Woo'd in Haste Read Online Free PDF

be confined for too long and even if the weather was bad, would often take a turn in the garden.
    Her closest confidante was Alice Lovell and Miss Smith let her call her Lottie. The one time Thomas had attempted the familiar address, he’d been punished for impertinence.
    He knew all sorts of details about Bianca Mansfield, but he was bereft of what he wanted most, the pleasure of her company.
    D inner was the same as usual. Except . . . now there was Mr. Dore. Sitting on the other side of Thomas, recounting to her father how bright he thought her brother was. Buttering him up.
    Smart to do that, she supposed.
    “You didn’t come today,” Thomas said accusingly. “We always go fishing on Thursdays.”
    She frowned. It was Thursday, wasn’t it? She’d completely forgotten. “You have your new tutor, Tom. You could hardly skip lessons.”
    “But I want to go fishing with you. Can we go tomorrow?”
    She shot a look at Mr. Dore, who was watching her rather intently. She flushed. “I hardly know. Mr. Dore? Will he have time tomorrow?”
    “Please?” Thomas begged his tutor before sending pleading eyes at Bianca. “And can Mr. Dore come? I promised I’d teach him about fish.”
    Bianca raised an eyebrow. That was a rather manipulative little technique to try and get his tutor to agree. “And here I thought he was to tutor you.” She slanted a glance at the new tutor.
    “Master Thomas speaks highly of the time he spends with his sister.”
    It was the first time, other than being introduced, that he addressed her directly. There was something about his voice, the precise, cultured deep tones that, partnered with his tall, large physique, made her want to look at him a little bit longer.
    Which she did.
    He was looking at her a little bit longer, too.
    Bianca glanced at Lottie, who raised an eyebrow, her version of what she considered to be indelicate shrugs.
    After wanting life to be different for so long, suddenly everything was changing. Yes, she was part of that, but there was another part that was entirely outside of her control. Unease fluttered in Bianca’s belly with a quiet mix of fear and anticipation. “Very well, then,” she agreed. “Fishing on Friday it is.”
    A fter breakfast, Lottie pulled her aside, clearly upset by something. It was unusual for her erstwhile governess to show any strong emotion whatsoever.
    “I don’t like it. He’s hiding something.”
    “Who? Thomas?”
    “Mr. Dore.”
    Was there any weight to Lottie’s concerns? True, Mr. Dore was like no tutor Bianca had ever seen before, but then again, her only exposure to tutors were the ones who had worked for the Colburns.
    “He came highly recommended. Granted, from Lord Reginald, but nonetheless.”
    “When I suggested your father hire a male tutor, I did not mean for him to pick the first one who walked by!” Lottie said. “And yet your father, ever looking to walk the easiest path, did just that.”
    Bianca bristled at the insult to her father. She wasn’t blind. She knew the man had failings, his inability to say no to Kate being one of them, but it was hardly Lottie’s place to point them out. Then she felt bad for the very thought. True, Lottie was employed by them, but she was nearly family. Perhaps, though Lottie had suggested the change, she had expected a slower transition. To have time to make plans for her future.
    Her future. Lottie would likely be moving on soon. After ten years. After being more of a mother to Bianca than her own mother and stepmother and more of a friend than her sister. Lottie’s duties were of necessity fewer now. Bianca hardly needed a governess for anything other than propriety, and when Thomas left for Eton, Lottie would be completely superfluous. Assuming Bianca was out in society with her stepmother by then. Not that one could assume that with Kate as a sister.
    Lottie could always act as Bianca’s companion.
    After years of nothing happening at all, too much was changing too