“THAT IS PRETTY, DARLING,”the Duchess of Ridgeway said, bending down to kiss her daughter on the cheek and glancing smilingly at the painting the child held up for her inspection. “I will certainly see her, Nanny. It must be made clear to her that she is to be subordinate to you and that she must not force Pamela into doing anything she does not wish to do.”
“She is expecting to meet her charge this morning, my lady,” the nurse said. “I have explained to her that Lady Pamela likes to be quiet in the nursery during the mornings.”
“Must I meet my new governess today, Mama?” the child asked petulantly. “Did Papa send her?”
“He did it to provoke me, did he not?” the duchess said to her nurse. “He must have heard of my plans and thought to have his revenge by sending a prosing schoolmistress for my darling. But I have a right to company, don’t I? Just as much as he does. He is enjoying the Season in London. Does he think I can live here all alone and be dull? Does he think I do not need company too to dispel this endless boredom?” She coughed dryly and reached for a handkerchief.
“I told you to wear a pelisse yesterday, lovey,” the nurse said. “It is still just spring, even if the sun does shine. You will never get rid of your chill if you don’t take care of yourself.”
“Don’t fuss, Nanny,” the duchess said crossly. “I have had this cough since winter, even though I always bundled up warmly then, as you told me to. Do you suppose he will come home if he hears?”
“I daresay he will, lovey,” the nurse said. “He usually does.”
“He does not like me to have any enjoyment or company,” her grace said. “I hate him, Nanny. I really do.”
“Hush,” the nurse said. “Not in front of Lady Pamela, lovey.”
The duchess looked at the child and touched one soft dark ringlet. “Send her down to my sitting room, then,” she said, “this Miss Hamilton. Adam may have hired her, Nanny, butshe must be made to see that she will be answerable to me. After all, Adam—”
“Hush, lovey,” the nurse said firmly.
The duchess kissed her child’s cheek again and swept from the room, her morning robe flowing out behind her.
Her daughter watched her go wistfully. “Do you think she liked my picture, Nanny?” she asked.
“I’m sure of it, lovey.” The nurse bent to hug her. “Mama adores you and everything you do.”
“And will Papa like it?” the child asked. “Is he coming home?”
“We will keep it carefully until he does,” Mrs. Clement said.
WHENFLEUR WAS USHEREDinto the duchess’s sitting room a short time later, it was empty. She stood quietly inside the door and waited, her hands folded before her. It was a small room, but quite exquisite. It was oval, with a painted dome for a ceiling and slender gilded Corinthian columns supporting the entablature. Decorative panels on an ivory-colored ground in pale reds, greens, pinks, and gold leaf made the walls delicate and feminine.
She did not have a long wait. The door at the other end of the room opened to admit a small and dainty lady in a delicate blue muslin dress, her silver-blond hair piled in soft curls and ringlets on her head and about her face. The duchess was extremely beautiful and looked younger than her own twenty-three years, Fleur thought.
“Miss Hamilton?” the duchess asked.
Fleur curtsied. “Your grace.”
She found herself being openly surveyed from head to foot by the duchess’s light blue eyes.
“My husband has sent you here as governess to my daughter?” The voice was sweet and breathless.
Fleur inclined her head.
“Do you realize that at the age of five she is not yet in need of teaching?” her grace asked.
“But there is a great deal even so young a child can learn without actually sitting over a book all day long, your grace,” Fleur said.
The duchess’s chin came up. “Do you presume to disagree with me?” she asked, both her voice and her face pleasant and somewhat at variance with her words.
Fleur was silent.
“My husband sent you,” the other said. “What was your relationship with him, pray?”
Fleur flushed. “I have not met his grace,” she said. “I was interviewed at an employment agency by Mr. Houghton.”
The duchess looked her up and down once more. “As you will have gathered,” she said, “I am in disagreement with my husband on my daughter’s need of tuition. She is a young and delicate child who needs only her mother’s love and her nurse’s care. You will not tax her brain with useless knowledge, Miss Hamilton, and you will take your orders from Mrs. Clement, Lady Pamela’s nurse. You will consider yourself one of the servants of this house and keep to your own room or the servants’ hall when your presence is not needed in the schoolroom. I do not expect to see you on this floor of the house unless expressly summoned by me. Do you understand me?”
