The Earl's Honorable Intentions by Deborah Hale

back together. By a great effort of will, he managed to relax as Miss Fletcher had bidden him and let her ease him down the rest of the way.
    As she slid her arm out from beneath his shoulder, her face hovered near his. Gavin found himself suddenly intrigued by the shape of her lips, which suggested both fierce determination and profound generosity.
    His conscience denounced him fiercely for entertaining such a thought. He had no business noticing any woman’s lips when the mother of his children was barely in her grave. Poor Clarissa! He had married her for all the wrong reasons, believing she would be content as the wife of a soldier seldom home from war. He had let her down in so many ways, but at least he had never looked at another woman.
    And he was not about to start. He would have quite enough to occupy him with his mission. Once it was accomplished, he would be busy raising his three motherless children. Any connection with a woman would be a needless complication in his life.
    If he had been inclined to think of a woman in that way, his son’s strong-willed governess was the last one he would ever consider. The two of them were like oil and water. Though he had discovered more admirable qualities in her of late, it was clear Hannah Fletcher still found him as odious as ever. The speed with which she backed away once she’d carried out the doctor’s orders left no doubt of that.
    It galled him that she had managed to compel his agreement to a fortnight’s tedious convalescence through the underhanded use of Dr. Hodge. A soldier never liked to accept the necessity of surrender. He must show Miss Fletcher there could be unpleasant consequences to meddling in his life. Otherwise she might continue to call the tune around Edgecombe until his children were grown.
    The doctor packed his satchel and promised to call again in two days’ time unless he was summoned sooner.
    When the governess offered to see him out, Gavin spoke up. “I would like a word with you after that, please, Miss Fletcher.”
    Dr. Hodge waved her back. “In that case I can see myself out. No need for you to go all the way down to the entry only to return. Good evening, Lord Hawkehurst. I wish you a pleasant rest.”
    Pleasant rest. Gavin barely suppressed a sniff of derision. There was no such thing as far as he was concerned. He was a man of action and had been for as long as he could recall. He had already exhausted his tolerance for lying about doing nothing. The coming fortnight stretched ahead of him like an endless wasteland. If he must endure such tedium he had no intention of enduring it alone.
    The doctor closed the door behind him.
    Miss Fletcher turned toward Gavin, but she made no move to approach him. “What did you wish to say to me, sir?”
    “Pleased with yourself, are you?” he asked.
    “I beg your pardon, sir? Pleased on what account?”
    Gavin shook his head. “Come now, Miss Fletcher. It will not do. We both know you put the doctor up to that, so let us not insult one another by pretending otherwise.”
    For a moment the lady looked as if she intended to continue protesting her innocence, but then her chin tilted upward and she met his challenging gaze with one of her own. “Very well. I did speak to the doctor. But only because you refused to heed a word I said. I thought you might take more notice if the advice came from a man and someone outside your household.”
    Well, well. It appeared Miss Fletcher was capable of giving as good as she got. Her frankness put Gavin in mind of the Duke of Wellington, the commander he revered. Her words hit home, for he knew all too well the frustrations of having his sound advice ignored by his superiors.
    “Neither of those changed my mind,” he insisted.
    Miss Fletcher’s brows rose. “Then pray what accounted for the alteration?”
    He was enjoying this. The unlikely feeling crept up on Gavin just as it had the previous morning when he and Miss Fletcher had sparred verbally.