Page 111 of The Duke’s Hidden Duchess

The tea arrived.

Selina poured without ceremony and pushed the nearer cup across the desk.

For the next half-hour they talked.

Not of accomplishments at first. Selina asked what the previous situation had been, and why it had ended. She asked whether the girl preferred children or older people; town or country; a busy household or a quiet one. Only afterwards did they retrieve the folded list and discover that the French was better than its owner had suggested, the pianoforte considerably worse, and the neat hem apparently beyond dispute.

By then, the girl was sitting against the back of the chair. Her hands no longer gripped one another.

Selina noticed both things and said nothing about either.

“Now,” she said at last, setting the list beside her notes, “what would you like us to call you while you are here?”

The question produced another moment’s surprise.

The young woman gave her name.

Selina wrote it down.

“And if you could choose the sort of life you earned for yourself, not merely the first position somebody offered, what would you choose?”

“I do not know.”

“That is an acceptable answer.”

“Is it?”

“Entirely. You have been allowed the question for approximately ten seconds. I think we may give you longer.”

The girl smiled. It was small and uncertain, but it was the first one.

When the interview ended, Selina rang for the resident matron, who came to show the new arrival the rooms upstairs and explain the arrangements of the house. The young woman rose, collected her list and hesitated at the door.

“Thank you, Your Grace.”

“You are welcome.”

Selina did not tell her she owed no thanks. Gratitude freely offered was not the same thing as gratitude demanded.

The door closed.

For a moment Selina remained at the desk.

Nearly a year had passed since Lady Marwood’s ball. The Foundation had occupied much of it: leases and builders, interviews and references, arguments over staffing, legal arrangements, coal, linen and a quantity of correspondence Nathaniel had initially underestimated and thereafter refused to admit he had underestimated.

This morning the arguments had become a house with its doors open.

Selina rose and went into the hall.

The place was full without being chaotic, though only barely. Georgiana was directing two footmen carrying a box of donated books upstairs and had developed, over the preceding months, a startling ability to make men twice her age obey instructions delivered without the least apology.

Lady Marwood had arrived half an hour after the doors opened and was now in conversation with two ladies who had expressed interest in supporting the Foundation. She claimed no credit for the enterprise and accepted a great deal of it with equanimity.

Lady Helena stood near the clerk’s table examining the subscription ledger. She had already found one error in the arithmetic and was plainly hunting a second.

Selina watched them for a moment.

They were an unlikely collection of allies. A year ago, she would not have believed herself capable of assembling them, much less of belonging among them.