The Captain's Christmas Family. Deborah Hale

would rather have been ambushed by the combined French and Spanish fleets than by those two small girls. They could not have been more alien to his experience if they’d been a pair of mermaids. He had no idea what they might need, except to sense that he was entirely unequipped to provide it.

       More than ever he felt the urgent necessity to restore his reputation, regain his command and get back to sea. He was confident he possessed the skill, experience and temperament to serve his country well in that capacity. After all these years of service, it was the only life he knew. Losing it would be worse than losing a limb—it would be like losing his very identity.

       “I beg your pardon, sir.” The soft lilt of a woman’s voice intruded upon Gideon’s most private thoughts. “You told me to report here at eight. Did you not hear me knock?”

       “I…didn’t.” Gideon withdrew into himself, like a sea creature retreating into the shelter of its tough, rigid shell. “But do come in. I wanted to talk to you about the…children.”

       “As did I, sir.” She approached with deliberate steps, halting some distance away, behind an ornate armchair.

       During their first meeting, Gideon had been so taken aback by the sight of his young cousins that he’d paid little heed to their governess, beyond her hostile glare. No doubt she had read all the scurrilous gossip about him in the papers and judged him guilty of the false accusations against him. So much for his hope of finding a sanctuary at Knightley Park to escape public condemnation!

       Now he forced himself to take stock of his potential adversary. Marian Murray was small and slender, her dark brown hair pinned back with strict severity. Only a single wisp had escaped to curl in a softening tendril over her left temple. With high cheekbones and a fresh complexion, her face might have been quite pleasant to look at if she ventured to smile occasionally. At the moment, her brown eyes were narrowed and her full lips compressed in an expression of barely concealed hostility, if not outright contempt.

       Though Gideon told himself her opinion was not of the slightest consequence, he could not deny the sting. “Yes. Well…about the children. I hope the entail of the estate did not leave them unprovided for.”

       If that were the case, he would take responsibility for their maintenance. It might ease the unreasonable guilt he felt for displacing them from their home.

       “No, sir.” The governess seemed surprised by his question, as if she had not expected him to care. “The girls each have a comfortable little fortune from their mother.”

       “I am relieved to hear it.” Gideon nodded his approval. “Pray who is their guardian and why have they been left alone here?”

       Surely he would have been informed if Cousin Daniel had named him in that capacity. And surely Daniel would have known better than to entrust his young daughters to the care of a distant relation who was apt to be away at sea for years on end.

       “The girls have not been alone,” Miss Murray corrected him. “They have had an entire household to care for them. Their mother’s younger sister, Lady Villiers, is their godmother. She is to be their guardian.”

       “Capital!” Tension released its grip on his clenched muscles so swiftly Gideon feared he might crumple to the floor. “I mean to say…how fortunate…for the children. Will Lady Villiers be coming to fetch them soon or should they be sent to her?”

       The look on Miss Murray’s face grew even grimmer. A passing thought pricked Gideon’s conscience. Was she too strict a person to have charge of two sensitive children? Perhaps he should suggest Lady Villiers hire a more amiable governess for his young cousins.

       Captain Radcliffe didn’t like her. That much was evident to Marian. Not that she minded—quite the contrary. Besides, it set them even.

       She resented his obvious eagerness to palm off responsibility for Cissy and Dolly on someone else, without asking or caring whether that person might be the least bit suitable. In Marian’s opinion, Lady Villiers was not.

       “Her ladyship has been abroad since before Mr. Radcliffe’s death. The family’s solicitor has not been able to contact her. She was in Florence the last we heard, but she may have gone on to Paris.”

       “It does seem to be a fashionable destination since Napoleon’s defeat.” Captain Radcliffe sounded disappointed that Lady Villiers would not be taking the girls off his hands immediately. “I know someone in France who might be able to get a message to her.”

       A message to come at once and take the girls away? The prospect made Marian queasy. But would Cissy and Dolly be any better off with this glacial man about whom she’d heard disturbing rumors?

       Her gaze flitted around the elegant, exotic room. At least this house was familiar to the girls. And if the new master had no fondness for them, she and the other servants did. Besides, unlike their aunt, Captain Radcliffe had no reason to harbor designs on the girls’ fortunes. “Could you delay sending that message for just a bit, sir?”

       “Why on earth…?”

       “Knightley Park is the children’s home—the only one they’ve ever known. If they must leave it, I would like some time to get them used to the idea, if that’s all right?”

       It wasn’t all right. That much was clear from his taut, forbidding scowl.

       “Please,” she added, though she doubted any amount of begging would budge a man like him. “You’ve probably spent most of your life moving from one place to another. So perhaps you can’t understand why a child who’s lost her mother and father would want to stay in a familiar place around people she’s used to.”

       It was not her place to speak to the new master in such a tone. Marian could imagine Mr. Culpepper’s look of horror if he heard her.

       “I understand better than you suppose, Miss Murray.” Captain Radcliffe spoke so softly, Marian wondered if she had only imagined his words.

       “You do?”

       He replied with a slow nod, a distant gaze and a pensive murmur that seemed to come from some well-hidden place inside him. “I was ten years old when I was sent to sea after my mother died.”

       The wistful hush of his voice slid beneath Marian’s bristling defenses. Her heart went out to that wee boy. A navy ship must have been an even harsher place to grow up than the Pendergast Charity School, where she had been sent. She wondered if young Gideon Radcliffe had been blessed with good friends and strong faith to help him bear it.

       But she had no right to ask such questions of a man like him. Besides, the girls were her first priority.

       Perhaps she could appeal to the part of him that remembered the loss and displacement he’d suffered. “Cissy is only nine and Dolly hasn’t turned seven yet. I know you don’t mean to send them off to sea, Captain. But away-from-home is all the same, no matter where, don’t you think?”

       His brows rose and his lower lip thrust out in a downward curve. “I see your point.”

       Marian sensed this was as receptive as he was likely to get. “I’m not asking anything of you, Captain, except to provide us with food and houseroom until Lady Villiers returns. This place has plenty of both to spare. I will see to the girls, entirely, just the way I have since their father died. I’ll make certain they don’t disturb you.”

       For a moment Captain Radcliffe stared down at the finely woven carpet. Then suddenly he lifted his head to fix her with a gaze that did see her—too clearly for her comfort. “Very well, Miss Murray. I am not such an ogre as you may suppose. I know this is their home and would have remained so if they’d had a brother.”

       “I never thought you were an—”

       Before she could blurt out that bald lie, the captain raised his hand to bid her not interrupt him. “Until the New Year then.”

       “I beg your pardon, sir?”

       “I shall delay contacting Lady