King of the Castle Read Online Free PDF Page A

from my forehead; I i plaited it and wound the plaits into a bulky mound which I pinned up on the top of my head. I looked taller that way. The flush was dying from my cheeks and my eyes were now dull grey. They were the shade of water and reflected other colours I wore as the sky will change the colour of the sea. For that reason I should have worn greens and blues; but having assured myself that my assets did not lie in personal attractions and that if I were going to win the confidence of my employers I must present myself as a sensible woman, I cultivated dull colours as I did my somewhat prickly exterior. I believed they were the necessary weapons for a woman alone in the world with her own battles to fight. Now my mouth was set in the firm no-nonsense lines which I tried to adopt; and by the time Mademoiselle Dubois returned I was ready to play my familiar role.
    She looked startled when she saw me, so I knew what a bad impression I had made in the first place. Her eyes went to my head and I felt a grim satisfaction, for now there was not a hair out of place it was neat and severe as I liked it to be.
    “I am so sorry I disturbed you.” The woman was too apologetic. That
    little matter was over and it was my fault for falling asleep and not hearing her knock. I told her this and added: “So Monsieur de la Talle has asked you to show me the gallery.
    I am most eager to see the pictures. “
    “I know little about pictures, but…”
    “You say you are the governess. So there are children in the chateau.”
    “There is only Genevieve. Monsieur Ie Comte has only one child.”
    My curiosity was strong, but one could not ask questions. She hesitated as though she wanted to talk; and how I wanted to know! But I was in command of myself and growing more and more optimistic as the moments passed. It was wonderful what the brief rest and the food, the wash and change of clothes had done for me.
    She sighed.
    “Genevieve is very difficult.”
    “Children often are. How old is she?”
    “Fourteen.”
    “Then I am sure you can easily control her.”
    She gave me an incredulous look; then her mouth twisted slightly.
    “It is evident. Mademoiselle Lawson, that you do not know Genevieve.”
    “Spoilt, I imagine, being the only one?”
    “Spoilt!” Her voice had an odd note. Fear? Apprehension? I couldn’t quite place it.
    “Oh, that… as well.”
    She was ineffectual. That much was obvious. The last person I should have chosen as a governess. If they would choose a woman like this for such a post surely my chances of getting the restoration commission were good. Although I was a woman I must look far more capable than this poor creature. And wouldn’t the Comte consider the education of his only child as important as the restoration of his pictures? That remained to be seen, of course. I was impatient for my encounter with this man.
    “I can tell you. Mademoiselle Lawson, that to control that girl is impossible.”
    “Perhaps you are not stern enough,” I said lightly, then
     
    2. changed the subject.
    “This is a vast place. Are we near the gallery?”
    “I will show you. You will get lost here at first. I did. In fact even now I often find myself in difficulties.”
    You would always find yourself in difficulties, I thought.
    “I suppose you have been here for some time,” I asked, merely to make conversation as we passed out of the room and went along a corridor to a flight of stairs.
    “Quite a long time … eight months.”
    I laughed.
    “You call that long?”
    “The others didn’t stay as long. No one else stayed longer than six.”
    My mind switched from the carving on the banister to the daughter of the house. So this was why Mademoiselle Dubois remained. Genevieve was so spoilt that it was difficult to keep a governess. One would have thought that the stern King in his Castle could have controlled his daughter. But perhaps he did not care enough. And the Comtesse?
    Strangely enough before