His Tempting Governess by Cerise DeLand

A bemused earl. A governess disguised. A forbidden love and a terrible wrong that must be made right!

At No.18, Baldwin Summers, the Earl of Cartwell, deals with innumerable problems. At thirty-six, he’s changed. He’s no longer simply ‘Win’, that famous hero of Waterloo, but hailed as his profligate brother’s heir. He’s pensioned off his two mistresses and become oh, so bored with gambling. Yes, too, his mother presses him to marry—but he’d rather remove his spleen with a pickle fork than wed just any young peagoose.
Suddenly, he’s had thrust upon him guardianship of his friend’s eight-year-old daughter. Though she tickles him with her wit…and her exotic pets, the child needs a firm hand. With no idea how to mold her into a socially acceptable creature, he hires a governess.
However, that woman presents his most pressing problem—and his delight. She enchants his ward. But she’s beguiling him as well. And it’s a wonder because she is so very…odd. She knows (yes, indeed) bugs, defeats him every time at chess—and dances. In his upstairs hall. Alone. For the joy of it.
He cannot ignore her. He cannot control her. Worse, he cannot quell his mad desire to kiss her.
She is a temptation and a mystery. With a problem.
Stubborn, she refuses to allow him to help.
He won at Waterloo. But can we win the woman he loves?