Rollo gave me a frown before saying, “I would be honored.” Lord Henry mumbled a goodbye without looking up from his newspaper. Olive took my hand as we left the house, and Rollo held his elbow out for me to take.

I felt so very grownup and responsible in my first official task as governess. Then I wondered if there was something I should be doing. I supposed I should be getting better acquainted with my charges. “What is your favorite subject in school?” I asked Rollo.

“Mathematics. I want to be an engineer, but Father said that was no occupation for a gentleman. It’s a trade, and a marquis isn’t supposed to pursue a trade.” His eyes lit up. “Maybe the Rebel Mechanics really will start a revolution, and then I won’t be noble anymore and I can do anything I want!”

“I’m telling Uncle!” Olive said. “You’re not supposed to talk like that!”

“Olive, no one likes a tattletale,” I scolded gently. “I am present, and I will decide what needs to be told. I don’t think Rollo meant anything by it.”

After we saw Rollo safely into the care of his headmaster, Olive and I headed home, taking a different route along a more commercial street. That pleased her immensely, as she enjoyed looking in the shop windows, and I was glad of the excuse to do so myself. With such shops selling so many wonderful things, I could see how Flora could have an entire conversation about clothing.

“I got a doll for Christmas from this store,” Olive informed me in a running commentary as we walked. “Flora buys her gloves here. She got a hat here once, but she didn’t like it, and she told everyone else how awful it was, so nobody else bought hats here, and now it’s not a hat shop anymore. It’s a shoe shop. I don’t know if their shoes are good, though. I don’t think we’ve ever bought anything there. Do you like shopping, Miss Newton?”

“I haven’t done much of it.”

“Don’t go with Flora. It’s boring because she won’t make up her mind and she has to look at everything. Maybe you could take me shopping.”

“We’ll see.”

Apparently taking my noncommittal answer as an affirmative, she began skipping and singing, “We’re going shopping! We’re going shopping!”

Although I had worked as a tutor, I hadn’t the least notion of the extent of a governess’s duties. Was I responsible for Olive’s deportment, and what were the boundaries of acceptable behavior? Should I consider skipping and singing harmless childish high spirits or unladylike actions that must be corrected?