She thought, even as she spoke, that the Dowager would be furious.

Instead she chuckled,

“Are you suggesting that I would murder the brat?” she asked. “Well, maybe you are not far wrong.”

Carina, who had spoken at random, gave a little gasp of horror.

“You will find I always speak the truth,” the Dowager said. “I wish that he had never been born and I would like him dead. But still, as he is here, I suppose I have to do something about him. But how he is treated and what happens to him depends on you. You have appointed yourself as his Guardian. See that you guard him well. If it ever leaks out who he really is, I will not be responsible for what happens to him.”

Carina almost choked. It seemed to her incredible that she should be hearing such things said in what she believed to be a modern civilised world.

Then she looked up to meet the Dowager’s eyes.

“You are too young and too pretty to be a Governess,” the old lady said suddenly. “Was there not anything else you could do?”

“No, nothing,” Carina answered, surprised at the sudden change in her voice.

“You look a lady,” the Dowager said, almost as if she was speaking to herself, “and your clothes and the fur you have round your neck, make me think you have seen better times. Can you imagine what the life of a Governess is like? You will stand, as it were, between Heaven and hell in that you are neither at home with your employers nor with the servants.”

“What else can a girl of my age do?” Carina asked. “I have been comparatively well educated – but that does not help me in any way to earn money. There are only two possible positions for someone like myself, a Governess to a child or companion to an old lady.”

“And you prefer to be a Governess?” the Dowager asked with a wry smile. “Well, you are employed, although Lord knows how you will teach that child anything. I know these Easterners, superficially they are quick-brained, but fundamentally they are stupid. Anyhow, what does it matter?”

“It may matter to Dipa,” Carina said.

“Will it?” the Dowager asked. “I wonder.”

There was something in her tone that made Carina think that it was a threat. She longed in that moment to pick up Dipa and run away from The Castle and from these eccentric incomprehensible people and, above all, from this horrible old woman who wished him dead.

“I will look after Dipa,” she said and her voice shook a little. “I will teach him and I will protect him against – everything and everyone.”