Maggie stared blankly for a few moments before catching his meaning. Immediately infuriated, she lunged for the carriage window again, and just as quickly she was pulled back.

“Governesses do not require evening gowns, Miss Chamberlin, nor are their employers generally concerned with their nightclothes. Use your hard little Yankee head! Kirk didn’t engage you to teach.”

Maggie wanted to deny that hotly, but she remembered her beautifully appointed room and remained silent.

“In any case, you don’t need to worry about Kirk, because you are now working for me.”

Few things Reeve McKenna could have said would have come as more of a shock. “What?” Maggie rasped.

Smiling again, he drew a folded document from the inside pocket of his vest. “I’ve bought your papers, my love. You may either play the role of Kate in The Taming of the Shrew as you originally planned, or you may serve as a governess to my four-year-old niece. The choice is yours.”

“Suppose I choose to go back to Mr. Kirk’s house and teach his children, as I promised to do?” Maggie asked, struggling to keep her voice level.

“You will recall that that particular choice wasn’t mentioned. That was because it isn’t a choice, Maggie. You’re as good as indentured to me.”

Pale, Maggie reached out for the document and he didn’t withhold it. “It isn’t possible,” she mumbled, her fingers trembling as she unfolded the paper. Some niggling instinct told her that it was not only possible but quite true.

Sure enough, Lady Cosgrove’s flourishing signature graced the bottom of a paper that Maggie had signed herself, back in England, promising to work three years in Australia until or unless she married.

“Lady Cosgrove knew I had another position—she arranged it herself.”

Mr. McKenna shrugged. “Be that as it may, the papers are legal, Maggie.”

Secretly, Maggie found the situation intriguing, in a way she’d rather not have to define, but she was also outraged. “You are reprehensible!” she spat out.

He smiled. “I know,” he said proudly.

Maggie was very much at a loss. She read the document very slowly, hoping to find a loophole, and instead came to the disturbing conclusion that she was indeed obliged to work for Mr. McKenna for three full years. “Suppose you abuse me? Will I have no recourse?”

“This is Australia, not the deep jungle, Miss Chamberlin. And I am not in the habit of abusing women!”

She had nettled him and she was glad, though it seemed a pinprick compared to the shenanigan he’d managed to pull. “Your bad manners don’t go beyond kidnapping, then?” she asked with scalding sweetness.

“I wouldn’t have grabbed you like that if I’d thought you’d listen to reason, you hardheaded—”