Alice was slightly shocked at the casual way this girl spoke of her father’s mistresses. At Lucy’s age, Alice had had no idea that men even kept mistresses. She’d been so innocent back then.
Bamber had implied that Lucy’s mother was dead. Perhaps that’s why Lucy was so knowledgeable about the ways of men, because she’d been brought up by her father.
“How long did you live with this Frenchwoman?”
“The comtesse? Just over a year.”
“Comtesse?”
Lucy nodded. “She escaped France during the Terror. Her husband was killed and her castle was burned to the ground, so she never went back. She had plenty of visitors, though.”
“I see. Well, where did you live before you went to stay with the comtesse?”
“With Frau Steiner.”
“Let me guess—she was German.”
“Austrian. And before you ask, I was with her almost a year.”
Alice raised a brow. “And before that?”
“School. Miss Fitcher’s Seminary.”
“And before that?”
“School. Miss Mitchell’s establishment.”
“Before that then?” Alice was getting a little annoyed at the girl’s deliberate evasiveness.
“School. And before that, another school. And before that, another,” Lucy finished, throwing Alice a faintly challenging look.
The conversation paused while Tweed bought in stewed apples and a baked-rice custard.
“Are you saying you were expelled from all those schools?” Alice said after Tweed had left. Good God, what had she got herself into?
Lucy lifted an indifferent shoulder, as if she had no idea, and cared even less. Alice frowned. Lucy had been asked to leave at least five schools, and there must have been a good reason for that.
But she could tell from Lucy’s mulish expression that she wasn’t going to explain, and Alice didn’t want to push the issue, not this early in their acquaintance.
“Did you never go home in between these schools?”
“No. I told you—nowhere to go to.”
There was a certain bleakness to that. Alice hesitated, then said gently, “I was sorry to hear you lost your mother, Lucy. How old were you when she died?”
Lucy helped herself to apples and rice custard. “Eleven, and before you ask, we moved around when Mama was alive, too. And the day after her funeral, Papa put me in school.”
“I see.” Alice didn’t, not at all, but she was beginning to see a pattern. The way Bamber had dumped his daughter on Alice and left gave her an inkling of what kind of life the girl might have had.
The details of Lucy’s history, scant as they were, gave her much to think on, although it was mostly speculation. She and Lucy needed to become friendly enough for an exchange of more personal information, rather than this cautious fencing. Then she would understand better. But clearly, it would take time.
***
After luncheon, Alice headed out to make some morning calls, leaving Lucy to entertain herself and unpack. Once Lucy was properly dressed, she would accompany Alice on the calls, but not yet.
If she had to bring this wretched girl out, she needed to reconnect with the social scene. She’d been out of circulation for the last eighteen months, first because of her year of mourning, and later because she didn’t really feel like facing all those curious looks. And ugly suggestions. The rumors about Thaddeus’s manner and place of death were still circulating.
Now they served as a reminder of how much worse it would be if those letters ever got out. The knowledge stiffened her backbone.
