"Forgive me," she said. "I have been in this house eight hours and I have been told by four different people, none of whom intended to tell me anything at all, that you are the most important person in it. I wanted to see for myself."
Hester put down the books. "I am Lady Rose's governess, ma'am."
"Yes, that is what everyone says, in exactly that voice." Lady Arabella set the candle on the table and sat, uninvited, on one of the small schoolroom chairs, which made her look rather like a heron on a milking stool. "Let me be plain with you, Miss Bennett, because I have had ten Seasons of people not being plain with me and I find it very tiring. I came here to be looked over. The Dowager and my mother arranged it in August. I was romantic once, at nineteen, with a gentleman who discovered after the banns were read that he preferred a girl with twelve thousand pounds, and I have been sensible ever since. I want a house and a good library and a husband who does not drink. I do not require to be loved." She stroked the pug's ears. "But I will not marry a man who turns his head every time a door opens, hoping it is someone else. I was second choice once. I will not be second choice to a dead woman and a governess both."
Hester did not know what to say. She said, "I am very sorry."
"Don't be. It saves me a winter of being polite to him." Lady Arabella looked at her with sudden sharp curiosity. "You are going to India, the maids say."
"I have been offered a place there."
"And will you take it?"
"I don't know."
"Well," said Lady Arabella, rising, "I have never been offered anything in my life that my mother did not choose for me first. Whatever you decide, Miss Bennett, I should decide it soon, while it is still yours to decide. These things have a way of being settled by other people if one waits." She picked up her candle. "I shall tell the Dowager in the morning that I find the Wiltshire air does not agree with Wellington. She will know precisely what I mean, and she will be very angry, and she will respect me for it. Good night."
VI.
On Saturday, Rose disappeared.
It was a little after four, the light already going. Hester had left her in the nursery with Nancy for a quarter of an hour while she went down to the still-room for the cough syrup, and when she came back Nancy was asleep in the chair by the fire and the rocking horse was still rocking, very gently, by itself.
Within twenty minutes the whole house was searching. Footmen with lanterns went out along the beech walk and down to the lake. Mrs. Pell went from attic to cellar with her ring of keys. The Dowager stood in the great hall in her black gloves and gave orders in a voice that did not shake. The Duke rode out to the lodge gates himself, bareheaded in the cold.