Page 54 of The Heir
You wanted to eavesdrop.
“And I found Sir John was speaking with the Earl of Dunham. Dr. Maton was there with them. I remember Sir John said, ‘It is a deep shame, I tell you, but her legs are terribly weak, bordering on a true malformation.’”
Jane’s whole face puckered.
“Sir John turned to Dr. Maton and said, ‘Would you not agree, Doctor?’ And I remember Maton replied, ‘She is badly undergrown for a girl her age. The consequences may become more evident and more severe as she matures.’”
“Father would not have liked that,” said Jane. “He would have wanted something more definite.”
Lehzen shrugged. “But it does sort with your theory that Maton was your father’s creature.”
Jane found this idea left her very cold.
“Ma’am . . . ,” she began.
“Yes?”
Everything in her screamed at her to keep quiet. If she spoke, she would be laughed at. She would be shouted at.
“I haven’t said this to the princess yet. But . . . what if Dr. Maton was talking about her with someone else? Or what if he was talking to Father about . . . well, other people?”
“You mean what if the good doctor was trading secrets about the household?” Lehzen’s voice dropped. “About the princess herself?”
“Yes. If he was getting information for Father and then spreading around what Father wanted known or believed—”
“Gossip is the currency of all courts,” said Lehzen. “Even when it is counterfeit. That is something worth thinking about.” Lehzen set her teacup down and did not refill it. Nor did she offer Jane anything more. “For years, I have looked after Her Highness, have tried to be her friend and to care for her as if she were any other young girl in this world. But that is not possible, because she is not any other girl and never will be.”
“I understand.”
“Do you?” Lehzen cocked her head toward Jane. It was a quizzical look and highly skeptical. “I confess I am at a loss, Miss Conroy. It was my intention to ask you to stop acting as the princess’s aide in this . . . this dangerous campaign she has begun. I had planned to threaten you with exposure—to the duchess, to your father. To say to them it was all your idea and you had put Her Highness in jeopardy.”
Guilt and anger shot through Jane. She kept still and kept her gaze steady. She could hear what Lehzen had to say. She would endure it, with her head up.
It’s time I learned how to do that.
“Now I do not think I will do this,” Lehzen went on. “Now I think I will ask you to keep me informed as to what you learn.”
Jane’s jaw dropped open. She closed it hastily and swallowed all her surprise. Lehzen smiled, but it was a kind smile that acknowledged a silent shared joke.
“And we must find a way to make sure the princess has heard what you have suggested to me about the late Dr. Maton,” Lehzen went on.
Jane’s mouth twitched. Then, slowly, as if unused to this particular exercise, her lips bent into a smile of their own.
“Her Highness has already thought of that.”
Chapter 24
By the time Victoria and Mama returned from their call to the Matons, both Jane and Lehzen had already settled themselves in their usual places in the larger of the sitting rooms. Lehzen rose at once to help Victoria with her coat and bonnet.
Victoria looked to Jane and saw she was reading Wordsworth’s poems.
“I’m sorry,” said Jane at once. “It was only there was that particular passage you were reading out to me, and I was not sure I understood. I wanted to review it. I should have waited . . .” Jane spoke in her usual hesitant, complaining tone, but Jane’s eyes held hers.
Pay attention. Something’s changed.
“Not at all,” said Victoria at once. “You may borrow whatever book you wish, mayn’t she, Mama?”
“I always recommend a young woman improve her mind through a rational course of reading. However, it must wait until tomorrow.”
