AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Isabelle held a hand to her chest. Had they been wrong with regards to Miss Pritchard? Was there still a menace in the house?
“What happened?” she whispered to Miss Vaughn. “Has she just discovered the room ransacked?”
“Oh no, it always looks like this.”
“But the mirror?”
Miss Vaughn rolled her eyes. “She threw the hairbrush at it last night, Miss Beaujeu.”
“Come now, Bronwen, my petal,” a male voice said, “we’ll find them.”
“I want her room searched, Papa. I saw her up here earlier. Lurking, as she does, in the shadows like a phantom in those dark drab skirts.”
Mari raised her brow.
Poor Mrs Pugh, no wonder she was worried, but they’d stand by her and–
“She’s jealous of me. I’ve seen the way she stares at the duke.” Although Mrs Pugh nev– “I demand that governess’ room is searched from top to bottom. I want my rubies back!”
A bitter dagger of ice sliced through Isabelle’s heart.
Never in all her time as governess had her room been searched, had she been impugned in such a manner. Her honour and her dignity.
“No!” She stormed into the disordered chamber. “You will not search my room.”
“Hah!” screeched Lady Bronwen from the bed, eyes puffed and skin flush. “And why not? Because they are hidden there? Were you hoping to try my necklace on and pretend to be a lady? Tempt the duke with your false bounty!”
“My reputation and references of ten years as governess should be more than enough. I have never once been so accused.”
Her father rose to his boots, inserted his monocle and scowled. “Are you, a mere governess, calling my petal a liar? I’ll have yo–”
“What’s all this fuss?” Lady Elen bustled in, wrinkles under her eyes now permanent from all the squishing shut.
“My rubies are missing and earlier I saw this Frenchwoman lurking near my door.”
“I never–”
“My daughter,” interrupted Lord Powell, “wants this governess’s room searched without ado. And so do I.”
“Oh.” Lady Elen jammed her eyes shut. “Well perhaps, Miss Beaujeu, it would be easier if we just did as he asks.”
Isabelle whirled. For support. For anyone who would stand with her.
But the huddle of guests at the door merely dissembled, refusing to meet her gaze.
Miss Craddock shuffled her feet, Lady Nesta haughtily raised a brow, Miss Vaughn appeared unsettled but her eyes slid to the floor, while Miss Brecken wrung her hands yet spoke not a word.
For no one ever stood with a governess.
She was not one of them.
Even Mari and Mrs Pugh were nowhere to be seen.
Isabelle spied Captain Brecken in the hall. Surely a man of honour would… But his lip was curled, his wrinkled eyes speaking of his distrust.
“Come then.” Isabelle twisted, straightened her shoulders and patted her skirts. “Do it now and end this nonsense.”
Lady Bronwen sneered as she pushed off from the bed and brushed past, elbows wide, before her father and Lady Elen trotted along like faithful hounds.
