Read His Bewitching Jewel (A Regency Holiday Romance Book 7) for Free Online

came.”
    “Oh, no,” Ruby said quickly, suddenly finding her voice. The sweet sound of it almost made him smile. “Oh, no, no, it is fine. I shall be fine. His Grace cannot possibly say anything about the supernatural that would scare me.”
    “I hardly think we should tell her this on her first night, sir. She looks rather tired. She has had a long journey. I think I should show her to her chambers…”
    “Mrs. Teague, that is quite enough,” he said, his voice soft, but stern. “I shall tell Miss Massey, whatever I see fit to tell her, is that understood?”
    “Aye, sir,” Mrs. Teague said, her gaze falling to the floor.
    “This house…the house of my ancestors on my maternal side…well, it is haunted.”

Chapter Four
     
    Finn took a deep breath, and ploughed on, “I know that many say that or think it, but this place, truly does have nocturnal walkers. They do not seem to be as active during the day, but during the night…you shall hear strange sounds, and you might even see some strange things. Our grounds are reputedly haunted as well. October has, in the past, proven to a month of great activity, so I am quite certain you will notice something amiss. Some have even reported catching sight of pixies, and other little people on the Estate Grounds. Mind you are not led astray by any of the little blighters.” With that, he gave her a playful wink.
    Ruby’s eyes continued to widen, as he relayed his warning to her. He would not tell her all of it. She didn’t need to know all of it—what he left out would only disturb her delicate sensibilities. If she knew, she would be scared away, and that wasn’t something he wanted to do. He didn’t want her to ever leave, and he certainly didn’t want her to be a governess in his household for much longer than six months, no…that was far too long.
    Finn wanted Ruby as his wife by Christmas, and that was all there was to it. As it was, he didn’t even know if he could survive having her so close to him for that length of time.
    Having her so close—and yet, so far, it just might kill him.
    He had never given much thought to the ghosts that inhabited this place, although he knew that the locals had. In the past, they had been easy to live with—but since the night of Isolde’s death, the activity had become problematic, even menacing, and as a result, the locals had come to fear this house.
    No matter what he thought, it had no bearing on what others believed. The locals feared this house. They had done, since the death of his brother-in-law. Many believed he had killed him, and Finn would go to his grave, before he confessed the true nature of that bastard’s death.
    The authorities had ruled it a tragic accidental death. He had made it quite clear to those who worked for him that they were not to speak of the circumstances surrounding the death of Eugene Penberthy, 6 th Earl of Sefton, and if that gossip should reach his ears, he had told his housekeeper and his butler in no uncertain terms, that the individual responsible for it would be promptly dismissed.
    Nonetheless, what he could control inside of his house, he could not control outside of it. The town of Penryn, was rife with gossip concerning Conan’s death, and it reached beyond Penryn. It reached so far that he had had to advertise for a governess in newspapers across the country, and that is how they had managed to find Miss Massey. He wasn’t sorry for it. He would have done anything to bring the woman standing before him into his world.
    Sometimes, he wondered if he should have taken the girls back to their family seat in Yorkshire, and yet he couldn’t imagine Miranda being able to live so far from Cornwall, and when it came right down to it, he didn’t even know if Cordelia would be able to live there. It was foreign to them, and they had already had their world turned upside down, if he took them away from all that they knew, he might just do more harm than good.
    He regarded Ruby