Page 26 of Aurelia

“You ate dinner with the family,” the governess said, her tone accusatory.

“Yes.”

“Will you do so every evening?”

“I don’t know.”

Miss Hatchet wandered around the room much like her recalcitrant charge had done a short time earlier. “It is unusual for a woman to accept such a commission in the house of an unmarried man.”

“You work in his lordship’s house.”

Miss Hatchet blinked. “I am a governess.”

“Does it really matter what occupation a person engages in? We are both of us unmarried women earning our own way.”

Miss Hatchet made a dismissive sniffing sound, her long, pointy nose quivering. “You are very young.”

Aurelia had no intention of sharing her personal information with this woman.

“This is the third house I have worked in,” Miss Hatchet said when Aurelia did not respond, still prowling the room. “My other positions lasted four and six years respectively. I doubt I will complete six months here.”

Aurelia merely smiled.

“I’m sure you heard what Lady Celsa did today. I daresay she boasted to you.”

“She did not mention anything.”

“Indeed? The monster locked me in the dungeon. I was there for almost eight hours before somebody thought to look for me.”

It seemed her time in the dungeon grew with the telling. Still, the experience must have been miserable, no matter how long she languished.

“That must have been dreadful.”

Miss Hatchet shivered. “It was dark and cold and the stone was covered with that dreadful black lichen the islanders regard so highly. It may look dry, but it has an unpleasantly slimy texture. It was awful.”

“I can imagine.”

The governess examined Aurelia’s silver-backed brush and ivory comb set, which had been a gift from her paternal grandmother. She ran a long, spidery finger down the back of the brush, as if she were petting a cat. “Pretty,” she murmured, and then swung abruptly back to Aurelia. “I have agreed to stay another month—if her ladyship behaves.” She gave a brittle laugh. “I daresay I shall be looking for a new situation before the week is over.”

Aurelia thought she was probably right.

“I lock my door at night.”

“Er, because of Lady Celsa?”

Miss Hatchet gave another high-pitched laugh. “Oh, dear me, no!” She sidled closer to Aurelia and lowered her voice. “Mr. Montgomery is a perfect gentleman, but his lordship is… restless.”

“Restless?”

Miss Hatchet nodded vigorously, her bow-shaped lips puckering like a drawstring had pulled them tight. She jerked her chin toward the window. “I just saw him out there. Go ahead—look.”

Aurelia sighed but did as the woman bade her. There was indeed a man on a massive dark horse, his tall, commanding figure immediately recognizable as his lordship.

“He is going for a ride. The moon is out, there is nothing unusual in that,” Aurelia said.

“Oh, my dear naïve Miss Burton! The earl leaves the castle most nights—moon or no.”

“Surely that is not so—”