Lady Ralph had even awarded a prize every summer term to the ‘Most Improved Girl’. She even seemed to recall Cecily had won it one year. How long ago it all seemed now. The memories seemed slightly embittered these days, as she recalled how dismayed Father had been by Sir Matthew’s curt letter announcing his withdrawal as a governor and sponsor of the school. Lady Ralph had not even bothered to formally cut her ties, she had simply stopped answering any communications.
As for Canon Carter-Hayes, he had his own problems with some inconsistencies with church funds and had been summoned to the bishop’s palace to explain. Subsequently, he had been ordered to vastly cut down any positions of authority that he held, so they had not been so surprised by his withdrawal from the Board. Mama had begged them not to speak of it as it was ‘not nice’ and she was sure the poor dear Canon had been the victim of some gross deception rather than guilty of any incompetence or dereliction of duty.
“Did he offer you a post?” Will Nye interrupted her thoughts harshly. “Looking after his half-witted niece?”
“She’s not half-witted, only a little naïve,” Mina corrected him. “Nor is she his niece.” When he directed a cutting look her way, she added quickly. “And no, he did not offer me a post.”
He snorted. “More fool he. I expect you could have kept her out of trouble until she was of age.”
Mina looked at him in surprise. “She’s a little old for a governess,” she pointed out mildly. “And more in need of a well-connected chaperone who could introduce her about town. I am not well-connected,” she pointed out. “And would not be able to throw her in the path of eligible beaux.”
“If she has money and he’s not her uncle, he probably wouldn’t want that in any case.”
“What do you mean?”
He cast her an ironic look. “He probably means to marry her himself.”
Mina gave a startled laugh. “I hardly think so!”
“Why not?” Nye asked coolly.
“If you’d seen the way he speaks to her,” Mina spluttered. “Like an authoritarian rather than a suitor.”
“Cecily’s not the only naïve one, I see,” Nye rumbled and she cast him an irritable look.
“He’s at least thirty-five if he’s a day,” she objected. “And Cecily only nineteen!”
His gaze remained steady. “And?”
Mina rallied. “I can imagine nothing less likely!”
“You think men like that speak to their wives gently?”
Mina looked at him shrewdly. “I thought you said you did not know him?”
“I don’t know him,” he retorted. “But I know his reputation.”
“Which is?” She frowned, striving to remember what he had said before. Something about referring people to the Assizes in his capacity as Justice of the Peace.
Nye shrugged. “It’s none of my business,” he said evasively.
Fleetingly, Mina wondered if he knew of anyone who had suffered under Sir Matthew’s ideas of justice. She could always ask Gus if Nye was determined to be unforthcoming. On impulse, she asked. “Why did you tell Gus Hopkirk I was a schoolteacher?”
Nye blinked, clearly taken aback. He did not answer for a moment. “Must have come up,” he muttered.
“In general conversation?”
He cast her a resentful look. “I don’t remember.”
“He said he’s known you since you were a boy,” she persisted, suddenly loth to drop the subject. She decided to bluff her way since Nye was determined to remain a closed book. “Did he say he used to be friends with your father?” she mused as though trying to recall.
His eyelids dropped down, veiling his eyes. “I don’t know,” he grunted. “You tell me.”
It was like trying to draw blood from a stone, she thought ruefully. Perhaps he did let down his guard when with friends and acquaintances, but she was clearly not one of their number, nor like to be. “Do you wish Sir Matthew had offered me a post?” she asked, with a small wobble in her voice. How funny, just two weeks ago, the prospect of such a post would have filled her with quite a different emotion.
“No,” he said, surprising them both. Their eyes met fleetingly, then they both looked away. They drove on a few moments in silence, before Nye cleared his throat. “You haven’t asked me what I wanted in return,” he said abruptly.
“No, I haven’t,” Mina admitted. She glanced at him in sudden suspicion. “Is it about my remaining in the parlor at all times?”
He snorted at that. “Much good that would do me.”
She turned in her seat to face him. “I’m not used to being idle, you see,” she said deciding to go for open and honest. “And there’s so much to be done about the place. It’s not as though—”
“I understand that,” he cut across her.
Mina sat a moment, waiting for more, but nothing came. “So… you’re agreeable to my helping Edna about the place?” she persisted.
He remained silent a moment. “What I want to know is this,” he said at last. “Are you just another pair of hands about the place or do you mean to take up the role in earnest?”
“Role?” Mina repeated.
“Aye.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?” Mina asked, sensing there was a deeper significance to his words.
“That of publican’s wife,” he said, though his eyes avoided hers.
Whatever she had thought he was going to say, it
