Phoebe’s smile was rueful. “Perhaps.”
Alice’s gaze turned serious as she set her teacup aside. “I’m sorry I never told you about Maude. My mother acted like she was some terrible family secret and we’d be ruined if word spread. But that always seemed awfully unfair to me since my sister did so much for us. And when Mother fell ill, Maude took care of everything without a word of complaint.”
“Don’t apologize.” Phoebe waved a hand. “You certainly weren’t required to tell me all the intimate details of your life.”
Alice shook her head. “I should have told Maude to contact you when I left London though. Then you wouldn’t have worried about me. But it all happened so fast and Maude was adamant.”
“That’s all right. She had her reasons. Besides, I had an adventure,” she added with a small smile. That was how she should think of her time with Will.
I once spent a spring galivanting around London with a handsome duke.
It would be a fine story to tell her nieces and nephews one day—with a few tactful omissions, of course.
Alice raised an eyebrow. “So I heard.”
Phoebe deftly changed the subject before her cheeks could heat even more. “Did your mother and sister make peace in the end?”
Alice shrugged. “When Maude came to see her, Mother refused at first. Stubborn woman. It wasn’t until I insisted that nothing Maude ever did was unforgivable that she gave in. I told Maude that too. I’m not ashamed to have her as my sister.”
Phoebe patted her hand. “I’m sure that meant a great deal to her.”
“She’s finally cut ties with Fairbanks, you know,” Alice said softly. “For good.”
“I’m very glad to hear that.” Phoebe let out a sigh of relief as the earl’s ugly words from that night in Maude’s room came back to her. “I don’t think he treated her well.”
“Not at all. It’s men likehimthat should be ashamed of themselves. Not girls like Maude. They’re the ones that made the world this way. And then they claim to have some moral objection to it?” She shook her head in disgust. “None of it makes sense to me.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Phoebe agreed. Though she had read about Will’s defection in the paper, there hadn’t been a word about Lord Fairbanks’ bill—or her. Hopefully the evidence Maude procured was enough to keep him quiet. “What will she do now?”
“I’m not sure. She has no real schooling.” Alice looked thoughtful. “It’d be nice if there was some kind of training for women like her. To help them start fresh.”
Phoebe nodded as an idea began to take shape in her mind.
“There’s something else,” Alice added, then paused to take a breath. “I’ve decided against that secretarial course.”
“Really?” Phoebe couldn’t hide her disappointment. “If it’s about the money—”
“No.” Alice firmly shook her head. “It’s not that.” Phoebe tilted her head expectantly. “I want to teach like you. In a school like ours,” she said in a great rush.
Phoebe was stunned. “You… you do?”
Alice bowed her head shyly. “I know I’ll have years of schooling ahead of me, but it’s what I want. And I can take in more sewing to pay the fees. I’d darn a thousand shirts to do it.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Phoebe said. “You’re a brilliant girl, Alice. And I will doeverythingin my power to help you succeed.”
The girl looked up with hope in her eyes “Really?”
“Of course. It would be an honor. Truly.”
They spent the next hour discussing teacher training colleges. Phoebe made up a list of possibilities and promised to do more research.
“I can’t let you do all that,” Alice protested.
“You can. Besides,” she said with a tight smile. “It will give me something to do.”
Though Phoebe had insisted on paying the full rent on their flat since the school’s closure, Marion accepted a governess position with a family outside London for the summer. She fully intended to return as soon as a new school was opened, but in the meantime that left Phoebe alone with far too much time to spendthinking.
“When does Maude think it will be safe enough for you to return home?”
