“I’m doing quite well—now,” he replied, uncrossing his arms and coming forward into the room. “I am pleased to see that we did not scare you off.”
“I assure you, it would take more than what I saw the other day to scare me off,” Megan replied tartly, annoyed by the fact that she even noticed how handsome the man was.
The acerbity of her statement seemed to bother Moreland not at all. His grin only grew. “Ah. Plucky to the end, I see. I always like that.” He turned his attention to the housekeeper. “Mrs. Bee, you’re looking as lovely as ever this morning.”
“Get on with you, now,” the housekeeper replied, but she blushed a little with pleasure and smiled as she said it, clearly not immune to Moreland’s charm. “I can always tell when you’re wanting something from me.”
“Mrs. Bee! You wound me,” he replied, laying a hand on his heart in a mock-dramatic manner.
“Same as when you and Master Reed were little and coming around trying to sweet-talk me out of a cookie.”
“And here I was about to offer to take a task off your hands,” Theo retorted. “I was going to show Miss Henderson up to the nursery for you.”
“Were you now?” Mrs. Brannigan said, shooting him a speculative look. “Well, then, I’ll take you up on that offer. It’ll save a bit of wear and tear on these old joints, and that’s a fact.” She turned toward Megan. “The footmen will bring your trunk up later, miss. If you need anything else, just let me know.”
With a bob of the head toward Moreland, she turned and walked out of the room. Megan, left standing alone with Theo Moreland in the middle of her bedroom, felt suddenly ill at ease. She could not remember when, if ever, there had been a man other than her father or brothers in her bedroom. It seemed far too intimate a setting.
“I, uh, thank you, but I feel sure that there is no need for you to escort me to the nursery,” she told Moreland stiffly. “I can doubtless find it on my own.”
“Doubtless you can,” he admitted easily. “But it would scarcely be gentlemanly of me.”
“Certainly I cannot be responsible for that,” Megan retorted dryly.
He extended his arm courteously to her as he had the other day, and Megan could think of no way not to take it without being rude. But she could not help but wonder why Theo Moreland was doing this. Employers did not customarily offer their arm to an employee any more than they put themselves out to show that employee to their workplace—certainly not when there was another employee around who could do it just as well.
She did not think that she was being conceited in thinking that Moreland was expressing an interest in her. But why? Megan could not help but feel that same breathless fear that somehow Theo Moreland was onto her, that he knew who she was and was looking for some opportunity to trip her up.
Megan told herself that she was being foolish. An employer flirting with someone who was not much more than a servant usually did so for the obvious reasons. Megan was not unaccustomed to men flirting with her—or even making quite unwarranted and improper advances. She knew that the plain businesslike shirtwaist and dark skirt she wore could not completely conceal her curvaceous figure, and her face, while not classically beautiful, was lively and appealing. And there was something about a woman on her own that seemed to all too often call forth the basest desires in men.
In all likelihood, she reminded herself, it was merely that sort of desire that impelled Theo Moreland to seek her out. He was undoubtedly the loathsome sort who used his position of power to impose his desires upon the women who were unfortunate enough to work for him. It was a little surprising, perhaps, that he would do so right under his own mother’s nose, but, then, she thought with a mental sniff, why would she expect even that much gentlemanly reticence from the man who had killed her brother?
Well, she thought with some satisfaction, he would find out that she was not some helpless female whom he could seduce—or force himself on—with impunity. Megan Mulcahey was well able to take care of herself.
She laid her hand on his arm, pleased that not the slightest twitch betrayed her nervousness at doing so. As he led her down the hall and up the main staircase—rather wider than the servants’ stairs that she and Mrs. Brannigan had climbed earlier—she remarked on the other halls that sprouted off from the main passage and all the rooms that lined them. Broughton House was enormous. She could see that the task of searching it would be almost overwhelming. Even the fact that she had gotten some faint idea of what she should be looking for made it very little easier—a pendant was a rather small item to find in this house.
“I can see why you thought I would need a guide,” she said lightly. “There are an awful lot of rooms here.”
“You should see Broughton Park,” Theo responded wryly. “Some of its wings are a veritable rabbits’ warren.”
“Broughton Park?”
“The country seat,” he responded. “My parents generally spend most of their year there. They only come here for the season. I can’t think why, as neither of them likes it.”
Good heavens, Megan thought with an inner sigh, there was a whole other house in which this “precious” object might be hidden. She had to wonder how she would manage to hold up this charade of being a teacher long enough to explore everywhere.
As they neared the nursery, Megan could hear the sound of laughter, not only the childish tones of the twins, but also a deeper masculine chuckle and the lighter, higher notes of a woman. Theo’s eyebrows went up, and he moved at a faster clip down the hall.
“Reed!” he exclaimed as he turned into the schoolroom. “I thought that was you I heard. And Anna! What a wonderful surprise. When did you get in?”
“This morning.” The man who was seated on one of the desktops, his long legs stretched casually out in front of him, rose with an easy grace and came toward them, stretching out his hand to take Theo’s in a firm shake. “I promised Anna a season.”
He cast a warm look back toward the cluster of desks, where a well-dressed, attractive woman sat between Con and Alex. She stood up and came toward them, too, smiling at Theo a little shyly.
“Hello, Theo.”
“Hello, Anna.” Theo took her hand and leaned in to lightly kiss her cheek. “You look radiant. It’s hard to believe that you have been traveling.”
Anna chuckled. “We have been up since five o’clock. We are still on country hours, you know.”
She turned toward Megan, her wide gray eyes resting on her for a long moment. “Hello,” she said, extending her hand. “I am Anna Moreland. You must be the new tutor.”
“Why, yes, I am,” Megan replied, faintly surprised.
“Anna always knows things,” Alex told Megan in explanation.
“I beg your pardon?” Megan looked at the boy in confusion.
“She sees things,” Con added matter-of-factly. “I mean, things other people don’t see.”