“And how long is he reported to be staying away for this time?” Georgette truly hoped she did not sound as nervous as she suddenly felt.
“He is only to be gone but a week, Miss Darrington. I overheard Mr Pearson say that he might even return a little earlier, dependent upon the business he must attend to.”
“Oh, well, I am sure that we shall manage,” Georgette said without conviction.
“Please do not worry too much, Miss Darrington. I shall do what I can to see that decent food comes to you.”
“Daisy, you are not to make yourself uneasy about either the state of the food or the coolness of the water in my jug. It will only be a week, and I shall manage very well. I shall not see you make trouble for yourself on my account.”
“I promise I shall not get myself into trouble, Miss Darrington.” Daisy smiled. “Forgive my intrusion, Miss Darrington, but do you feel a little better today? I had thought you seemed a little upset these last days.”
“In truth, I have been a little out of sorts, Daisy. But I rather think I have come out of it now quite successfully.”
“And how did you get on at church, Miss?” Daisy spoke a little falteringly, almost as if she feared being accused of intrusion.
“In truth, not well. I mean, I managed well enough, but I found the atmosphere a little trying at times. Strained, more than anything.”
“Between His Grace and Lady Lyndon?” Daisy said, her voice a whisper as she looked over her shoulder to be sure that they were alone.
“Quite so, Daisy. Tell me, is it always so?”
“Of late it is, Miss Darrington. I think that Lady Lyndon cares very greatly for the little girls, you see. I have myself heard cross words between them when I have been taking their tea tray into the drawing room.”
“Well, I perceived something very similar myself in church. And you are right; it certainly would appear that Lady Lyndon has a great affection for the children. That is something at least, is it not?”
“It certainly is, Miss. After all, they are just little children; innocent and sweet as all children are,” Daisy said with feeling.
“Things did seem to improve just a little once we were outside the church. His Grace and Lady Lyndon were speaking to a friend of theirs; Lady Louisa I believe.” Georgette raised her eyebrows in a way which she hoped would elicit further information from Daisy.
“Oh yes, that will have been Lady Louisa Wimborne, Miss Darrington.”
“Oh,” Georgette said, not knowing how to progress her line of questioning any further.
“I believe that Lady Lyndon is trying to edge His Grace in Lady Wimborne’s direction. For matrimonial purposes, you understand?” Daisy said, whispering again.
“Oh dear, but she seems such a bright young woman,” Georgette said without a thought. “Oh, please forgive me, Daisy. I should not have said that, and I really rather spoke without thinking.”
“Not at all, Miss Darrington. And I believe that Lady Wimborne is rather bright. And also …” Daisy paused for a moment and looked over her shoulder once more. “I believe that she is quite determined.”
Georgette knew immediately what Daisy meant. Lady Louisa Wimborne was as intent upon marrying the Duke as his aunt was intent for her to do so. In truth, Georgette could not help wondering if the young lady was so very intense that she could entirely ignore the Duke’s faults. Would the children be any better off for having Lady Louisa Wimborne as a guardian?
“I see,” Georgette said and finally relaxed enough to give Daisy something of a conspiratorial smile.
“I really must get back below stairs, Miss. I should not like Mrs Griffin to make things any worse for you.”
“Thank you, Daisy. And thank you for passing the time of day with me. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.”
“And I appreciate it also, Miss Darrington.” And with that, Daisy smiled and turned to hurry away once more.
Georgette had washed hurriedly in the stone-cold water and had swallowed down the spoiled toast with hot tea. At the end of it all, she rather thought that she was washed and fed, and that the result was very much the same thing, whether the toast was burned or not. Either way, Mrs Griffin was not going to upend her just because the Duke of Draycott was away on business.
Being ready early, Georgette made her way down to the schoolroom to await the children. However, when she was but a few feet from the door, she realized that they must already be inside, for she could hear the rough tones of Mrs Wells hanging heavily in the air.
“I have never known two such dreadful, willful little girls. I have told you before that you will not say words that I do not understand before me. His Grace does not want to hear Welsh, either in language or accent. You are in the home of the Duke now. A home of great repute. You are not in some dreadful little village in Wales!”
“That is quite enough,” Georgette spoke vehemently as she pushed the door open wide and strode in. “I shall take charge of the children now, Mrs Wells. You may go.”
“It seems that you have not learned your lesson, Miss Darrington.” Mrs Wells seemed intent upon having an argument right there in front of the children.
“Girls, if you just take a seat at the table, I will be back in a moment. I am just going to speak with Mrs Wells outside.” Georgette smiled at them and could see that they were both crying this time.
“How dare you speak to the children in such a way?” Georgette hissed the moment the two women were in the corridor with the door to the schoolroom closed firmly behind them.
“And how dare you speak to me in such a way? You are no better than me. You are only a governess.”
“But in terms of humanity, Mrs Wells, I think it is very safe to say that I am, indeed, very much better than you.” Georgette was so furious she fought an urge to strike the woman.
“This is not about humanity, Miss Darrington. The Duke does not want to hear Welsh spoken in this house, and if you want to go above him in that, I shall be very glad to inform His Grace of your willful behaviour.”
“Do not speak to me as if I were a child, Mrs Wells. You are not my nurse, and if I had anything to do with it, you would not be nurse to any child. How a woman in your position could terrorize little children in the way that you do is quite beyond me. Do you not think that they have already suffered enough in their short lives, Mrs Wells? Do you care nothing for the fact that they are orphaned and afraid in a house where nobody seems to accept them?” Georgette was shaking with anger.
“Well, they would be better accepted here if they stopped speaking the way they do. It would not take much effort for them to speak properly, would it?” Mrs Wells looked entirely satisfied with herself, and Georgette grew ever more furious.
“And how would you like it, Mrs Wells, if I passed comment upon the way that you speak? After all, you and I sound very different, do we not?”
“You think you are better than me, and that is the truth.”
“That was not the point I was trying to make, Mrs Wells. But you have rather proved it for me nicely. You have taken complete offence at the idea that I think myself better than you because I have a better education and speak differently. Well, how do you think it is any better for you to make the children feel as I have just made you feel now? And they are children, let us not forget that.”
“Mrs Griffin was right about you,” Mrs. Wells said, clearly intent to nurture her own offence and think nothing of the offence and upset she herself had given. “Well, you will come to regret the day you ever agreed to work here, and that is the truth.”
“Do not dare to threaten me. Get out of my sight,” Georgette said furiously.
“You cannot tell me what to do. You are not above me.”
“In terms of the care of the children, I am very much above you,” Georgette said, standing her ground firmly.
“Well, we shall just have to see what His Grace has to say about that, won’t we?”
“Indeed, we shall, Mrs Wells,” George
tte said. She was most determined not to crumble before such threats.
In truth, however, Georgette did not feel at all keen about the idea of taking the latest outrage before the Duke himself. She had no doubts at all that he would simply dismiss the whole thing. Perhaps it was a good thing that he was not currently at Draycott Hall. At least in his absence, things might well have the chance to settle down somewhat. Of course, now that she had argued so violently with Mrs Wells, Georgette rather thought she would be in for very much worse than burnt toast and cold water.
Without another word, Mrs Wells marched away down the corridor; her robust and rather lumpen frame seeming quite ungainly at speed.
Georgette took a few moments to steady herself but, rather thinking she ought to get back to the children, she put her hands to her hair to straighten it and then walked happily back into the schoolroom.
“Bore da, Ffion,” she said brightly. “Bore da, Eleri.”
“Bore da, Miss Darrington,” Eleri said with a broad smile brightening her tearstained face.
“Good morning, Miss Darrington,” Ffion said, with much less certainty.
Hearing Ffion quietly refusing to speak in her own language gave Georgette the curious feeling of being heartbroken and furious in equal measure. These girls were not simply losing their heritage, they were having it bullied out of them, and she would not stand for it a moment longer.
“Well, my dear little girls, shall we start our lessons today with a little nature walk?” With both of them tearstained and shaken, Georgette knew that she must do something to lift them just a little.
It was a beautiful day, and a walk in nature might well help to restore a little balance to their lives. In truth, Georgette rather hoped that it would restore a little balance to her own life. However, even if the walk was of the very most fortifying, Georgette was most determined that, when the day was done, she would write off a letter to Henrietta and beg that she secretly sent her a little Welsh phrasebook.
With every attempt to remove the little that Eleri and Ffion had left, she would counteract it with a silent and secret fight of her own.
Chapter 14
“I realize that this is our first meeting to discuss the children’s progress since you have arrived here, Miss Darrington,” the Duke said, peering at her from the other side of his desk.
Georgette, standing in front of his desk with her hands clasped behind her back, rather felt like a naughty child and found herself shuffling a little from foot to foot.
“It ought really to have been days ago, Miss Darrington, but I had a rather unavoidable trip to London.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” Georgette said, feeling curiously exposed as she was left standing in front of him.
She realized, of course, that this was the lot of the servant. They were not invited into a room and shown to a seat, after all, were they? And yet she was not serving him tea. She was due to give him a very thorough detailing of the progress she had made with the children for whom he was guardian.
“Please do sit down, Miss Darrington,” he said, nodding towards a hard-looking wooden chair directly opposite him.
“Thank you, Your Grace,” Georgette said, wondering at his sudden turn in manners. Still, she felt rather more comfortable and somewhat more confident in herself now that she had been treated with a modicum of respect.
“So, tell me, how do the children get on?”
“In the last week, Your Grace, Eleri and Ffion have done tremendously well. We have made some rather nice advances into the alphabet, and they have both taken to it extraordinarily quickly, especially since they are so very young.”
“I am very pleased to hear that, Miss Darrington. Until now, it is my understanding that they have not taken particularly well to the preliminaries of learning to read.”
“It is true to say then, Your Grace, that they have excelled themselves this last week. I find them most attentive and interested, not to mention extremely willing.”
“And how do you find their arithmetic?”
“Your Grace, at little more than four years of age, their arithmetic is, as yet, quite non-existent,” Georgette spoke gently and fervently hoped that she did not sound as if she were patronizing the Duke in any way. That a man should imagine that any child of just four years would be well versed in arithmetic was quite astonishing to her. “But we have made great progress in learning numbers, Your Grace. They have very quickly recognized how to progress in counting without having to commit all of the numbers to memory.”
“Meaning?” the Duke said, leaning over towards her a little, his eyebrows raised in a way which suggested that he was suddenly very interested.
“Meaning, Your Grace, that when they get to twenty, for instance, they realize that they are then simply counting from one to nine, and then when they get to thirty, they count from one to nine again. I have been able to teach them to memorize the tens, if you will. So, they have memorized twenty, thirty, forty, et cetera. Once they reach those numbers, they logically progress through the next nine numbers until they reach their next milestone.”
“Oh, I see,” the Duke said, nodding.
“To a fully-grown man, Your Grace, it might seem like such a minor achievement. But I think we all forget a time before we knew how to count and how to read, and we rather forget what a great effort it takes to achieve the basics.”
“Indeed, I am quite sure that you are right in that, Miss Darrington,” he said and leaned back in his chair again. “And I must say quite openly that this is far better progress than I had expected. In truth, it rather takes the children a little while to settle in with a new governess, so I must congratulate you in your efforts, Miss Darrington.”
“I thank you, Your Grace,” Georgette said and felt strangely pleased by his praise.
The idea that she had been so very pleased by his good opinion had her unsettled her a little. After all, she had been quite determined that she would think nothing of the Duke of Draycott after his performance in the church.
However, she had been truly surprised by his interest in quite how far the girls had progressed. After all, he seemed to care nothing for them, and so she thought it would likely follow that he cared little for how they truly progressed in their education. But perhaps he simply wanted them to be well educated for the same reason that he did not want them to be heard speaking in their own accent in church. Perhaps it was simply for the sake of appearances and nothing more.
“And they have responded to you well, Miss Darrington?” he went on, his tone rather businesslike.
“I believe so, Your Grace. They are very sweet natured children and keen to please.” Georgette thought of the nurse berating the children so badly and how Ffion had gone on to respond in English when Georgette herself had spoken in Welsh. Perhaps the poor little things were a little too keen to please.
“Is something wrong, Miss Darrington?” he said, snapping her out of her world for a moment.
“Yes, Your Grace … I am rather afraid that there is,” Georgette said before she had a chance to stop herself.
Immediately she had spoken, Georgette’s hands felt clammy, and her cheeks flushed.
“And that is?” the Duke spoke in a rather bored sort of voice, almost as if he fully expected that Georgette would be complaining about burnt toast and cold water.
“I have some rather serious concerns about Mrs Wells’ treatment of the children. She is really rather a bully towards them, Your Grace, and it is upsetting them greatly.”
“You mean she chastises them?” he said, narrowing his blue eyes as he looked at her.
“It is my opinion, Your Grace, that her behaviour rather goes beyond simple chastisement. I came upon her the other day berating them in private, Your Grace, and I thought it most terribly cruel.”
“In what way, Miss Darrington?”
“She was speaking to the children as if they were very much beneath her, Your Grace. She was taunting them for the way they speak, and both of the
girls were crying heartily when I entered the room. She was telling them that they were willful and dreadful and, in truth, they are neither of those things. I could tell they were afraid and that she was upsetting them so dreadfully.”
“But you are aware, are you not, that I should like you to do what you can to anglicize their accents?”
“By bullying, Your Grace?” Georgette said and instantly regretted it.
“No, not by bullying, Miss Darrington. I am sure that you have many far better devices at your disposal. After all, you seem to have progressed with them very well indeed.”
Georgette fully expected to be chastised for her comment and found herself entirely surprised when he had simply sought to cajole her into doing his bidding.
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