Napoleonic Wars. This hardly seemed relevant. How-

ever, the look on Lady Constance’s face had grown

quite serious, and Penelope guessed that the pleasant-

ries must now be over.

She took a deep breath and braced herself to

answer probing questions about her literary and scien-

tific knowledge, her skill at mathematics, penmanship,

and musical composition, her grasp of geography and

the rules of lawn tennis, and her familiarity with the

rudiments of first aid.

“Well,” said Lady Constance decisively, after a

pause, “Miss Lumley. You are certainly everything I

had hoped for in a governess, and more. May I offer

you the position?”

“What?” Penelope exclaimed, unable to hide her

surprise.

“Forgive me! Of course you need to know the terms.

I am utterly hopeless with numbers, but Lord Ashton

drew this up for your perusal before he left for busi-

ness this morning.” She handed Penelope a folded

sheet of heavy notepaper, monogrammed with a large,

decorative A.

Penelope opened it and read. The neat writing

within indicated salary, number of holidays, sick leave,

and so forth. The terms were generous, excessively so.

Ridiculously so, in fact.

“I do hope the salary is adequate! If you require,

Lord Ashton will make any necessary adjustments.”

Lady Constance looked at Penelope with a strangely

blank expression on her face and waited for her

answer.

“These terms are perfectly acceptable,” Penelope

finally choked out.

“Excellent, excellent!” Lady Constance sprang from

her seat once more and paced around the room. “You

must start at once. Today, in fact! I will send instructions

to your school—Swansea? Swansong? You must remind

me of the name—to send the rest of your things.”

“My trunk is in the carriage that brought me from

the station,” Penelope said. “I have no other posses-

sions.” She was suddenly dizzy and thought this must

be what people meant when they said that a person

was “in shock.” But she managed to stand up, and Lady

Constance impulsively took her right hand in both of

her own.

“Miss Lumley,” she said, “may I have your solemn

oath that you will embrace the position of governess

and fulfill its duties from this day forward? I would

hate to endure the crushing disappointment I would

feel, if you should suddenly change your mind.”