The Master's New Governess

Chapter Three

On the little flower that clings;

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Maud (1855)

‘Hello,’ said Maud gently.

A little girl was seated at a table, eating a supper of bread and milk. She had dark hair, the same raven black as her father’s, smoothed back under a black velvet snood. She wore a white ruffled pinafore over a yellow dress that didn’t suit her colouring—her skin had a slight olive tint that looked almost sallow, as if she spent too much time indoors.

She did need to spend more time in the garden, thought Maud, to make her cheeks as rosy as her name.

Seated beside the little girl was a nursemaid in a black-and-white uniform, a plump, blonde-haired girl of little more than twenty, with a broad face and a friendly expression.

‘Hello, miss,’ the nursemaid said, in an accent like the coach driver’s, with the same lilting burr that Maud had noticed tingeing Sir Dominic Jago’s voice. ‘You must be the new governess. I’m Netta.’

‘How do you do.’ Maud smiled at her. ‘Sir Dominic told me you looked after Rosabel, and that you will be continuing to do so.’

‘That’s right, miss. I give Rosabel her baths and meals and so on. She’s almost ready for bed now.’

Maud bent her knees slightly, to make herself closer to the girl’s level. She disliked leaning over her charges. It made her unapproachable. ‘I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.’

The little girl didn’t respond.

Maud moved closer and saw the girl draw back. On her lap was a golden-haired porcelain doll. Her gaze was fixed upon the toy and she clutched it tightly in her hands.

‘I see you’ve got a doll,’ Maud said. ‘Does she have a name?’

Rosabel hesitated, her eyes still cast down, then shook her head fiercely.

‘Oh, dear,’ said Maud. ‘A doll with no name. How does she come when you call?’

A splutter of surprised laughter escaped from the little girl’s lips, though she still did not look up. ‘She’s a doll! She can’t come when I call!’

‘How do you know if you’ve never called her?’

Rosabel lifted her head and stared at Maud. She didn’t respond, merely continued to look suspicious with her dark eyes. They were the same deep brown as her father’s.

‘The right names are very important.’ Maud ignored the tremor of unease that ran through her as she spoke. It bothered her more than she had expected, not to be using her own name. At least Wilmot was the same.

Maud sank down on her knees beside Rosabel’s chair. ‘You must have a name that a doll likes, otherwise she won’t play properly with you.’

For the first time Maud saw a dimple in Rosabel’s cheeks.

‘I wonder what her name might be…’ Maud mused. ‘Could it be…Mergetrude?’

‘Mergetrude isn’t a name!’ the girl burst out, with a giggle.

‘Isn’t it?’ Maud pursed her lips and stared at the ceiling, as if in deep thought. ‘Perhaps her name is Dorothea-Millicent-Margaret-Anne.’

Rosabel giggled. It was a sound that seemed awkward, as if it didn’t happen very often. The doll in front of her, she held it towards Maud. ‘She does have a name! It’s Polly.’

‘Of course!’ Maud touched her hand to her forehead, as if in mock foolishness. ‘How could I have thought otherwise? I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance, Miss Polly.’

She gave a curtsy.

With another shy giggle, Rosabel inclined the doll into a bow in return.

‘You made up those names,’ she said.

‘Of course,’ said Maud. ‘Don’t you ever make things up?’

Rosabel once again looked suspicious.

‘Why, I do all the time,’ said Maud.

‘Is that so, Miss Wilmot?’

Maud swung around. The schoolroom door that opened on to the upstairs hall must have been ajar and she hadn’t heard Dominic Jago enter. Her attention had been fully focused on the child in front of her.

He leaned against the doorframe, his dark eyes surveying the scene.

‘Papa!’ Rosabel exclaimed.

He moved around the table and dropped a kiss on the girl’s raven head. The little girl beamed. Clearly, she adored her father, and it was mutual, judging by the way Sir Dominic regarded at his daughter. The angles of his face softened as he gazed down at the small girl.

‘I see you have been making Rosabel’s acquaintance,’ he said, as he ruffled her hair.

Rosabel giggled. ‘She thought Polly’s name was Merget… Merg…’

‘Mergetrude,’ put in Maud.

‘She made it up!’

Sir Dominic raised an eyebrow.

‘I encourage imagination,’ said Maud, quickly.

‘I see.’ He glanced around the schoolroom. ‘I hope you have found everything here is satisfactory to your methods.’

Maud bit her lip. She didn’t want to appear critical, but from their previous conversation, it was clear that Sir Dominic Jago prized being straightforward, to say the least.

In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought to herself.

‘Not quite,’ she replied.

She heard Netta the nursemaid’s stunned intake of breath.

‘What is it you require?’ Sir Dominic asked. She thought there was the slightest upturn of his mouth, but she couldn’t be sure.

‘Some more books,’ she said. She had brought her book of fairy tales and some other volumes, but they would need a great deal more. ‘And other educational materials. A globe of the world, for a start. I saw one or two in the library.’

‘A globe of the world,’ he repeated.

‘For geography.’

After a moment he nodded. ‘The library is at your disposal. You must help yourself to whatever you need.’

‘Thank you.’ She hesitated. ‘Might I fetch one of the globes now?’

His eyebrow rose. ‘This evening?’

Maud nodded. ‘It would be most useful.’ She turned her attention back to Rosabel. ‘Do you like stories, Rosabel?’

‘Yes,’ she replied doubtfully.

‘I can tell you and Polly a bedtime story tonight. Would you like that?’

‘Will you make it up?’ the little girl asked.

‘Certainly,’ said Maud.

‘Then I think I might like it,’ she said. ‘And so would Polly,’ she added as an afterthought.

Maud smiled. ‘Then while Netta puts you to bed, I will go and fetch the globe from the library.’

Sir Dominic stepped forward. His eyes glinted.

‘Allow me,’ he drawled. ‘I will fetch the globe for you, Miss Wilmot, if you will allow me to stay for the bedtime story.’

Maud halted the twisting of her hands. She would not reveal her nervousness to Sir Dominic.

She sat by Rosabel’s bed in her pretty bedroom. It was all done in pink silk, with roses on the wallpaper. It must have been decorated recently, for wallpapers were the height of fashion and this was one of the most delightful Maud had seen. The room was light and airy, looking over the same aspect of the garden as Maud’s.

Tucked up under the pink silk eiderdown was Rosabel, in her white nightgown. Polly had been dressed in a white nightdress, too.

‘That will be all for me, miss,’ Netta said now. ‘I’ll be going to have my tea in the servants’ hall. I suppose you will be having your supper on a tray in the schoolroom? All the other governesses did.’

Maud hid her sigh. The governess always hovered between stairs, neither upstairs nor down, not welcome to dine with the family, nor particularly welcome among the servants. Often, Maud felt lonely when she dined alone in the schoolroom, night after night. But she had learnt to manage being alone. She read books, or wrote letters, or prepared lessons. She would often mend and sew, too, and of course, when she could, she would slip out for a walk.

‘Thank you, Netta.’ Maud smiled at her. It wasn’t Netta’s fault that the governess wasn’t to be included below stairs. It was the way things were done. ‘A supper tray would be most welcome. I can fetch it myself, if that would be of help.’

‘Oh, no, miss. I’ll bring it. And your morning tray, too.’

Netta gave Maud one last curious look. The story of how the new governess had found fault with the schoolroom and spoken in such a forthright manner to the master of the house would be all over the servants’ hall in minutes, Maud guessed.

A few moments later he reappeared, carrying the globe. Again, she was aware of how he moved. He strode into the room with a casual ease that would have been attractive, had he not been so infuriating. She supposed she could see why previous governesses had been drawn to him—not that she would, of course, fall under his spell.

He bowed slightly as he passed the globe to Maud.

She made sure her fingers did not touch his as she took it. ‘Thank you.’

He gave a glimmer of a smile before pulling up a chair on the other side of Rosabel’s bed.

So, he did intend to stay and listen to the bedtime story.

‘Tonight’s story is about Little Swallowtail.’ Maud fought down her unexpected anxiety. She was never nervous when storytelling, but Sir Dominic Jago’s presence had an unsettling effect. He had said nothing at all since he came back with the globe, yet she could not help being aware of him.

‘Little Swallowtail is a fairy—a butterfly fairy, in fact. She is tiny and delicate, so tiny that from a distance you might mistake her for a butterfly herself.’ Maud leaned forward and whispered to Rosabel, ‘I think some of them might live in your garden.’

Rosabel’s eyes became saucers.

A fleeting smile passed across Sir Dominic’s face.

Maud settled back in the chair. Her nerves were abating now. ‘Once upon a time, there was a young butterfly fairy called Little Swallowtail. Though she wasn’t quite a butterfly fairy, not yet. You see, she didn’t want to grow her wings.’

Rosabel’s eyes were wide. ‘Don’t all fairies have wings?’

‘Not when they’re little fairies,’ said Maud. ‘At the beginning, they don’t have wings when they are born. They have lovely black-and-white-striped caterpillar bodies with yellow spots, and they stay on the ground.’

‘Ugh.’ Rosabel shuddered and hugged Polly tighter. ‘I don’t like caterpillars.’

‘Perhaps you haven’t met the right ones,’ said Maud. ‘Little Swallowtail is friendly, though the Red Admiral can be a rather unpleasant caterpillar, at times, and Speckled Wood can be a crosspatch in bad weather. But I’ve never met a Small Tortoiseshell I didn’t like.’

A muffled cough came from Sir Dominic.

Maud glanced up. His face, however, was expressionless.

She went on with the story. ‘Now, let me tell you about Little Swallowtail. She was born into a beautiful garden. Her family had settled in Cornwall long ago, though long ago, they came from tropical climes.’

Maud held up the globe so that Rosabel could see it.

‘Swallowtail’s family came from North Africa…’ she put her finger on the map ‘…and Asia.’ She showed Rosabel the landmass before spinning the globe. ‘And this is where we are, in Cornwall.’

She turned the globe again to show Rosabel the long distance between the two countries and held it steady so that Rosabel could spin it around.

Sir Dominic smiled. He leaned in. ‘Is that a little girl I see in Cornwall?’ He pointed to the location on the globe.

Rosabel giggled.

Maud almost dropped the globe on to the eiderdown. She hadn’t expected him to join in the fun of storytelling.

He reached out and steadied the globe with his long fingers.

His lips curved. ‘Shall I hold the world for you, Miss Wilmot?’

Maud quickly removed her own hand. ‘We have almost finished with it.’

His half-smile remained as he laid the globe on the bedside table next to him.

‘The Swallowtails liked the weather here in Cornwall,’ Maud went on. She had to focus. She refused to be perturbed by his presence as she continued the story, all about how Little Swallowtail didn’t want to fly like the other butterflies and how she found her courage, and her wings.

Rosabel listened with her doll gripped tight. Sir Dominic Jago, too, appeared to take in every word, as Maud described Little Swallowtail’s adventures as a caterpillar: how she got lost in the jungle of long grass by the meadow near the river and found her way home.

‘Finally…’ Maud got to the end of the story ‘…Little Swallowtail saw the vegetable patch and knew she was home. Her mother wrapped Little Swallowtail in her wings. “We thought we had lost you for ever!”

‘“I want to grow my wings,” said Little Swallowtail, “so I don’t ever get lost again.” So, she was wrapped up in her soft white cocoon, that is like the most comfortable of featherbeds, and when she came out of the cocoon, she had become Princess Swallowtail, with wings of pale yellow veined with black, a pretty blue frill and two scarlet spots.’

Rosabel had been listening eagerly. ‘Have you ever seen Princess Swallowtail?’

Maud smiled. ‘The butterflies are all asleep now and you must go to sleep, too. But one day, if you can show me the vegetable patch, we can try to find Princess Swallowtail, or perhaps one of her cousins.’

Rosabel drew back. ‘I don’t like to go out of doors.’

Maud clasped her hands together. ‘Why, that is just how some of the butterflies feel, about coming indoors.’

‘They do?’ Rosabel asked.

Maud sensed Sir Dominic’s hidden chuckle.

‘Indeed,’ Maud said. ‘I wonder if you can help. It would be most useful if you could allow some of the butterflies to visit you, indoors. They are used to the outdoors, you see, and if you would allow them to make a morning call on you, they might become more used to the environment.’

Rosabel thought for a moment. ‘How will they come indoors?’

‘I will bring them,’ said Maud, ‘in a large jar, with plenty of holes for air. Some might be bold enough to go free in the schoolroom, but we will have to see.’

‘Might I also be present for this morning visit?’ Sir Dominic asked.

‘Of course.’ Maud inclined her head without enthusiasm.

She stood and smoothed out her skirt. ‘I will say goodnight now, Rosabel.’

‘Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight, Sir Dominic.’

Idly, he spun the globe with his finger. ‘Goodnight, Miss Wilmot. Until tomorrow.’

Maud hurried through the schoolroom and into her own bedroom. She shut the door and leaned against it. She had no intention of lingering.

Sir Dominic’s presence during the storytelling had been more enjoyable than she had anticipated. She had to admit, as her heart gave another thud, he was the most disturbing man she had ever met. Most disturbing, indeed.

Chapter Four

It leads me forth at evening;

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Maud (1855)

‘Good morning, Miss Wilmot.’

Maud entered the schoolroom to find Sir Dominic standing by the window. The sunlight streamed in, putting his face half in profile. It emphasised the set of his jaw.

She stepped back, then raised her own chin as she crossed the room and placed on the table the large jars she had borrowed from the kitchen earlier that morning. The glass glistened in the sunlight, making the foliage she had gathered inside them appear even more vivid green.

‘Good morning,’ she replied, unsmiling, with the slightest nod of her head. Overnight, for she had struggled to sleep as usual, her indignation at the master of the house had not abated. She had resolved to display the utmost propriety towards him at all times.

‘I thought I would come and see that you have what you need here in the schoolroom for today’s lesson. But I see you have already been busy,’ he said.

‘Since just after dawn,’ she admitted. ‘I was fortunate to find what I needed around the vegetable patch.’

He frowned slightly as he studied the contents of the jars. ‘Are these of sufficient size for your purposes?’

She ran her finger over the lid of one of the jars, where she had made the holes for air. She’d not only caught caterpillars, but a butterfly, too. ‘These jars are large enough for insect homes.’ She couldn’t suppress a sigh. ‘Ideally, of course, I’d have a vivarium.’

His raised eyebrow met the other in a slight frown. ‘You are already teaching me something, Miss Wilmot. I’m not familiar with the word. What is a vivarium?’

‘It’s a Latin term,’ she told him eagerly, unable to hold back her enthusiasm. She picked up one of the glass jars. ‘It’s a most innovative idea. Imagine this insect home being four or five times the size. That is the size of a vivarium. They are big glass cases or domes, with ventilation, where caterpillars and butterflies can be observed alive, without harm. Mr Ward of London has made some marvellous ones that are being used on long sea voyages to collect specimens, I believe. But we can make do.’

‘Thank you for enlightening me.’

Maud stiffened as she put the jar back with the others on the table. She wondered, for a moment, if he was mocking her enthusiasm, but she could discern no trace of mockery on his face. Instead, he was studying the insect homes with increased interest.

The door from the nursery opened.

Maud smiled. ‘Good morning, Rosabel.’

Rosabel edged towards the table, her doll Polly clutched against her ruffled pinafore.

Sir Dominic reached out and put his arm around her, drawing the little girl close to him. He pointed to the insect homes. ‘Come and see what Miss Wilmot has found.’

Rosabel peered cautiously at the jars. ‘Is that Princess Swallowtail?’

Maud shook her head. ‘I couldn’t find her this morning. She must be off on one of her adventures. Some of her friends have come to call instead. Would you like to meet them?’

Rosabel leaned further into her papa’s side, but she nodded.

Maud pointed at the brown-and-yellow butterfly fluttering against the glass. ‘This is Mr Speckled Wood come to say how do you do. I’m sure he is very pleased to make your and Polly’s acquaintance.’

‘How do you do,’ Sir Dominic murmured.

Rosabel giggled. ‘How do you do.’

‘I trust Mr Wood has found adequate refreshment,’ said Sir Dominic.

‘Indeed he has,’ Maud replied, repressing another smile. She hadn’t expected the master of the house to play along. ‘Long grass is his preference, so I have put plenty in the jar.’

‘We aim to please at Pendragon Hall.’ Sir Dominic leaned in. ‘I see there are leaves, also. Are they to Mr Wood’s taste?’

Maud couldn’t repress a chuckle. ‘I hope not.’

‘Can you see what is on one of the leaves in the other jar, Rosabel?’ Sir Dominic asked.

Rosabel cringed. ‘Is that a caterpillar?’

‘Indeed it is.’ Maud turned the glass around so that the little green creature was more visible.

‘Will it come out of the jar?’ Rosabel’s voice was high with fear.

Maud was quick to reassure her. ‘Oh, no, not unless you invite it to do so specifically. Caterpillars are extremely shy. They like to stay on their leaves. It is not a good idea to move them too quickly. They also get very, very hungry. We shall have to feed it lots of grass, in its new home.’

Maud moved the jar aside and took up the other. ‘And here is someone who likes to stay in bed.’

Sir Dominic leaned in. After a moment, Rosabel followed her father’s example.

‘This is a cocoon,’ Maud explained. ‘A more proper name for it is chrysalis.’ It was a little early in the year, but she’d found it on a loose piece of bark, near the scullery door. She never liked to disturb a cocoon unnecessarily and often they were attached to walls or fences. This one had transferred easily.

Rosabel’s shoulders were hunched, but Maud was pleased to see she couldn’t restrain a closer look at the hard white case that was stuck to the bark. It was only a couple of inches long. ‘Is there a caterpillar inside?’

‘It was a caterpillar,’ Maud went on. ‘Now it is sleeping on its pillow. But while it is sleeping, safe and sound, it is changing into a beautiful butterfly. A white-and-pale-green one, I think. When it is ready, it will come out.’

Sir Dominic glanced at her over the top of Rosabel’s head. ‘How long do you think it will take?’

‘A week,’ Maud told him. ‘Maybe two.’

His face was still, but he drew his daughter closer to him. ‘I hope I am there to see it.’

‘I can assure you, Sir Dominic,’ Maud said softly. ‘It will happen. The butterfly will emerge.’

Dominic slid the engraved card out of the envelope and sighed. Another dinner invitation.

He dropped the white card on the mantelpiece. He was not an unfriendly man, far from it, but at the end of a day’s work running the railway, let alone Pendragon Hall and the surrounding estate, he never particularly looked forward to idle banter around a dinner table.

Strange, how a mere piece of card could bring back so many memories.

The arguments. The misunderstandings. The complaints. The tears.

He returned to his desk, gritted his teeth and opened the book of railway accounts.

As he did so, the clock on the mantelpiece chimed.

He didn’t need to look at a timetable to know that a West Cornish Railway train would be arriving at a Cornish station at that very moment. Over the past few years, he’d memorised the train timetable almost without realising it. Every time a train arrived or pulled out, he knew it.

His challenge in the future would be to keep them running.

At least he’d been able to focus more easily on his work for the last few days, since the new governess had arrived. It was hard to put his finger on exactly what had altered, but one of the burdens he’d been carrying alone had been eased, at least.

Not that he had too much contact with the new governess. When he did, she was most stern in her manner. Even so, something had shifted in the house; some tension had disappeared. The change was almost imperceptible, but it was there.

Yet his other burdens remained. He squared his shoulders, took up his fountain pen and went over the figures again.