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This news was astounding to her too. It changed everything. Leonora looked across at her friend whose face was pale with shock, her eyes pricked with sympathetic tears as her foster mother silently wept beside her on the sofa.

Leonora sat on Mrs Mildmay’s other side and placed a hand on her arm. ‘I will be happy to act as Charlotte’s chaperone. Although I know nothing of what is in the Earl’s mind, I can be certain that you will never lose the love of a daughter who has known only you as her mother. She has been lucky enough to be the focus of all your goodness.’

Charlotte took her other hand and kissed her wet cheek. ‘Mama, no one could have loved me better or given me a greater sense of happiness and safety than you and the Reverend.’

Reverend Mildmay, unable to deal with the turbulent emotions that had taken over his sitting room and his own heart, escaped to the calm of the kitchen where he asked Cook for a pot of tea and some of the newly baked almond cake to be sent through to the mistress and her guest. He then walked into his library and closed the door.

3

SHAKING THE STATUS QUO

The tea and almond cake at the Vicarage settled everyone’s nerves and in the temporary lull, Reverend Mildmay joined the women to talk about the hymns for the following Sunday’s service. However, when Leonora arrived home, her heart was still in turmoil at the import and uncertainty of this unexpected news.

‘Nanny P!’ she called as she entered through the garden door.

She found Mrs Priddy in the small morning room, sitting by the fire, sewing the guipure lace border to a fine linen tablecloth. She looked up. ‘My dear, what is it?’

‘I’ve just come from the Vicarage. They are in disarray thanks to Lord Rokeby.’

‘Not for the first time, that scampish boy! What now?’

‘It’s not about him, it’s his dead brother. He’s Charlotte’s father!’ Leonora subsided onto the chair opposite her old nanny. ‘The Mildmays and Lottie are distressed by what this might portend.’

‘I’ve always wondered about that girl’s parentage.’ She nodded in a way that suggested she knew more than she was saying.

Leonora leant forward and said with urgency, ‘What? You mean you knew all this time?’

‘No, I didn’t know, but I thought it significant that Lord Rokeby was sent off very quickly to the army, and at such a young age. I always thought his inclination was to manage his estate. But his father was a hard man who, despite his own profligate ways, would brook no scandal attached to his heir.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ Leonora’s face was aghast.

‘Because it was only rumour and I don’t like tittle-tattle.’

‘But it’s not tittle-tattle when you tell me,’ Leonora protested.

‘If I’d told you my suspicions, then that would have altered your friendship with Miss Charlotte. How could it not have been a secret that burdened you? No, I was right not to speak of it.’ Mrs Priddy had put down her sewing and folded her hands in her lap, a serene expression on her face.

‘It will alter my relationship with her anyway. This is what upsets me; how can we go on the same?’

‘Well, you have yet to know what, if anything, the Rokeby family will suggest. She will always be the same person you know.’

‘Is that true, Nanny P? People are altered by their circumstances, are they not?’

‘Just wait and see. Charlotte is not a giddy girl, and not about to become one.’ Then Mrs Priddy continued in a ruminative way, ‘How often the quiet ones surprise us most! Charles was at heart the responsible heir, and Alistair, the boy who continually kicked over the traces.’

Leonora answered, ‘Well, the younger son is now Earl, and the Mildmays want me to act as Charlotte’s chaperone when she goes to see him the day after tomorrow.’

‘That’s good, then you’ll know for yourself what, if anything, will change.’

Leonora’s heart was agitated in the most disconcerting way. All her certainties seemed to be shifting. Charlotte’s astonishing news was not the only thing that threatened to dislodge one of the props supporting her life. Even though she did not wish to entertain Mr Fopling’s proposal – for that was surely the purpose of his visit tomorrow – it was vexing to have to think about things that had been so long out of mind. She reached out to take one of Mrs Priddy’s small plump hands. ‘Early this morning, Richard Fopling surprised me in the garden. He had come with a note, hoping for an audience tomorrow afternoon. Will you chaperone me?’

Leonora’s face was glum and her old nanny, who loved her better than anyone, squeezed her hand and smiled. ‘Nora my dear, it’s not so gloomy being courted by a personable young man, surely?’

‘He’s perfectly amiable, I’m sure, but I prefer my life with you, able to please myself with my friends, my music, and the garden. Why would I trade that for life with a man whom I might grow to esteem but never love?’

‘For children and a family of your own?’ Mrs Priddy said in a voice soft with emotion.

Leonora knew what her nanny had given up to care for her, how much she would love to see her with her own children and be central in the care of them. ‘Oh, Nanny P, you know if there were a man who would love me and whom I could love in return, I would happily unite my life with his. As I longed to do with Captain Worth. But my chance of love and the hope of a family died with him.’ She broke off, overcome by a stab of memory. All she had of his was one letter that survived the journey back from the camp in Spain, and she clung to it as the last connection with the man she had loved.