A Highlander's Second Chance: Highland Temptations by Adams Aileen

Author:Adams, Aileen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-14T05:00:00+00:00

13

“And where were you educated?” Ailsa stared at Fenella, her eyes as sharp as her voice. “Answer me.”

“My governess instructed me in reading and writing,” Fenella replied, her voice cool. “That was all my father allowed I should be permitted to learn. I am quite fond of poetry and was allowed a singing teacher in my youth.”

“No French? No embroidery? No harpsichord?”

Fenella’s smile was unwavering. “I am afraid I have no ear for language. My mother endeavored to teach me, as she spent time in France as a girl, but I fear I made a dreadful fool of myself whenever I tried to speak it. I insulted an old family friend when I told him his new waistcoat made him look bulbous.”

The girls giggled from their places around the room, but Ailsa did not so much as smirk. A good lie, she thought, one which would inspire humor and might distract from the questioning she could find herself under.

“I embroider quite beautifully,” she added, then blushed and lowered her gaze. “Though I am afraid vanity compels me to say so.”

The perfect touch. Feminine, delicate. “Well done.” Ailsa grinned. “If only we could have a few instruments about the place, so that I could truly make you all into fine ladies.”

She sighed, taking a seat. “But it is difficult enough to obtain potatoes and turnips which are not already half-rotted. I doubt the delivery of a harpsichord would go smoothly.”

But she believed they were doing very well, all of them. Most of the young women had now been in her care for at least four months, some as long as half a year, and they had all learned to speak gently, to banter wittily. They knew the difference between a duke, an earl, and a marquess. She had taught them all of the dances she knew, knowing well that the easiest way to make the acquaintance of important men was to know how to conduct oneself at a ball.

It had been so long since she had been to a ball, and she feared her knowledge of dance was hopelessly outdated. But short of attending a ball in person, there was little she could do. She considered sending several of her most trusted and skilled students to London, including Mary and Jamesina, so that they might learn what Ailsa had missed in the last ten years.

She suspected there was quite a lot, but she did not dare show her face in society. Not when she might easily be recognized, thanks to her birthmark.

“Remember, few men will expect a woman to possess true intelligence or to be truly learned, and they will never expect her to have an opinion. Young women of the sort you are pretending to be are educated just far enough that they might be considered accomplished in the eyes of an eligible man. They might understand how a household is managed, but they are not expected to do the work for themselves. There are maids and servants to attend to these matters on their behalf.

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