Book Title: ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR
Character Name: Miss Georgie Rowe
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
Strict and miserable and unsettlingly nomadic. At least that is how it became after my mother died and I was left in the care of my stepfather the Colonel who dragged me from barracks to barracks. He believed that children should be seen and not heard, and I have never been very good at curbing my tongue—or obeying pointless rules—so we never got on. It was a huge relief to the both of us when he washed his hands of me and packaged me off to Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies when I turned sixteen. Thankfully, I’ve not seen hide nor hair of him since.
What is your greatest talent?
Teaching! Because I believe that children should be both seen and heard, and that education should be fun. I was meant to be a governess. For me it is a vocation and not a job. That said, my second greatest talent seems to be not getting hired as a governess because I tend to speak my mind too much in the interviews and nobody else seems to share my bohemian and unconventional ethos concerning education.
Significant other?
I am a governess, so do not ever expect to marry. But if I did, the absolute last person I would choose as a husband would be the pompous, humorless, stickler-for-the-rules naval captain who has hired me as a temporary governess to look after his nieces and nephews. I have absolutely no interest in a man who wears a uniform—no matter how good the confounding wretch looks in it!
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Aside from the fact that I am a penniless governess and therefore practically invisible? Probably my low opinions of men in general and my inability to not let them know how irritating I find them whenever I collide with one.
Where do you live?
Much to my continued shame, and my inability to pass an interview with a prospective employer, at the ripe old age of twenty-three I am still technically living at Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies on Half Moon Street in Mayfair. This is embarrassing because all of my classmates found employment and left as soon as they graduated. Being a protégé of Miss Prentice makes a young lady exceedingly employable unless they are me. But Miss Prentice allows me to earn my keep by teaching all the newer cohorts while I continue to search for gainful permanent employment as a governess. However, for the next few weeks I am living in Captain Kincaid’s house in Tavistock Square. It’s such a lovely house, spoiled only by the fact that it is owned by him!
Do you have any enemies?
I think that it is fairly safe to say that after the mess I made of my first day working as his temporary governess, Captain Kincaid really doesn’t like me. He also appears to loathe my horrid carrot-colored hair too as he keeps staring at it oddly. As disagreeable as he is, I cannot say I blame him because I loathe it too.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
While I dislike Captain Kincaid intensely, because it only took me a day to realize that he is nine tenths disagreeable, I already adore his two nieces and nephew. Felix, Marianne and Grace as delightful and inquisitive children full of character. Felix is obsessed by insects, Marianne fancies herself a ballerina and little Grace has so much energy she whizzes everywhere at such speed, she constantly collides with the furniture.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
None of my own and that will likely remain the case but for the time being, Felix, Marianne and Grace are my children, and they have a dog. A huge, shaggy, delightfully disobedient canine who goes by the name of Norbert. Norbert is supposed to remain in the yard while the children have their lessons, but so far, he has flatly refused to leave Felix’s side and he is far too big and too stubborn for me to move him.
What do you do for a living?
For the next six weeks, I can finally call myself a governess! I sincerely hope that I can stay one after this job ends. But that is unlikely to happen if I have to attend an interview because once I open my mouth, I cannot seem to stop it saying things that rub prospective employers the wrong way…
Greatest disappointment?
Losing my mother so young.
Greatest source of joy?
My three best friends Lottie, Portia and Kitty. They are all Miss Prentice’s Protegees too and we met at sixteen on our first day there. They are the closest things to family that I have.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I love to be outdoors in the fresh air, and I genuinely love to teach. I also love to read and eat ice-cream.
What keeps you awake at night?
Wondering how to curb my rebellious tongue enough to keep this job!
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
After Norbert helped to destroy the new classroom that Captain Kincaid had made me for me at great expense in his excessively neat house, I need to urgently change his bad first impression of me fast before he fires me!
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
I just want to earn a living as a governess. And deep down, I suppose I still crave the love that comes from being part of a family. Of belonging somewhere with someone.
In the first installment of a Regency romp of a series, a governess who believes in cultivating joy in her charges clashes with the children’s uncle who hired her, only to find herself falling in love.
When Harry Kincaid’s flighty older sister decides to join her husband on an Egyptian expedition, Harry, a former naval captain, is left in the lurch, minding her three unruly children and giant, mad dog. But Harry has a busy career at the Admiralty that requires all his attention, and he has no clue how to manage the little rascals or when his sister is coming back. In desperation, he goes to Miss Prentice’s School for Young Ladies prepared to pay whatever it takes to hire an emergency governess quick sharp to ensure everything in his formerly ordered house is run shipshape again.
Thanks to her miserable, strict upbringing, fledgling governess Georgie Rowe does not subscribe to the ethos that children should be seen and not heard. She believes childhood should be everything hers wasn’t—filled with laughter, adventure, and discovery. Thankfully, the three Pendleton children she has been tasked with looking after are already delightfully bohemian and instantly embrace her unconventional educational approach. Their staid, stickler-for-the-rules uncle, however, is another matter entirely.
Georgie and Harry continue to butt heads over their differences, but with time it seems that in this case, their attraction is undeniable—and all is indeed fair in love and war.
Romance Comedy | Romance Historical [St. Martin's Griffin, On Sale: May 28, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250896070 / ]
When Virginia Heath was a little girl it took her ages to fall asleep, so she made up stories in her head to help pass the time while she was staring at the ceiling. As she got older, the stories became more complicated, sometimes taking weeks to get to the happy ending. Then one day, she decided to embrace the insomnia and start writing them down. Fortunately, the lovely people at Harlequin took pity on her and decided to publish her romances, but it still takes her forever to fall asleep.
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