Lady Rose's Education by Kate Milliner Page B

gentlemen's inquiries about the girl's wellbeing, even if the most eager inquirer was the tiresome young vicar.
     

CHAPTER 19
     
     
     
     
     
    August, 1891
     
    ”Cover your face better, Norah. You do not want to ruin that velvety skin of yours,” Lady Rose said. Obediently Norah rearranged her bonnet.
    Lady Rose fiddled with a weed, which she had plucked mainly to give her hands some occupation, while she watched the gentleman come nearer and nearer. His appearance was not really a surprise, since Lady Rose had been keeping an eye out from her window. Once she had seen the gentleman leaving on his daily walk, she had timed her and Norah's outing carefully so that they would come across him on his way back.
    Finally they had arrived at a speaking distance, and Mr. Cowley said, ”I see that you are also taking advantage of this lovely cool morning.”
    Lady Rose smiled. The previous day had passed without her ever clasping eyes on Mr. Cowley. He had been away all day on some pretext or other, but now their quarrel at the dinner party had clearly been forgotten.
     
    There was an awkward moment during which he seemed to expect him and Norah to be introduced. Finally Lady Rose said, ”This is my maid Norah. She sometimes follows me on my walks as a sort of secretary.”
    ”Would you like to walk some more, Mr. Cowley?” she said. ”You are welcome to join us on a little tour at the woods. We will see whether the river has dried up entirely for the summer.”
    Mr. Cowley gladly consented, and they continued the trip side by side. Norah followed behind the other two, since the path was really only wide enough for two at a time. As much as Lady Rose wanted to strike up an intelligent and thoughtful conversation with Mr. Cowley, a topic did not easily present itself.
    ”Tell me, Mr. Cowley, are you looking forward to being a history scholar?”
    ”Actually I have some ambition for political writing,” Mr. Cowley confessed. ”I have written two articles for the 'Cambridge Daily News'.”
    ”Really? That is very interesting.”
    They saw someone approaching them at a distance. After a moment the figure was close enough so that Lady Rose recognised it to be the vicar, Mr. Perry. When the niceties had been exchanged, Lady Rose felt obliged to ask whether the vicar wanted to walk with them a while. He consented, and the group awkwardly shuffled into two twosomes, with Lady Rose and Mr. Perry leading the way and the other two following them a few steps behind.
    ”So, you must have an excellent memory,” Mr. Cowley said to Norah.
    ”Excuse me?”
    ”Lady Rose said you were following her as a secretary, but I can't see any pen or paper.”
    ”Oh,” Norah said, ”it's just something she says.”
    ”She says a great many things, doesn't she?”
    She glanced at him suspiciously. She had detected some mockery in the gentleman's voice, but she only said, ”Yes, she does.”
    ”Have you been her lady's maid for long?”
    ”No, only a few weeks.”
    ”Let me guess. A very respectable matron of a housekeeper came to your school and said, 'Girls, a great honour is about to be bestowed on one of you', and all of the girls' hands were raised in merry excitement –”
    ”No, Mr. Cowley,” Norah said and looked at him quite sternly. ”That is not how it went, not for me.”
    He pursed his lips together and raised his eyebrows, and this strange expression was at the same time unrepentant and appealing for sympathy.
    ”Would you tell me how it was then?” he said in a kinder voice.
    Norah's heart was pounding. This strange situation and her being in it had been wholly arranged by Lady Rose, and that seemed to remove some of the impropriety of it, but still, she could not see it as appropriate. Not by any means.
    Regardless, the gentleman was waiting for an answer from her.
    ”My mother died some time ago, and I came to live with my aunt and uncle. They keep a farm here in there village. Lady Rose happened to see me in