‘I, for one, am still reeling, and my grief is not even close to poor Mary’s. She’ – too emotional to work now, Cassy dropped the wool into her lap – ‘she says it has been as bad as losing her mother.’

Was that intended to wound her? Fanny dared not allow it. Desperately, she tried to move the conversation on. ‘Well,’ she said brightly, ‘it might please you girls to know that, in Town, Sir Edward is even now looking for a replacement—’

‘A replacement?’ Cassy exclaimed in horror. ‘Dear Fan, I do wish you would listen. Truly, you dare talk of replacement? I suppose you might equally talk so casually of replacing a mother?’

A chill fell on to the dressing room. The two sisters glared at one another.

At last, Fanny spoke: ‘Then, perhaps,’ she began, ‘it might be a better idea to go forward without a new governess.’

The thought had not occurred to her before that moment, but she suddenly saw that there was no alternative. Indeed, that this was the only right course of action. While in London with Sir Edward, Fanny had suffered yet another of her unfortunate events, and Dr Maton had confessed that, in his medical view, a success now looked unlikely. Somehow – though, oh! how it grieved her to think it – she must accept the Lord’s will and surrender the dream of her own darling baby. And to take her mind off the misery, she could now devote her life to the many motherless children already under her care.

‘And I shall look after you both from now on.’ There must be worse fates, she supposed – though the heart might not thrill at the prospect.

‘Ah.’ Cassy’s eyes narrowed and her mouth set. ‘So am I right in thinking that what you are saying is, in effect: we can now leave the schoolroom?’ To Fanny’s ears, she came across as a horse trader at the close of a deal.

‘I do not see why not.’ Fanny was starting to form the suspicion that she had walked into a trap. ‘Indeed. Leave the schoolroom – do! – and start to accompany me around and about the place, and then deputise on all my various duties and calls … After all, you are both of an age … Then next year, we can start the whole process of you “coming out”.’

‘Fan, you do mean it? We can count on your word?’ Cassy leaned forward. ‘And you are definitely authorised to speak on Sir Edward’s behalf?’ Her blue eyes were alight, ringlets trembling with tension. ‘We must not get left behind, Mary and I. Not like poor dear—’