Nora tsked her tongue. “It’ll do ye no good if ye gets yer ‘opes too ‘igh.”
Nora knew me well. “Have I thanked you recently for giving up your honor when we left Norwood so you might work in the Reynold’s kitchens?”
A smile spread across her face. “Not recently enough, but I know you mean well.”
I smiled too, but it did not reach my eyes. “I mean to find you a better position this time, I promise.”
Nora tsked. “Don’t promise what ye cannot keep.”
“Then I will have to keep it, won’t I?” I flicked my gaze to the window and saw a young woman at the corner in the road, waving me down. “Oh, dear. Something must be wrong.” I rapped on the carriage wall, signaling for the driver to stop.
“What is it?” Nora bent forward to see the same woman I saw, waving her hands on the side of the road.
A moment later, a groom opened the carriage door. I snatched my bonnet and sprang to the ground, hurrying my step toward her. Theyoung woman in front of me was dressed in an elegant day gown with mud on the hem of her billowing skirts. She could not be any older than myself. Her wheat-colored hair hung limply beneath her skewed bonnet. My own bonnet likely matched hers, and I instinctively reached to adjust mine as I asked her, “Is something wrong?”
“That depends,” she said. “Are you here to interview for the new governess position?”
My footsteps halted, my surprise drawing my back straight. “I am.”
“Then yes, there is something wrong.” She wrinkled her nose and hesitated. “Wait. Can one so young be a governess?”
My brow rose. “I have experience and a genteel education,” I argued. “But such judgment should be reserved for Lady Camden to decide.” It was a mature answer, and I was quite proud of myself. I had learned a few things in my time of employment. But why was my interviewing such a dire emergency? “What appears to be the trouble?”
The young lady swiped a blonde lock behind her ear and ignored my question. “Shouldn’t you be the one to decide about your position? If I were you, I would want to know what I was getting myself into and ask myself if I was ready for such a task. Fortunately, I am acquainted with the family and am a reliable source of information.”
Had I been flagged down for a piece of gossip? I did not want to be late to my interview, but I admit, I did not want a repeat of the last six months. “You know the young Miss Augusta Wilde?”
“Intimately.”
“Well, what is she like?”
“Have you never wondered why the young miss cannot keep a governess for more than two weeks at a time?”
While I was debating how to answer, I glanced back at the carriage to see Nora’s head sticking out the window. She had never looked more likea hoyden. I would tell her as soon as I finished this strange conversation. I turned back to the young woman. “I did not know Lady Camden’s daughter was so difficult.” Fresh memories of the Radleys’ twins assailed me.
The young lady nodded vigorously. “Miss Augusta Wilde is a wicked girl. She despises her lessons, perpetually slouches, and slurps her tea.”
The slurping would vex my nerves, but I could relate to despising lessons and wanting to slouch. “I suppose those qualities are livable.”
The woman stepped closer, adding in a low voice, “Miss Wilde always carries an animal around—even in the house.”
Mercy. What was one to think of this. “But does Miss Wilde poke anyone with sticks?” I asked. My backside was still sore from the twins chasing me.
“Sticks?” The young lady shook her head. “Why would she do that?”
“Never mind. It sounds as if we shall get along famously.”
The woman crossed her arms. “I haven’t mentioned the worst of it. She has a propensity of running away, and her governess is always blamed.”
“Sometimes a girl has to run,” I mumbled under my breath, thinking of my own experience.
Her brow lurched up. Drat, she had heard me.
“Then there was the time when she put a snake in her governess’s sitting room.”
It was my turn to wrinkle my nose. “Poor snake.”
She nodded, then froze. “You mean, poor governess.”
