“And how very pleased I am to see you. I do hope that you are settling in well at Draycott Hall?” She made her statement a question, raising her eyebrows so that her kindly blue eyes widened just a little.
“I am settling in very well; I thank you, Lady Lyndon,” Georgette said brightly.
In truth, her instinct had almost led her to instantly reveal all that she had suffered at the hands of the dreadful servants since her arrival. However, Georgette very much knew better. If there were an ally to be found in these kind blue eyes, Georgette would do nothing to turn the good woman away from her with so early an outburst of discontent. Rather, she decided that she must wait and truly see how the land lay with the Duke’s aunt before being so presumptuous as to make any mention of everything she had so far noticed as being so very wrong at Draycott Hall.
“I am very pleased to hear that, Miss Darrington. And I am sure that the girls are most pleased to have a new governess. Are you not, girls?” She looked down at the children once more.
“We are very pleased, Aunt Cynthia,” Eleri said enthusiastically.
“And what about you, Ffion? Have you learned some new things since Miss Darrington arrived?” Georgette could not help being impressed by the way Lady Lyndon sought to include Ffion. No doubt she had sense enough to realize that Ffion greatly lacked confidence and needed drawing out.
“We have learned a lot of things, Aunt Cynthia,” Ffion said, her little eyes wide. “We have heard all about London. That is where Miss Darrington comes from, Aunt Cynthia. I would like to go verrry much.” As she spoke, her accent seemed to become more pronounced. It was like music to Georgette’s ears, and she closed her eyes for a moment to listen to the little girl.
“Please lower your voice.” Suddenly, Georgette’s eyes flew open, and she saw that the Duke had finally extricated himself from the attentions of the Reverend. “I think you are perfectly well aware, Aunt, that I do not particularly encourage this,” he said, not giving an explanation and, in truth, not needing to.
Georgette knew very well that he truly did not want to hear the girls speaking in public. If only he had not arrived at the very moment little Ffion was speaking so comfortably. Goodness knows what damage his careless spite had done.
“I am simply asking the girls how their lessons are going, Hamilton. Nothing more.” Lady Lyndon’s tone was strained and, when the Duke gave her a fierce and scornful look which narrowed his blue eyes to slits, she became suddenly silent and looked away from him.
Georgette had never felt so uncomfortable in all her life. She was right in the middle of things, with the Duke on one side and Lady Lyndon on the other. When they came to sit down, nothing seemed to change. The Duke sat on the far end of the pew with Georgette sitting immediately next to him. Ffion and Eleri sat side-by-side on her left and the Duke’s aunt on the other side of the children.
Georgette could not help feeling that they ought not to have been sitting in such a configuration and yet, at the same time, the arrangement did not seem to be affecting either the Duke or Lady Lyndon unduly. Perhaps, in truth, they were rather pleased to be sitting apart from one another.
Wishing herself anywhere else on earth, Georgette looked down at the children. She could see that Ffion was crying, making no sound, and making no attempt to blot her tears. The poor child seemed almost as if she dared not move and yet could not stop herself from crying. What was more heartbreaking was that Eleri had reached out and gently taken her sister’s hand in her own, silently protecting her as best she could manage.
At that moment, Georgette could have risen to her feet and stamped hard on the Duke of Draycott’s foot. How dare he upset an innocent child in the house of God to such a degree that she silently cried? And that her four-year-old sister had, by necessity, taken the responsibility of protector, was unforgivable as far as Georgette was concerned.
Since as she had felt sorry for him in the carriage, Georgette’s heart hardened completely to the Duke in that moment. As far as she was concerned, he was just about the most appalling person she had ever met. Whilst he had not been openly hostile towards her in the same way that his butler and housekeeper had been, his behaviour towards the children was appalling.
That he could lack so much awareness of the upset that his words could cause was rather amazing to her, and Georgette could not help branding him rather a stupid sort of a man in her own mind.
How on earth was it that he could be ashamed of them? For that, surely, was what she had just witnessed. Why on earth would a Duke be ashamed of any member of his own family?