“Let usallsit, shall we?” Drew took a chair adjacent to Lady Tribble. The baroness did not look up.
“Ivy?” Drew called. “Won’t you come closer? Perhaps share a refreshment. Who can ring for tea?” Drew smiled expectantly, hoping that one of the girls might take the initiative.
Ivy trudged to the opposite end of her mother’s sofa. Imogene drifted to the cat. Dropping to the rug beside the animal, she tucked up her legs and rested her chin on her knees. Idly, she twirled her fingers above the cat’s head. He flopped on his back, mesmerized.
No one rang for tea.
“Your Grace?” asked Drew. “How might I send for a pot of tea? If you do not mind?”
“Tea. Right,” said Lachlan. He rolled from his chair and strode from the room.
“Will one of your duties be to issue orders to Uncle and staff?” Imogene asked with faux innocence.
“Ah,” Drew began, trying to formulate an answer.
Imogene cut her off. “Are you not aservantyourself?”
Carefully, Drew began to pull off her gloves and place them in her lap. “I am not a servant, in fact,” she said. “I am... an instructor. Like a music teacher or a tutor, although more comprehensive. How glad I am that you have raised the topic, as now might be a good time to go over some of the duties I will perform while I am here. If the two of you and your mother are amenable.”
She glanced at Lady Tribble. The baroness appeared to examine some malfunction on the bridge of her lute.
Drew continued, “I will teach you how young ladies areexpected to dress and behave when in public and in private. We’ll look at how you should behave around ladies and gentlemen and, similarly, how you should behave around shopkeepers and dressmakers and servants. Manners convey respect, and respect is owed to everyone we meet.
“Much of this, you may already know. Some of the teaching will be my demonstration of this or that custom or task while you observe. Just as I’ve done now. Do you see how I’ve sent for tea? Other times, you’ll want to jot down a few notes and memorize, as you’ve done in the schoolroom. We’ll practice it all again and again among ourselves and then we’ll call on friends and practice—”
Imogene raised her hand and Drew stopped speaking.
Imogene looked at her with pronounced boredom. She cocked her head as if to say,I’m waiting.
“Of course raised hands will not be required for questions,” said Drew. “The three of us will be more like... collaborators. Although, it is very polite of you not to interrupt. You may speak freely, Imogene.”
Imogene did not lower her hand, nor did she speak.
Drew swallowed. “Yes, Imogene?”
Imogene’s hand fell. “We were never in school. In case you didn’t know.”
“Imogene,” whispered Ivy, her cheeks reddening.
“Nor do we have any friends on whom to call,” Imogene continued. “Again. In case you didn’t know.”
“Oh,” said Drew. “In fact I did not know. We have... so much to learn about one another.”
Drew heard footsteps behind her. She glanced back, using the moment to collect herself. Lachlan stood in the doorway, his face was tight and shrewdly interested, the expression of a man trying to decipher a coded passage.
Drew turned back. “So... you’ve not hadformalschooling,” she said, reframing the comment. Imogene would not have raised it if she did not wish to discuss it. “No tutors, perhaps, but you would have had nannies and a governess.”
“Well, there was Matron,” remembered Imogene, her tone suspiciously forthcoming. “And Proctor.”
Drew studied her beautiful face.Matron and Proctor?Had they been figures of some authority in their lives? She named them with equal parts foreboding and relish. Did she embellish to make a point?
“And we learned to read scripture,” Imogene went on. “And the Temple tracts. But most books were banned, of course.”
Drew ceased hiding her shock. “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said.
She looked from Imogene to her sister. Ivy had dropped her face into her hands. Lady Tribble put aside the lute and chewed a fingernail in the nervous manner of someone deep in thought. She refused to meet Drew’s eyes.
“Oh, I see,” realized Imogene, sounding a little excited. “No one’s told you?”
