The Lady's Second-Chance Suitor by Scott, Regina (christmas read aloud txt) 📗

“We heard you’d opened a dame school since last we visitedthe area.”

That must be his sister. She had a clear, sweet voice thatrang with conviction.

“We have indeed,” Mrs. Mance said, considerable chestswelling in pride. “Won’t you come in and view it?”

Hester took a step forward, as if she couldwill them out of her space. But of course, that would never work. Robhad ever done whatever pleased him most. Now he and his sister came into herschool and made everything seem small.

At least he looked the gentleman today. Tall brown-leatherboots and chamois breeches covered his long legs. A bottle-green coat coveredhis broad shoulders. Why, that top hat wasn’t even cocked at a rakish angle, asif he were a proper fellow with a serious nature.

He didn’t fool her for a moment.

This time, though, she noticed the touches of mourning. Hewore a black armband on the left, and his sister’s redingote was a steely grey,as were the skirts peeking out below. Half-mourning, then. Their parents musthave been gone three months or more.

Mrs. Mance hurried to join Hester at the front of the room.“This is Mrs. Todd, our teacher,” she told their guests. “Hester, dear, allowme to introduce Lord Peverell and his sister.”

Hester dropped a curtsey, as propriety demanded, her navyskirts pooling. “My lord, Miss Peverell.”

“Mrs. Todd.” He held himself back, as if he thought shemight break if he approached her.

She might at that.

She turned to her class, all of whom were staring at thepair. “Children, how do we welcome visitors?”

“Good day, Lord Peverell, Miss Peverell,” they recited inunison.

She drew in a breath. She could do this.

“Have you come to be our father?” a little voice piped up,brimming with hope.

Hester stared at her darling daughter, looking so yearninglyat Rob, and all breath fled.

~~~

Rob found it difficult to focus on the angelic lookinglittle girl dressed in soft blue when Hester stood close enough to touch. Thesevere lines of the navy wool gown did nothing to hide her curves or the pulsebeating at the curve of her neck. He kept his hands at his sides and a smile onhis face.

“I fear I don’t have that honor, young lady,” he said. “Butperhaps you could help me understand more about your school.”

“She has all the luck,” someone muttered, but the little onewove her way to his side and stood looking up at him, eyes huge in her creamyface. In fact, she reminded him a bit of Elizabeth when she’d been thatage—five, six?

“May I help him, Mama?” she asked, gaze going to Hester.

Mama?

His Gwen had a child.

He felt as if the floor had tilted, pushing him toward thedoor as if to evict him from her presence. He wasn’t aware he’d stepped backuntil Elizabeth clutched his arm and frowned at him.

“We should all help him, Rebecca,” Hester said with a smileto her daughter that set his breath to hitching. “We’ll take turns showing MissPeverell and her brother what we learn here at the Upper Grace Dame School.”

Dame school. Never had the appellation been less fitting.Most dames were aged ladies who taught rudimentary skills from their drawingrooms. As the children lined up in front of him and Elizabeth, it quicklybecame clear that they had learned far more.

And Hester was hardly a dame.

The care she took of her charges was evident by the way sheput a hand on a shoulder to protect, nodded with a smile to encourage. Theother lady, who he remembered as Mrs. Mance, the vicar’s housekeeper, broughtchairs for him and Elizabeth to sit, like the honored guests they were, andthen she and Hester took turns ushering groups of children to face them.

One set of two older girls and a lad showed how well theyspelled.

“Perspicacious,” the blonde said, shifting back and forth inher worn smock. “P-e-r-s-p-i-c-a-c-i-o-u-s.”

Elizabeth applauded her, which set her to beaming.

Rob was more pleased with the warm smile that curvedHester’s pretty lips. It took little to remember the sweet pressure of thoselips against his. He kept his face neutral as another group of three girlsbegan reciting Wordsworth in unison.

“In thoughtless gaiety I coursed the plain,

And hope itself was all I knew of pain.

For then, the inexperienced heart would beat

At times, while young Content forsook her seat,

And wild Impatience, pointing upward, showed

Through passes yet unreached, a brighter road.”

He could not stop himself from glancing at Hester, whoavoided his gaze. Thoughtless gaiety? Impatience leading the way?Had she been thinking of him when she’d taught them this?

And wasn’t that his usual arrogant thinking?

He made himself smile and nod as they finished the portionof the long poem, then curtsied to him.

The three boys in the third group took turns reading from aprimer. All too easy for his gaze to wander back to Hester again. Her eyes wereon her students, her mouth silently forming the words as if she could will the boys to sound them out. Her students mustdote on her.

He found it difficult not to dote on her.

Finally her daughter, Rebecca, and two of the littlest girlsstepped forward to count.

“I can count to twenty,” Rebecca announced, twisting fromside to side in her pretty blue frock. “One, two, three, four, five, six,seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen…”

“You forgot thirteen,” one of the others whispered, givingher a nudge with her elbow.

Rebecca scowled at her. “No, I didn’t. I don’t likethirteen.”

“I’m not overly fond of it myself,” Rob told her, whileElizabeth hid a smile.

“Numbers,” Hester put in, “are not for us to like ordislike. There is an order to them, and thirteen has a place. Start atthirteen, Rebecca.”

Her daughter heaved a mighty sigh. “Thirteen, fourteen,fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty.”

“Excellent work,” Rob assured her.

He was so captivated by the way Hester glowed at herdaughter’s accomplishment that he wasn’t certain what the last groupdemonstrated. He made sure to smile and thank them for their efforts,nonetheless.

“You have all worked hard on your lessons, I see,” Elizabethtold them. “Such diligence deserves reward. What would you suggest, Mrs. Todd?”

Hester dropped her gaze. “I’m sure I couldn’t say, MissPeverell.”

“I could,” Mrs. Mance declared. “Winter’s coming on. We’venever had a proper hearth. Sometimes we have to cancel