Anna resumed her seat at the table and buttered her bread with an efficient swipe of her knife. If she was to win the children over, she’d have to start from their first meeting. What she had to do was surprise them, keep them off balance long enough for her to get under their defenses.

She looked down at her stiff bombazine gown. If the children were expecting an average governess, then she was dressed in the perfect manner. Her gaze drifted to the wardrobe that now contained her few clothes. Reworked gowns in a princess’s closet…but she had one or two items that were not reworked. Her new riding habit, for instance…A thought took hold and she smiled. Perhaps Grandpapa was right after all. It wouldn’t do to appear like a common, ordinary governess. Especially not before the Elliot children.

They might have been under the care of a wide assortment of governesses, but they’d never met Anna Thraxton before. Fortunately for everyone concerned, that was about to change.

Chapter 9

Women provide the only true link to civilization. Men simply are not ruthless enough to survive on their own.

The Countess of Chesterfield to her friend, Mrs. Oglethorpe-White, while taking tea at Lady Bedford’s

Anna reached the library at exactly two. Greyley glanced at her as she entered, then looked again, a frown between his brows.

She didn’t acknowledge him at all, but sailed past to the line of sprites that faced the desk. They stood from tallest to shortest as if placed in line for a military inspection, poor things.

Anna ignored the children’s expressions, which ranged from anger to sullen hostility to simple curiosity, and smiled as brightly as she could. She waited for Greyley to begin the introductions.

He, however, apparently had other things on his mind. He lifted his quizzing glass from where it hung on a ribbon at his waist and looked up and down her form, as if inspecting a horse. “What in bloody hell do you have on?”

Anna glanced down at her riding habit of sapphire blue, the large white feather that adorned the hat brushing her shoulder. The entire ensemble had cost her dearly, and she’d decried her lack of resistance for weeks after she’d purchased it. Still…she trailed a hand along the trimly fitted coat. It had been well worth the money, no matter what Greyley thought. “Don’t you like it?”

“It fits you,” he said, still peering at her through that damnable quizzing glass. “Very well indeed.” There was a hint of warmth to his voice that sent a shiver down Anna’s spine.

Really, she had to regain some control over her traitorous responses. “Lord Greyley, as heartwarming as it is to know that my riding habit has won your approval, I’ve more important things on my mind. Perhaps you should introduce the children.”

He dropped the glass, and his brown eyes seemed darker than usual. “Of course. Children, this is Miss Thraxton, your new governess.”

“She doesn’t look like a governess,” the tallest child muttered, sending her a sullen scowl. He appeared to be eleven or so years of age, with a pale, thin countenance and a reed-slender body. His hair was the Elliot brown, somewhere between a true chestnut and a dull brown, the thick locks standing on end here and there, as if unwilling to bend to a brush.