you used to be with the Jolly Red Heads.”
She looked a little grave. “People talk a lot of nonsense when they have been so foolish as to be persuaded to drink too much. I’m sorry, Davina, my dear. Forget it, will you?”
I nodded again and she swept me into her perfumed embrace.
“I’m getting very fond of you, Davina,” she said.
I felt a sense of uneasiness and a desperate longing came to me for the old days with Lilias.
Soon after that we were in Princes Street shopping and she said to me: “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Doesn’t the castle look grand? You must tell me about all that history sometime. I’d love to hear.”
Certainly she was the most unusual governess any girl ever had.
She bought a dress that afternoon. It was green with the tightly fitting bodice which she favoured and the skirt billowing out from the nipped-in waist. It was piped with ruby velvet.
She tried it on and paraded before the shop girl and me.
“Madam is … entrancing,” cried the girl ecstatically.
I had to admit that she looked startlingly attractive.
Before we went down to dinner that night she came into my room wearing the dress.
“How do I look?” she asked.
“You look beautiful.”
“Do you think it’s suitable for dinner tonight? What do you think your father will say?”
“I don’t suppose he will say anything. I don’t think he notices one’s clothes.”
She kissed me suddenly. “Davina, you are a little darling.”
A few nights later she wore the dress again and during dinner I noticed that she was wearing a very fine ruby ring.
I could not stop looking at it because I was sure I had seen it before. It was exactly like one my mother had worn.
The next day I mentioned it to her.
I said: “I noticed that lovely ring you were wearing last night.”
“Oh?” she said. “My ruby.”
“It’s a beautiful ring. My mother had one just like it. It’s going to be mine one day. My father just didn’t think I was old enough to wear it yet.”
“Yes … I see what he means.”
“I don’t suppose it’s exactly the same. But it is very like it.”
“I suppose one ring can look like another. There are fashions in rings, you know.”
“Are there?”
“They were probably made about the same period.”
“It is lovely anyway. May I see it?”
“But of course.”
She went to a drawer and took out a case.
“The case is like my mother’s, too,” I said.
“Well, aren’t all those cases rather alike?”
I slipped the ring on my finger. It was too big for me. I remembered there was one time when my mother had been wearing her ruby ring. I had admired it and she had taken it from her finger and slipped it on mine. “It will be yours one day,” she had said. “Your fingers will be a little fatter perhaps by that time.”
Miss Grey took it from me and put it back in the case.
I said: “The ruby matched the piping on your new dress.”
“Yes,” she said. “I thought that. It was the reason why I wore it.”
She shut the drawer and smiled at me. “I think we should practise our dancing,” she said.
The next time she wore the dress I noticed that she did not put on the ruby ring.
T HERE WERE TIMES when I felt that I had been thrust into an entirely different world. Everything had changed so much since my mother’s death. The servants were different; they were aloof and disapproving. When my mother was alive it had seemed as though life went on just as it had been doing for generations. Now it was all changed.
Lilias’ departure had helped to change it. Lilias had been what one expected a governess to be. She and I had had a close friendship, but that did not mean that our lives had not been conducted in a strictly conventional way. When I thought of the old days … Sunday church … Sunday lunch … prayers … the amiable but regulated relationship between the upper and lower sections of the house … it was all so natural and orderly … just as it must have been for
She looked a little grave. “People talk a lot of nonsense when they have been so foolish as to be persuaded to drink too much. I’m sorry, Davina, my dear. Forget it, will you?”
I nodded again and she swept me into her perfumed embrace.
“I’m getting very fond of you, Davina,” she said.
I felt a sense of uneasiness and a desperate longing came to me for the old days with Lilias.
Soon after that we were in Princes Street shopping and she said to me: “It’s beautiful, isn’t it? Doesn’t the castle look grand? You must tell me about all that history sometime. I’d love to hear.”
Certainly she was the most unusual governess any girl ever had.
She bought a dress that afternoon. It was green with the tightly fitting bodice which she favoured and the skirt billowing out from the nipped-in waist. It was piped with ruby velvet.
She tried it on and paraded before the shop girl and me.
“Madam is … entrancing,” cried the girl ecstatically.
I had to admit that she looked startlingly attractive.
Before we went down to dinner that night she came into my room wearing the dress.
“How do I look?” she asked.
“You look beautiful.”
“Do you think it’s suitable for dinner tonight? What do you think your father will say?”
“I don’t suppose he will say anything. I don’t think he notices one’s clothes.”
She kissed me suddenly. “Davina, you are a little darling.”
A few nights later she wore the dress again and during dinner I noticed that she was wearing a very fine ruby ring.
I could not stop looking at it because I was sure I had seen it before. It was exactly like one my mother had worn.
The next day I mentioned it to her.
I said: “I noticed that lovely ring you were wearing last night.”
“Oh?” she said. “My ruby.”
“It’s a beautiful ring. My mother had one just like it. It’s going to be mine one day. My father just didn’t think I was old enough to wear it yet.”
“Yes … I see what he means.”
“I don’t suppose it’s exactly the same. But it is very like it.”
“I suppose one ring can look like another. There are fashions in rings, you know.”
“Are there?”
“They were probably made about the same period.”
“It is lovely anyway. May I see it?”
“But of course.”
She went to a drawer and took out a case.
“The case is like my mother’s, too,” I said.
“Well, aren’t all those cases rather alike?”
I slipped the ring on my finger. It was too big for me. I remembered there was one time when my mother had been wearing her ruby ring. I had admired it and she had taken it from her finger and slipped it on mine. “It will be yours one day,” she had said. “Your fingers will be a little fatter perhaps by that time.”
Miss Grey took it from me and put it back in the case.
I said: “The ruby matched the piping on your new dress.”
“Yes,” she said. “I thought that. It was the reason why I wore it.”
She shut the drawer and smiled at me. “I think we should practise our dancing,” she said.
The next time she wore the dress I noticed that she did not put on the ruby ring.
T HERE WERE TIMES when I felt that I had been thrust into an entirely different world. Everything had changed so much since my mother’s death. The servants were different; they were aloof and disapproving. When my mother was alive it had seemed as though life went on just as it had been doing for generations. Now it was all changed.
Lilias’ departure had helped to change it. Lilias had been what one expected a governess to be. She and I had had a close friendship, but that did not mean that our lives had not been conducted in a strictly conventional way. When I thought of the old days … Sunday church … Sunday lunch … prayers … the amiable but regulated relationship between the upper and lower sections of the house … it was all so natural and orderly … just as it must have been for
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