Chapter Five
They made their way through the gardens Pip had looked down upon that morning, crossed the wide expanse of the lawns, and came into a little woodland area with paths, a pretty shrubbery, a stream, and some beech trees. On the far side of the trees was a narrow country lane.
Pip inhaled deeply, breathing in the scents of honeysuckle and freshly scythed grass. If the viscount and his friends hadn’t been with them, she and the girls could have picked up their skirts and run down the lane. She imagined it: the three of them capering and laughing. But capering and laughing weren’t things one did in the presence of a viscount and a marquis’s son, or even a mere mister, so she walked sedately, as a respectable governess should.
Edie and Fanny stayed close to her, bashful in the co
