“I understand, Lady Lyndon, and I thank you for your concern.”
“I daresay that our time together shall be quite limited, my dear, but I shall swear to you now that you shall know everything, however many attempts I must make to part with my tale.”
“I thank you for your confidence in me, Lady Lyndon. And I can, of course, assure you of my absolute discretion.”
“I was already quite sure of it, Miss Darrington, or I should never have begun to take you into my confidence in the first place. I think you are very fine young woman, my dear, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that Providence has brought you this way.”
“And I am grateful to have somebody believe what I say, Lady Lyndon, for I care so very greatly for the girls.”
“I can see it in you, Miss Darrington.” Lady Lyndon began to rise to her feet and, once standing, took Georgette’s hands in her own. “And so it is that I find I must extract another promise from you.”
“Please, Lady Lyndon, you have only to mention it.”
“You must never let those little girls forget who they are. They are Welsh children with beautiful voices and a musical language. You must never let them lose that, Miss Darrington. You must find a way to manage it without causing trouble for yourself or for the girls. In truth, I do not know how such a thing can possibly be managed, but you are brave and resourceful, and I have every faith in you.”
“I shall try, Lady Lyndon,” Georgette said, her voice thick with emotion. “I shall try my very hardest.”
Chapter 17
After church at the end of that week, Georgette decided that she would not waste the afternoon. They were enjoying a truly wonderful summer that year, and she did not want to spend another afternoon of precious free time lying on the tiny bed in her room looking at the ceiling and letting her concerns have free reign of her mind.
However, even as she walked through the beautiful woodland at the far north end of the estate, Georgette found she could hardly keep her mind quiet at all. She tried instead to focus her mind on the wonderful scents of the woodland. With the sun still so warm, there came with it a beautiful richness of aroma as it warmed the leaves and the earth, the summer flowers and the long grass. Each of the scents seemed to wrap itself around the others, creating the general scent of summer. Georgette rather thought it was like many individual notes making up a piece of music, and she stood still for a moment, closed her eyes, and breathed it in.
Feeling a little more settled, Georgette began to walk slowly, keeping to the well-trodden pathway. The woodland was really rather large and, although not quite large enough for her to become lost for very long, still she decided to keep exploration for a later date. And as much as she had wanted the afternoon to be about rest and relaxation, Georgette knew very well that it would simply be overrun with everything she had to think about. Perhaps, in the end, she ought not to fight it.
With that in mind, Georgette began to search for a suitable place to sit for a while. There was all manner of fallen tree trunks in the woodland, each of them picked clean of their thicker branches by servants in search of firewood. It was simply a matter of choosing the one she cared to sit on.
Finally, finding a rather smooth looking tree trunk sitting at just the right height, Georgette made her way over. It was only a few feet back from the path, and she thought it a perfect place; not too isolated and not too open.
Georgette took the light shawl she had carried over her arm and gently spread it out over the bark. She was wearing a pale ivory gown, the one she had worn to church, and did not want to make it dirty.
It was one of her favourite gowns for summer, and she was pleased that it was quite appropriate enough for a governess to be seen out in on a Sunday. The light cotton had a delicate print of small green flowers upon it, giving the ivory gown much interest. The sash at the empire line of her gown was in a pale green satin, and it matched the pale green velvet bonnet she wore.
As Georgette took her seat, she began to untie the ribbons of her bonnet. The day was warm, and she wanted to feel a little of the breeze in her hair. She laid the velvet bonnet down beside her and smoothed out her skirts, careful to check that they were still clean and staying out of harm’s way.
In truth, she knew she ought really to have changed her gown when she came back from church. However, Georgette had found herself missing her old life; the time when she did not have to think about keeping certain gowns for best so that they might last year upon year. Walking out towards the woodland in such a pretty gown felt like a small act of defiance against a life she could not control.