Free The Young Governess by Phoebe Gardener Page A

more than any other, she knew would sustain her through the trials that so clearly lay ahead. For what did the horse-faced cleric mean when he spoke of ‘a far more testing experience’?
    Gently, the Handmaidens led her back to the vestry where they bathed her with warm, scented water, washing away all traces of her ordeal and helped her to dress. In the coach, on the way back to the house, Kate answered Alice and Ellie’s solicitudes with sullen brevity, but she gave them no indication of her anger or desperation. She would find a way to leave the Fordhams of Walthrop. Somehow, she would. She had to!

Chapter Four

    The next day Kate started her job in earnest. She was up early and by nine o’clock had breakfasted and put the neglected schoolroom back in good order. When Ellie appeared to take her first lesson, her new governess sat at a table with her back to the bow window appearing, or so she hoped, as forbidding as humanly possible.
    Ellie was quite unprepared for the strictness of her lesson. To demonstrate a point, Kate would tap the end of her pencil on the wooden surface of the table, or if Ellie’s attention wandered for a fraction of a second, she would slap down a thin wooden ruler with a fearsome ‘crack’. In less than an hour, Kate had reduced her pupil to tears. Although she knew it was wrong to take it out on Ellie, and perhaps not very diplomatic, Kate found this was a small, but satisfying, recompense for her humiliation in front of her pupil, her mother and those dreadful women yesterday.
    As Ellie, who was, in Kate’s opinion, not one of Nature’s natural scholars, struggled over her sums and her French irregular verbs, Kate had another chance to review her time at Walthrop. She had only been here a few days and already her world had been turned upside down. And this evening she would be subjected to another sexual ordeal at the Hall of Worship. She very much hoped that the detestable Reverend Pike would not be there.
    * * * * *
    While Kate was attempting to drum a few basic facts into poor Ellie’s empty head, Sir Bradley and Lady Fordham were exchanging ideas of a very different nature in the conservatory. They were quite alone and talking most amiably.
    “My dear Alice, I agree. She is a splendid fuck. Of course, I agree with you there. But we must ensure that my old friend Belfont never learns of her, ahem, extra-curricular activities here. If he or his wife ever found out we would have the dickens of a row on our hands. The scandal would ruin us.”
    His wife gave him a sardonic look.
    “And what if she should fly the coop?”
    “Why, m’dear, I have every confidence in your powers of, ah, Lesbian persuasion.
    You are making her a ‘Follower’ tonight, are you not?”
    Alice nodded.
    “Well, if that doesn’t break the filly, then we really shall have a problem on our hands.”
    “Leave it to me. She will be available for your ‘guests’ when they arrive later in the week. Even if I have to give her another of your Laudanum tinctures.”
    “Why did you not give her some before old Pike had his filthy way with her?”
    His wife gave him a vulpine smile.
    “Because I wanted our little trollop to feel it more keenly… and suffer. Ellie did. And so did I. And besides, through pain comes pleasure, as that old sodomite Pike and his bitch of a wife Bella are always so fond of pointing out. But tonight, have no fears, I will make sure she is well dosed.”
    “Can’t stand that wretched couple. I feel quite sorry for poor Miss Spencer, really.”
    “I can’t think of a better arrangement than that which we have now,” replied his wife sharply. “Besides, who else could we possibly trust to take care of your little angels?”
    * * * * *
    That evening, Kate found herself once more seated opposite Alice and Ellie on the short coach ride to the Hall of Worship. She had promised herself that afternoon to stage a last minute rebellion. To inform Alice that it was her time of the month.