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

quite clear to you, you will never have the hope of raising yourself above your current position. You shall never become the lady of this house. You will never be his duchess. Is that understood?” Her words spoken in a tersely cold manner to cut Ruby deeply, and yet, it did not have the desired effect on Ruby.
    “Oh, aye, Mrs. Teague,” Ruby said, rolling her eyes, and suddenly being profoundly grateful that the horrid woman couldn’t see her face. “I have no intentions of finding myself a husband while here. Quite the contrary, as I have recently fled such a situation. You needn’t fret, I am more than keenly aware of my current lot in life. I do not need you to read me the riot act.” Her words were emboldened. She had somehow found the courage to say things she normally couldn’t say. She supposed that the dreadful housekeeper inspired that behaviour within her. She inspired Ruby to get her back up, and perhaps, she should have taken such a stance with her own mother. Mayhap, if she had done that she could have saved herself a world of grief.
    They finally reached the top of the main staircase, and Mrs. Teague turned, and led her up another stairwell to where the nursery, schoolroom, and presumably, her chambers were located.
    “Hearing that you are not searching for a husband puts my mind at ease. As for your obstinacy, do not challenge me, Miss Massey. I can make your life easy here, or I can make it difficult. I have an assured position within this household, as my late husband was a distant relative of the Duke’s. I would hate to find out that you are, indeed, a bad egg. I warned His Grace against engaging you without proper references, and without meeting you, but he could not be dissuaded. He wanted to give you a chance. I pray he won’t find out he was wrong about you, but if he does, he shall see that he should have listened to my wise counsel. And I am quite relieved to hear that you have no intentions of catching the duke.”
    “You and I both,” she said softly. “I…I meant what I wrote in my correspondence. I have full intentions of remaining a spinster.”
    “Good, good. Besides, you are hardly the sort of woman that would turn the Duke’s head. Indeed, you are quite the opposite. You aren’t exactly cut from the cloth that would suit a duchess. Someone as young as you can hardly be considered a spinster…yet. Give it a few years, my dear, and everyone shall consider you a spinster, or if you prefer, old maid. And then, well then, no man will want you. Not a duke or even a miner,” she tittered out a little odd sounding laugh that almost turned Ruby’s stomach.
    Mrs. Teague seemed to come by her cutting tongue naturally. She probably only abandoned it whenever the Duke was within earshot.
    “Ah, here we are,” Mrs. Teague said, showing her into the bedchamber. “We freshened it up a bit for you. If you desire, I shall send up some hot water so you can wash the dust of the road off you.”
    A crackling fire burned in the fireplace. Ruby wanted desperately to go over and warm her bottom. She felt chilled right down to the bone. The bedchamber wasn’t exactly as richly furnished, as she was accustomed, but it would do. Despite its sparse furnishings, she felt at home.
    “That would be delightful. Thank you.”
    Mrs. Teague nodded her head. “And your dinner shall be sent up shortly as well. I think Mrs. Chegwin has prepared a nice squab pie for us, and the pudding will most likely have something to do with apples, or possibly some fairing biscuits, which you would know as gingerbread, as Mrs. Chegwin is fond of making that for us.
    “A maid will come by with a warming pan when it comes time for you to retire, you need only ring for her. The family has always been extremely considerate when it comes to their governesses. They treat them almost as if they were family—I suppose they treat them as poor relations. Something I am certain you might know about, as you probably were that