Fortune Favors the Sparrow - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,3
her embarrassment returning. “Apologies. It is going to take some adjustment for me to call you that.”
Pippa surprised her by coming around the desk and taking the chair nearest her rather than remaining behind it. “That is because you have excellent manners and a quality of breeding far above your present circumstances.”
“You are too kind, Pippa.” Clara looked down at her hands, the tips of each finger suddenly of great interest.
“Don’t be ashamed of it, Clara,” Pippa urged, placing a hand over her arm. “It is not your fault that your family came to such reduced circumstances. You were not hired on here out of pity, either. I consider you a woman of very fine conduct and hold you in the highest regard. Surely you must see that.”
Clara’s throat closed briefly with emotion, and she tried several times for a swallow before succeeding. “Thank you, Miss Bradford. I’d hoped… that is… I am very grateful to have been here for the time that I have.”
Pippa raised a brow. “I hope you don’t believe I’m about to release you from employment, Clara, and I desperately hope you have no intention of leaving us.”
“No!” Clara cried before laughing. “Heavens, no. I will stay as long as you like.”
“Marvelous.” Pippa’s smile returned, then softened shortly thereafter. “I trust you implicitly, Clara. More than that, I believe you to be loyal to your core. Do you consider yourself to be honest, trustworthy, and loyal?”
Clara blinked at the direct, almost heavy question. “Yes… yes, I think so, Pippa.”
The woman’s gaze intensified on her, smile still in place, though there was a hard edge to it. “I need you to be sure, Clara.”
She took a moment to inhale and exhale even as her heart raced within her before answering. “Yes, ma’am. I am.”
Pippa nodded once, and a corner of her mouth lifted with the answer. “And will a secret told to you remain in your confidence, Clara?”
“Of course, ma’am,” she answered immediately. “It will never pass my lips or leave my heart.”
“I need a promise, I am afraid. I mean no offence or implication on your character, it is just the principle of the thing.”
Clara stared back at this kind, warm, remarkably influential woman who suddenly asked so much of her without any foundation or explanation. Could she blindly swear to keep in confidence whatever she would hear next?
“I promise, Miss Bradford,” Clara vowed solemnly. “Whatever I am told, it will go no further.”
Pippa’s smile grew, and she moved her hand to Clara’s. “I knew you would say that. I knew you were made of the strongest character. And for that, I thank you.”
Clara shared her smile. “Thank you.” When Pippa moved her hand away, Clara sighed once, steeling herself. “What is it that you need me to keep in confidence, Pippa?”
“That, I am afraid,” Pippa told her, rising and moving to the second door in her office, further down than Clara had come in, and almost hidden in comparison, “is not something only I require of you.” She knocked lightly on the second door, then stepped back.
A tall, well-dressed man with dark hair entered, and Clara rose in surprise, recognizing him at once. “Lord Rothchild.”
He bowed with a grin. “Miss Harlow, good day. I trust Alicia and Eliza are behaving themselves in your classes?”
“They are, my lord, of course!” She nodded fervently. “And, if I may say so, they have their mother’s gift for art.”
“I am pleased to hear it. I was dreadfully afraid they might have my poor talents instead, and there would die all hopes of accomplishment.” He glanced at Pippa, seeming to take on a different light as he did so. “Are we ready?”
Pippa dipped her chin. “I believe so.”
Ready? What in the world would any of them need to be ready for at this moment?
Clara looked between them in confusion.
Lord Rothchild took pity on her. “You may wish to sit down, Miss Harlow. Just a suggestion.”
Slowly, Clara did so, a feeling of dread nudging its way from her stomach up toward her throat.
Pippa gave her an encouraging smile. “As you know, this school was founded in 1790 by Leonora Masters.”
“Yes,” Clara said slowly, not entirely sure what the founding of the school had to do with any kind of secrets of such significance.
“The purpose was, of course,” Pippa went on, “to provide a sterling education and accomplishment opportunity to the young ladies of England, ideally to become the most respected institution of its kind.”