Claudia suspected that he would not even be staying here if he had not committed himself to escorting her. He would probably be putting up at the George and Pelican or the Castle, which were both beyond her means. She hoped he was not expecting to be thanked for the privilege of both this room and their bedchambers. She still bristled at the memory of how he had wielded power even without the medium of words while she had felt like a helpless, inept woman.
The girls had both scrambled to their feet and were curtsying to him. Claudia too stood but she merely nodded civilly.
“I trust,” he said, stepping into the room, “you have passed a reasonably comfortable day. I hope you have not had every bone in your bodies jounced about into a new position.”
“Oh, no, my lord,” Flora assured him. “I never even dreamed a carriage could be so comfortable. I wish the journey could last a week. Ortwo.”
He chuckled, and Edna, looking rather like a frightened rabbit, giggled.
“I suppose,” he said, “you are both desperately unhappy at having to leave your school and your friends behind and impossibly excited at the prospect of beginning new lives as adults.”
Edna bobbed a curtsy again.
“Some of those girls are like sisters, though,” Flora told him. “And it hurtshereto know we may never see them again.” She smote her fist against her bosom. “But Iamready to work for my living, my lord. We cannot stay at school forever, can we?”
Claudia looked steadily at the marquess, expecting to see him astonished that either girl would have the effrontery to answer him in more than a monosyllable. Instead, he continued to smile.
“And to what employment do you go, Miss…?”
“Bains, my lord,” she told him.
“Miss Bains,” he said.
“I am going to be a governess,” she said. “I have always wanted to be one ever since I learned to read and write when I was thirteen. I think being able to teach those things to other people is the most wonderful thing anyone could possibly do in life. Would you not agree, my lord?”
Claudia was very afraid that Flora might talk too much. However, she was pleased to hear that even in the excitement of the moment the girl spoke with a decent accent and correct grammar—far differently from the way she had spoken when she arrived at the school five years earlier.
“I do indeed,” he said, “though I cannot say that I regarded my first tutor as a saint when he taught me to read. He used the rod far too often for my liking!”
Edna giggled.
“Well, that was silly,” Flora said. “How could you learn properly when you were being beaten? And even worse, how could youenjoylearning? It reminds me of the orphanage when we were taught to sew. I never did learn properly, and I still hate sewing. We neverevergot beaten at school, and I will nevereverbeat my pupils no matter how badly behaved they are or slow to learn. Or my children—if I ever have any.”
Claudia pursed her lips. Florawasrunning on rather. However, her passion was to be commended.
“I can see,” the marquess said, “that you will be a superior governess, Miss Bains. Your pupils will be fortunate children. And you, Miss…?
He looked with raised eyebrows at Edna, who blushed and giggled and looked as if she wanted nothing more than for a black hole to appear at her feet to swallow her up.
“Wood, your grace,” she said. “I mean, my lord.”
“Miss Wood,” he said. “Are you to be a governess too?”
“Yes, my lord,” she said. “I-I mean your grace.”
“I believe,” he said, “that titles must have been invented to confuse us all horribly. As if the fact that most of us are blessed with at least two names is not challenge enough for those who meet us in the course of our lives! And so you are to be a governess, Miss Wood. And doubtless a superior one too, well educated and well trained at Miss Martin’s School.”
He looked immediately at Claudia in such a way as to signal to Edna that she need not feel the necessity of composing a reply to his observation. It was, Claudia admitted grudgingly, thoughtful of him.
“Miss Martin,” he said, “I came to see if the three of you are ready to retire for the night. If you are, I shall escort you through the crowded dining room and up to your rooms and see that no one accosts you on the way.”
“Thank you,” Claudia said. “Yes, it has been a long day, and there is another facing us tomorrow.”
And yet after escorting them upstairs past several groups of loudly talking men and seeing Flora and Edna safely inside their room with the door shut, he did not immediately hurry off back downstairs.
“Of course,” he said, “it is still rather early, Miss Martin. And weary as I am after such a long ride, I feel the need to stretch my legs before I lie down. You may feel a similar need and an additional one to draw fresh air into your lungs. Would you care to accompany me on a short walk?”
She would like no such thing.
