Hardly a Husband (Free Fellows League 3)

Sarah frowned. "Depart for London? Why should we depart for London?"

"Your betrothed is in London for the season…"

"My betrothed?"

"Yes, of course. Lord Dunbridge." Reverend Tinsley smiled once again. "When he said that you and his aunt would be joining him, I assumed London was where he meant."

Sarah was beginning to understand how Lord Dunbridge and the Reverend Tinsley had circumvented the magistrate's authority. The magistrate would do his best to protect the unmarried daughter and sister-in-law of the Reverend Eckersley, but he would never question a viscount's authority over his betrothed or his aunt by marriage. Reginald Blanchard, the current Lord Dunbridge, had lied to the magistrate and been rewarded with a means to an end. He wanted Sarah and his late uncle's widow out of the rectory and at his mercy. "Lord Dunbridge told you he and I were betrothed?"

"Yes." The clergyman frowned, seeming to experience misgivings about evicting her and her aunt for the first time since he'd arrived. "He assured me of it. He said you and your aunt — his aunt by marriage — would be residing with him during the London season and that you and he would be wed at the end of it. If I have mistaken what he told me, I shall be happy to offer you a position here."

"You want to offer us positions here?" Sarah wasn't sure she'd heard him correctly.

"I wish to offer you a position," he said.

"What about my aunt?" Sarah asked.

"We've no need of your aunt," he replied. "Besides, she can claim a home with Lord Dunbridge. The position I'm offering is for you alone, Miss Eckersley."

Sarah frowned. "What sort of position?"

"Mrs. Tinsley and I require a qualified governess for our children."

"You're asking me to be governess to your children?"

He nodded and smiled. "Yes, of course, at twelve pounds annual, plus room and board. You would have to vacate this room, of course." He glanced around the bedchamber. "And claim the little room in the attic, but you would join our household as governess to Polly, Pippa, and Paul." He patted Pippa on the head in much the same way as Sarah had watched Mrs. Tinsley do earlier.

Pippa beamed up at her father.

"I can tell Pippa adores you already."

"Pippa abhors me already," Sarah said. "And the feeling is mutual."

The reverend gasped. "How dare you?"

"How dare you?" Sarah shot back. "How dare you displace me — the daughter of a fellow clergyman — from my home without so much as a word of condolence or the courtesy of a note informing me that you were about to do so? How dare you cart my father's possessions from his room to the front gate without a single expression of remorse or apology? And how dare you suggest that I remove myself to London to live with a man with whom I am barely acquainted, then offer me a position as governess to your horridly ill-mannered children in the same breath?"

"Get out." Reverend Tinsley was so angry his entire body vibrated with the effort to keep his temper in check. "Get out of my house."

"Your house, Mr. Tinsley?" Sarah queried. "Don't you mean God's house?"

"Get out." The good reverend came within a hairsbreadth of shaking her, but managed to retain control of his senses. "Now." His face was crimson and his body stiff with suppressed rage. "Gather your personal items and leave before I instruct the laborers to escort you and your baggage out." Opening the door to her wardrobe, Reverend Tinsley removed an armload of Sarah's dresses, then opened the window and tossed them out. He stared down at the heap of pastel muslins with an expression of deep satisfaction on his face. "There now," he told Sarah. "That should help speed the packing process and get you on your way."

Mrs. Tinsley stood gape-mouthed as her husband gathered another armload of Sarah's clothing and threw it out the window and Pippa began wailing for Admiral Nelson once again.

"Sarah?" Lady Dunbridge stood in the doorway with Precious in her arms. "Reverend Tinsley? What on earth is going on in here?" Precious growled a low, throaty warning and Lady Dunbridge held her higher, out of reach of the Tinsleys' little boy, who had grabbed a fistful of Lady Dunbridge's skirts. "Why are you throwing Sarah's garments out the window? Why has this ill-mannered child laid claim to my spaniel and why does that one keep screaming for Admiral Nelson?"

"The reverend is demonstrating from whom his daughter and his son get their charming manners," Sarah offered, snagging Budgie's cage stand before Pippa could knock it to the floor.

"What?" Lady Dunbridge cried in outrage.

"Take him!" Sarah thrust Budgie's cage and stand into her aunt's arms. "Save him from a fate worse than death. Take him before she" — she nodded toward Pippa — "claims him and names him Admiral Nelson. I'll save whatever else I can manage."

Straggling to hold a squirming, growling King Charles spaniel and a parakeet in a cage, Lady Dunbridge took one look at the reverend's crimson face and thrust Budgie's cage and stand back at Sarah. "You take him and go. I'll save whatever else I can manage."

"But…"