave here by two o’clock.” He rose.

“Sit down, boy. I haven’t finished with you yet. I need to discuss that gel.”

Jack frowned, then a look of complete indifference settled on his face. He shrugged. “I thought she was to go and live with you. Changed your mind, have you?”

“No, I haven’t! It is still my most ardent wish that she come and live with me and make her entrance into society, as is her birthright.”

“Well, then, it’s settled.” He stretched his long, lean frame.

“It’s no such thing!” said the old lady tartly. Her grandson turned and raised his eyebrows in enquiry.

“The stupid gel will have none of the scheme.”

The thick dark brows came together in a frown. “What? You mean that girl out there—” he jerked his head in the direction of the door “—that half-starved little ragamuffin has turned you down?” His voice was incredulous. “Refused an offer to be fed and clothed in the first style of elegance and taken to all the most fashionable places?” He ran his hands through his tousled dark hair. “I don’t believe it.”

“It’s true enough!” said his grandmother acidly. “Turned me down on no less than two separate occasions.”

“Does she know what she’s refusing?” he said. “Did you explain it to her? Describe to her what her life could be like?”

He received a withering look in reply.

“Yes, yes, I suppose you did,” he muttered, shaking his head in amazement. He could imagine no female of his acquaintance even considering the rejection of such a magnificent offer, let alone a girl in such dire straits as this one. Women, in his experience, were after all they could get.

“Lord, the chit must have bats in her belfry.”

“No,” said his grandmother dryly. “She suffers from the same complaint as you.”

He stiffened and looked down his nose at her. “And what is that, may I ask?”

“Excessive, stubborn, stiff-necked pride.”

”Excessive. . .er…pride?” he exclaimed stiffly. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

He could feel the knowing blue gaze boring into him and clenched his teeth. She was referring to her offer to finance him, made when he’d first returned to England. He had refused it in no uncertain terms then and was damned if he was going to give her the satisfaction of discussing it now.

“The two situations have nothing in common.” He ignored the disbelieving arch of her elegantly pencilled brows. “In any case, what has her situation to do with me?”

“The girl intends to hire herself out as a maidservant.”

“What?” His voice thundered. Kate had mentioned it earlier, but naturally he hadn’t believed her. For a gently born girl to seriously consider such a thing was unheard of, particularly if she had other options.

“That’s utterly ridiculous!” Aware of his revealing over-reaction, he lowered his voice. “She can’t be serious. What’s the chit playing at?”

“Of course it’s ridiculous,” said his grandmother, “but I do believe she means it. She intends to earn her own way. When I first met her she took me for her new employer.”

“Well, then, if she is so determined to ruin her life, what can you do?” he said in a show of indifference that deceived no one.

Lady Cahill smiled the sort of smile which had always made her family uneasy in the past. Jack watched her suspiciously.

“I intend to provide her with the kind of position she says she wants.”

“As your maid?” Jack was incredulous. “I must say, Grandmama, that seems rather shabby to me—”

“Not as my maid,” the old lady interrupted. Jack’s eyes narrowed, dark suspicion forming even as she spoke. “As yours.”

“Mine!” he exploded. “I’m damn—”

“As your housekeeper, I should have said,” continued his grandmother imperturbably. “It’s as clear as daylight to me that you need someone to prevent this house from crumbling into complete barbarism, and you have told me yourself that you are not willing to waste your money employing anyone to do it. I, however, am not prepared to allow a member of my family to live in such a disgraceful state. And you must admit this admirably solves the two problems.”

“I’ll admit nothing of the sort!” he said angrily. “I won’t tolerate such unwarranted interference in my affairs, Grandmama!”

“So you don’t wish to help the girl?”

“Help her? To social ruin by employing her as my maid. . .housekeeper? I don’t think—”

“No, Jack, you don’t think. Naturally I will send some respectable woman to act as her chaperon. And I’m not considering any ordinary terms of employment. I intend to put this to the girl: if she will consent to run your household for six months, turn it into a gentleman’s establishment instead of a ramshackle place where a lady cannot even get a cup of chocolate to break her fast, then I will consider—and, what’s more to the point, so will she—that she will thereby have earned my sponsorship for a season in London. She can keep her pride, you can live like a moderately civilised human being and I can introduce Maria’s gel to society.”

Lady Cahill sat back and regarded her grandson with some satisfaction. “And, in the meantime, it will give me some time to have someone look into the matter of Kate’s finances. I cannot believe that she’s been left completely destitute. So, she stays here while I organise things. And setting this house in order will keep her nicely occupied, so that’s settled.”

“It is not settled.”

“Jack, if you say no to this scheme, it will mean the end of that girl, for I tell you she is as stubborn and foolish as you are and she tells me she will not accept charity from me, or from anyone else.”

Jack met her level glance.

“Ah! Dammit!” He slammed his hand down on the table in frustration.

His grandmother smiled. She reached up and patted his chin. “I knew you’d agree with me in the end.”

“I don’t,” he snapped.

“But you will have her here.”

“It is the most ridiculous, ill-considered, inconven-ient and damnably outrageous scheme I have ever heard of!”

“Good,