Edward, of course, was no stranger to visiting his governess’s rather mysterious chambers, though often, naturally, to forestall any mischief the redheads first had firmly lashed his wrist cuffs to the straps of his harness that ran diagonally up across his buttocks from the very bottom of his groin to his hips, and always his admittance had been only upon that good lady’s express command. The idea of looking now, on his own accord and without having been asked, was…well, very strange. Oh, it was necessary under these unusual circumstances, he told himself piously. But—why, it did carry the whiff of the forbidden, did it not? Peering through the keyhole of a lady—especially a model of propriety such as his irreproachable yet wildly inventive young governess—simply seemed so naughty, like
