Suddenly aware that she was staring at him like an awestruck housemaid, she stood and cleared her throat. “I hope you’ve captured all the frogs in your bedchamber. Have you dealt with the children yet?”

He shrugged, his expression closing. “Mrs. Stibbons’s plague turned out to be only eleven frogs in number, and most of them very small and very glad to return to the pond.”

“How fortunate.” Anna smoothed her dress. “Lord Greyley, we should take this opportunity to establish a few things. If you wish to see a long-term change in the children’s behavior, then we must work together. Perhaps we should—”

He held up a hand. “I expected this.”

“Expected what?”

“Thraxton, let us understand one another. I do not need a governess to tell me how to deal with my own wards. Any more than you need me to tell you how to teach Latin. You do your job and I will do mine. The problem with the children is that they have had too little discipline in the schoolroom.”

A flash of pure irritation stabbed Anna. She managed a very frosty smile. “Lord Greyley, it is painfully obviously that the children are out of control. If they were not, you would never have begged me to take this position.”

The earl gave a quick frown. “I did not beg. I asked.”

“Need I remind you that you traded me away from Lord Allencott, a man you openly call a bore, in exchange for a week of hunting? I would hardly call that the efforts of a sane, logical man. You were desperate. Admit it.”

“I admit nothing except that you are here and you will confine your efforts to the children and leave me be.”

Anna swallowed a sharp retort. Anthony Elliot was the most obstinate, self-opinionated jackass of her acquaintance. And sadly, having been a governess, she’d had the misfortune to meet far more jackasses than the average woman. “Perhaps it is a good thing we’re getting all this out in the open now. Exactly what do you see as my responsibilities, Lord Greyley? Beyond Latin, that is.”

He gave an easy shrug. “You are to instruct the children to the best of your ability.”

“And?”

“You will also give them a basic understanding of comportment.”

“But only in the nursery.”

“Whatever you teach them in the nursery will carry over. Or it will if it’s done properly.”

Anna opened her mouth to respond, but Greyley continued. “Furthermore, you will see to it that they are busily employed, follow their schedule, and—”

“Schedule?”

“Yes. I developed it after the third governess left. It is the only thing that keeps the children in check.”

Anna managed a frigid smile. “I see. And where on this schedule did it read ‘put frogs in master chamber’?”

His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Do you always use sarcasm when talking to your employers?”

“Only when they will not listen to reason. Greyley, I’m known as the best governess in London because I know how to deal with children, and not because I smile and nod every time my employer says a word.”