CHAPTER THREE

Lucas doesn't join us for breakfast. The older children—I really must stop thinking of them like that—the older two siblings seem relieved by that fact. Veronica is tense. She asks about him several times, and each time, Oliver and Eliza brush her concerns aside with some lighthearted comment. I get the impression that were I not there, she would take matters into her own hands and go storming off to find him.

When he does finally come down as we're leaving the breakfast table, Veronica practically sprints toward him. "There you are, my love! Where have you been? Why didn't you come eat?"

"I wasn't hungry, Mother," he says in his soft, almost girlish voice.

"Nonsense!" she insists. "Eliza, get your brother some food."

"We're leaving to pick Father up, remember, Mother?"

"So make him a sandwich for the road. He looks so thin! Doesn't he look thin, Mary?"

She looks at me, and underneath the concern in her eyes is a thinly veiled threat: agree with me or else. I smile and say, "I'll pack him a lunch."

I am keenly aware of everyone's reactions when I say that. Oliver purses his lips and mutters something under his breath. Eliza lowers her head slightly and avoids eye contact with her mother. Veronica crows with triumph and looks at her two older children with naked delight. "Wonderful! Thank you so much. I just knew you'd be perfect for my Lucas!"

Lucas only regards me with his wide, expressionless eyes. I decide now is a good chance to get to know him. "Lucas? Would you like to pick out some food? I'd like to know your favorites."

"He'll have a cheese sandwich with a boiled egg, and a serving of fruit and almonds," Veronica answers before the poor child can even take a breath. She gives Lucas the same threatening smile she gave me a moment ago. "It's his favorite."

He lifts the corners of his mouth slightly and nods.

I incline my head, resisting a suddenly powerful urge to tear him from his mother's grasp and carry him away. I have my own experience with overbearing mothers, and while mine preferred vitriol to syrup, I get the sense that Veronica's fa?ade is as false as that of the manor. The rot underneath is beginning to seep through.

I head to the kitchen and prepare the food requested. Henri, I was told, only prepares the family's dinners, so I am alone in the kitchen at first. I am just finishing Lucas's lunch when the door opens and Eliza walks in.

She gives me a somewhat sad smile and says, "I apologize for my mother. She's gotten worse the older Lucas has grown, I'm afraid."

I don't want to take sides right now, so I keep my response neutral. "Watching one's children grow is hard. I'm sure it was just as hard for her when you and Oliver came of age."

She scoffs. "Hardly. Lucas has always been special in her eyes."

I don't know how to respond to that, so I don't. After a moment, she says, "She conceived him overseas, you know."

I blink. What a strange thing to say. "I see," is all I can think to reply.

"Yes. She lived in South Africa for a while when Oliver and I were young. Oliver doesn't remember, but I do, a little bit. She and Father were fighting, and she ran off to live on her family's estate in Johannesburg."

"So she is from South Africa."

"Not originally, but her family owns land there. When her father retired, they sold their house in Worcestershire and moved there permanently. Better winters, I'm told. Anyway, she was gone for a few months, but then Father went to get her. She came back, and I remember that they were both smiling. She told me we were going to have another baby brother or sister, and she and Father were so happy, and I should be too." She smiles, but it seems a rueful smile. "I thought, ‘Why wouldn't I be happy? Of course, I'm happy. Mum's back, and we'll have another baby.'"

"You seem to love each other very much," I offer. Not technically a lie, I suppose, but not the truth.

She hesitates a moment, then says, "Yes. I suppose we do. I wonder, though, what happened while she was in Johannesburg. I was a young girl, so maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but she seemed different when she came back. She's been like this with Lucas his whole life, always hovering close by, always descending like a vulture anytime anything even remotely dangerous happens to him. Almost as though she feels a devil is lurking, just waiting for the right moment to snatch him away."

Or a girl hiding in the walls. I still don't know what to say, but I believe Eliza is reaching out to me, so I try to offer some insight.

"It's very hard to make a marriage work for a lifetime. It's possible that your mother sees him as a symbol of the salvation of her relationship with your father."

Eliza looks sharply at me, and I realize what I've said. "I'm so sorry," I quickly apologize. "It's not at all my business to pry. I shouldn't have said anything."

She keeps the sharp look for a moment, then nods. "No, you shouldn't have. But that doesn't mean you're wrong. Though I have to wonder if she's put her faith in the wrong miracle."

I want to ask what she means by that, but I think I've put my foot far enough in my mouth for one day. I hand Eliza the lunch and say, "Enjoy your day. I look forward to meeting your father."

She gives another enigmatic smile. "I'm sure he will be the highlight of your stay."

She leaves, and when the door closes behind her, I release a huge sigh and run a trembling hand over my forehead.

This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. One day with this family, and already I'm involved in their inner drama. Veronica seems desperate to make me her bosom buddy, Lucas looks at me like I'm a fascinating bug, and now Eliza is confiding in me about her parents' marriage struggles and her mother's favoritism.

I wish sometimes that I were as stern and forbidding as the governesses from storybooks. Life would be so much easier if people were afraid to talk to me.

***

I visit the attic again while the family is away. The portrait of the missing girl is gone. Veronica was evidently serious about having Horace remove it.

I feel a strange mixture of relief and sadness to see it gone. I didn't know the girl, but I know the tendency of wealthy aristocratic families to bury scandal. I don't know how many records persist of Minerva outside of sanitized demographics maintained by police and records departments. Part of me wonders if my meddling has resulted in the removal of the last snapshot of her life.

Another part of me reminds me that I'm here to teach Lucas and nothing else. It's none of my business, and if I don't want this stay to end up like the Ashford job, I need to pull my nose out of business that isn't mine and focus only on the task I'm hired to do.

Tomorrow, school will begin. I need only endure what I'm sure will be a very awkward and uncomfortable dinner with Sebastian and then I can gently pull away and establish myself as the governess who teaches Lucas and takes her meals in her room.

When the family returns, I am resolved to that action. I'll get through dinner, then mention to Veronica that I must use the afternoons and evenings to prepare lessons and the mornings to prepare for the day. If I keep myself busy enough, maybe I can become as noiseless and unseen as the rest of the staff.

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear rich, baritone laughter echo through the halls as the door opens. A moment later, a tall, stately man in his mid-fifties walks in. He wears a perfectly tailored suit, of course, and he stands with the bearing of an English lord. His hair has gone to gray, but is full and luxurious and perfectly coiffed, and his eyes are a piercing gray that sets my heart aflutter.

I am not a girl anymore, and as foolish as I may be at times, that foolishness doesn't extend to harboring fantasies about an employer. Still, it's impossible not to notice how attractive Sebastian Carlton is.

What's more incredible to me, however, is the change in the family. It's as though they become entirely different people around him. Veronica follows him, her hand on his shoulder, the first genuine smile I see her wear spread across her face. Eliza flanks his other side, beaming at him with the sort of affection that only a daughter can have and that she can only have for her father. Oliver seems to stand taller in his presence, and the layer of sarcasm that lies underneath his behavior thus far is vanished. Even Lucas smiles, and it might just be my imagination, but I think I see some color in his cheeks.

Sebastian extends his hand to me and smiles. "You must be Mary. Veronica has said wonderful things about you."

I take his hand and ignore the second flutter in my heart at the touch. I can see why Veronica values her marriage so much.

"Dinner is ready!" a cheerful voice cries.

I turn and see Hazel waiting at the entrance to the dining room, her hair done up and her dress ironed. She smiles and opens the door for us. Sebastian's return has even brought the servants out of their seclusion. The whole effect is one of a lord returning home to his keep.

That makes me feel a little awkward, considering that I truly am an outsider here. Still, since the family seems intent on including me in this moment, I allow Eliza and Oliver to lead me to the dining room.

I am allowed some distance during the meal. The family, of course, is far more interested in what their father has been up to these past six weeks.

"No doubt they'll have a statue of you inside of a week," Oliver says. "Are you the first internet provider there?"

Sebastian smiles wryly. "No, son, believe it or not, Thailand has had internet for a while."

"Of course you're the best one," Veronica gushes.

"Oh, of course."

Sebastian winks at me, and I feel another flutter. I really must get my emotions under control.

"Did you meet any interesting people out there?" Eliza asks.

"Oh, quite," Sebastian says. "Their culture is so fascinating ! It truly is inspiring how they manage to meld modern sensibility with traditional values. I've not seen the like in any other East Asian nation."

"Let's just hope you don't meet anyone too interesting," Oliver says. "The last really interesting person you met was Mum, and we know how that worked out."

The temperature in the room drops by ten degrees. Veronica stares at Oliver in horror. Oliver's mischievous smile fades quickly when he realizes the change in mood, and his face pales several shades. Eliza looks nervously at the rest of the family. She casts a pleading look my way, but as I have no idea what faux pas Oliver has committed, I can think of nothing to say or do to salvage the situation.

Then Lucas laughs. The sound is light and airy and surprisingly musical. The rest of us stare at him a moment, amazed, I think, to hear such a sound come from him.

Then Veronica joins him. Eliza quickly follows suit, and Oliver adds his own grateful mirth to the celebration. Sebastian and I are the last to laugh, and Sebastian says, "Well, there is no one on Earth more interesting than your mother, so you won't need to worry about that."

"No," Oliver says, red-faced. "Of course not."

He shoots an apologetic look to his mother, who offers a somewhat grudging smile in return.

The conversation turns back to Sebastian's adventures overseas. It seems that Oliver's mistake—whatever it was—is quickly forgotten.

But for a moment, another crack showed, and I could see quite clearly that the joy the family expressed at Sebastian's return was only another fa?ade.