The Reluctant Governess. Anne Mather

felt exasperated. ‘If you don’t mind my saying so, you appear to be making a fuss about nothing,’ she replied shortly. ‘My timidity last evening was by no means feigned, but as you can see, Fritz and I have become friends.’

      ‘But I do mind you saying so!’ The Baron was obviously unused to having his staff answer him back in this manner. ‘My instructions about the animals were not made lightly, and apart from that, your position here is not to be taken with indifference!’

      Victoria saw Sophie’s smug little face and wanted to scream. Instead, she controlled herself and said: ‘What is that supposed to mean, Herr Baron?’ in rather sardonic tones.

      The Baron’s dark brows drew together. ‘After our conversation this morning I expected you to begin your lessons with Sophie, but instead you disappear for over an hour with an animal whose temperament is by no means reliable!’

      Victoria stared at him indignantly for a long moment, and then she turned away.

      ‘Where are you going?’ The Baron’s tones were curt.

      Victoria turned back. ‘I was going to my room,’ she said, carefully. ‘To pack my things!’

      The Baron strode across to her angrily. ‘What foolishness is this?’ he snapped violently. ‘Is it not possible to carry on a conversation with you, fräulein?’

      Victoria glared at him. ‘You call this a conversation!’ she exclaimed. ‘This—this reprobation in front of a nine-year-old girl!’

      ‘It is an admonishment, no more,’ returned the Baron coldly. ‘Surely as your employer I am entitled to question your movements during the hours when I expect you to have charge of Sophie?’

      Victoria stamped her feet, one against the other, ridding her boots of the lingering traces of snow, and then looked up at him unhappily. ‘All right,’ she said at last, ‘maybe I feel extra sensitive this morning.’ Her eyes flickered towards Sophie and she was heartened to see that now Sophie was beginning to look discomfited.

      ‘And what has made you—extra sensitive, fräulein?’ he queried, intently. He glanced towards Sophie. ‘Does my daughter have anything to do with it?’

      He was more perceptive where Sophie was concerned than she would have believed. All the same, she had no intention now of turning tell-tale and destroying her own self-respect as well as arousing Sophie’s further antipathy.

      To her relief, the door from the kitchen passage opened at that moment and Maria came in carrying a tray on which was a jug of hot milk and another of coffee, and three beakers. She came across the wide expanse of polished floor and placed the tray on the long polished table.

      The Baron left Victoria and went across to Maria with a smile. ‘Danke, Maria,’ he nodded pleasantly. ‘It is most welcome!’

      Maria coloured with pleasure and then looked at Victoria. ‘So you are back, fräulein,’ she said, with some relief. ‘Gustav was about to go and look for you.’

      ‘For me?’ Victoria frowned. ‘Whatever for? I wasn’t lost.’

      The Baron dismissed Maria with a shake of his head, and after the old woman had left them he said: ‘The weather is bad in these mountains. A sudden snowstorm can impair the progress of the most experienced climber, and to tumble into a drift without the knowledge of how to get out again can be fatal.’

      Victoria uttered an exclamation. ‘But I was not climbing. I walked round the outer walls of the schloss, that was all.’

      ‘With Fritz.’

      ‘With Fritz, of course.’

      ‘An animal about whom you know nothing and who last evening aroused timidity inside you!’