“No, Your Grace, I have not witnessed it again.”
“Then I think we can safely assume that that matter is also dealt with, can we not?”
“Your Grace, I do not know what happens to Eleri and Ffion after half-past three in the afternoon. Just because I have not witnessed such bullying does not mean that it does not exist, Your Grace.”
“If you are so greatly concerned in this matter, Miss Darrington, then it is in your power to change things, is it not?”
“I am afraid that I do not understand your meaning, Your Grace.”
“If you set your mind to anglicizing the children’s language and accent, then Mrs Wells would have no reason to chastise them. Do you not think that that is the case, Miss Darrington?”
“Perhaps I should not have mentioned it all, Your Grace,” Georgette said rather sharply, feeling greatly that she had been let down in some way.
The Duke had simply handed her a set of logical responses, none of which had taken into account the real facts of the matter. The children were suffering at the hands of an ill-educated and spiteful woman, and her actions were being supported by others of his staff simply because they would do and say anything to go against the new governess, even if the children suffered because of it.
He had offered her a most dreadful choice; if she did not take her part in removing the very heritage from those little girls, she would be responsible for any hurt and upset they were caused in the future because of it.
If she had thought that she had despised him in the church, it was nothing to how she felt about him at that moment. The Duke of Draycott had shown himself up very badly indeed, and Georgette knew that she would never forget it for as long as she lived.
If only there were something she could do, some way of making life better for Eleri and Ffion. If it were not for the children, she would most certainly be making ready to give her notices, citing the remoteness of the location, so that she might head back to London and straight into Mr Winstanley’s employment registry. However, she could not abandon the girls to their fate in a house where nobody seemed to care for them at all.
But neither could she destroy what few memories they would have of their homeland. She would not take their voices away from them under any circumstances. She would eagerly await the arrival of the phrasebook that Henrietta would undoubtedly send her. She would give them their voices back, if only in secret.
And yet she knew that there was more that must be done. She could not simply encourage the girls in their own language only to see them treated cruelly on its account. Georgette would have to find a way to satisfy the needs of the children and the demands of the Duke.
However, as she sat opposite her master, her eyes full of disappointment in him, she had absolutely no idea how such a thing was to be achieved.
Chapter 15
“She is right to protect the children, Hamilton. Lord knows they need it.”
Georgette stopped dead in her tracks. Mrs Wells had just taken the children from her for the evening, and Georgette found herself, once again, in the position of hearing something of a conversation which she knew, in truth, she should not be hearing.
Undoubtedly the voice which was emanating so clearly from the drawing room was that of Lady Cynthia Lyndon. And, without a doubt in her mind, Georgette knew that she herself was, in part at least, the subject of the conversation.
“The children do not need protecting, Aunt Cynthia. Really, you act just as the new governess does and speak as if the children were being cruelly dealt with. That simply is not the case.” Georgette winced; she had never heard the Duke raise his voice before and, although it was not terribly loud, she found it startling nonetheless.
However, as startled as she was, Georgette was keen to hear what else the Duke had to say about her. That he had dismissed her concerns so completely renewed her fury afresh, and it was with far less compunction on this occasion that she silently made her way a little closer to the door and listened.
“And how do you know that it is not the case, Hamilton? Tell me, what efforts have you made to discover the truth of the thing?” Georgette smiled; Lady Lyndon was obviously not about to give up, despite the Duke’s hectoring tone.
“What is it that you suggest I do, Aunt?”
“Did you even speak to Mrs Wells about her bullying of the children? And did you speak to Mrs Griffin about the withholding of their meal? Really, Hamilton, that you could condone such a thing turns my blood cold.”
“And what efforts have you made to discover the truth of the thing, Aunt Cynthia? You speak as if you have the facts, and I think it is true to say that you do not.”