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Henrietta thought it best to wait until the next update to make a decision. Thankfully, the next letter had brought better news.
    A few steps behind Thomas was an impossibly tall man who stopped at the foot of the staircase as her brother barreled toward Henrietta.
    The new tutor?
    “Look how big you’ve grown!” Henrietta enthused as she embraced her son. Then she looked up at the stranger, her smile welcoming. “And you must be Mr. Dore. My husband wrote glowingly of you.”
    Yes, then. The new tutor he was. Interesting. If only his appearance had meant the end of Miss Smith’s tenure. Kate had never particularly liked their second governess.
    “Mrs. Mansfield, what a pleasure to finally meet you,” he said.
    “My daughter, Catherine.”
    But where was Bianca?
    He turned to Kate. He really was a rather tall man, with heavy features in a gaunt face.
    “Mr. Dore,” she said with a small smile. Then she looked about. “But where are my sister and father?”
    “In Eastbourne, to pick up the new horses,” Thomas interjected.
    “They are due home any day now,” Mr. Dore added. “We thought you would be them.”
    “Ah yes, the horses,” Henrietta said.
    Her father had been purchasing horses from the Lathams’ breeding farm for years now. Claimed they had the finest thoroughbreds in England. Now that she had spent quite a bit of time in London and among the first families of the country, Kate had heard many people claim to have the finest this or that. It didn’t really matter if they did or didn’t, because who was to say otherwise? Now when she heard anyone express something as “the finest,” she tended to dismiss it out of hand. She much preferred something that was good and stable. Reliable.
    Perhaps that was why she had not yet found a husband. She shut down that thought, which was far too often present in her mind, and focused on the tutor.
    “And Bianca, as well?”
    Luc looked sharply at Kate.
    “Yes, Bianca, as well.”
    She struggled to bite down the disappointment and impatience. Frustrating as it was, she had to remember that she could not control the world, even if she wished to.
    “Well, I suppose we shall just have to get to work without them,” Henrietta said. “Go on, dearest, settle in before lunch.”
    Her stepmother was right. There really wasn’t any time to think on it anymore. She had a house party to plan.
    A fter a nap, Henrietta, Thomas, and Kate took tea in her mother’s sitting room, a cozy little configuration that had never happened quite that way before.
    “He’s better than Miss Smith,” Thomas said, in response to his mother’s question about his new tutor. “He says we can learn just as well out of doors as in the schoolroom.”
    Kate caught her stepmother’s eye over her brother’s head. However, Henrietta didn’t seem at all disturbed by this nontraditional method of instruction. Of course, one of Henrietta’s flaws was that she was woefully uneducated so it likely didn’t even occur to her. As much as Kate adored her stepmother, on occasion, she had been embarrassed at Henrietta’s lack of knowledge. However, her sweet disposition, and skill at both humor and putting others at ease, had made her popular amongst the other matrons in London.
    “Well, you look quite healthy, my love,” Henrietta said, pulling him into her embrace. “You shall be at Eton in no time at all.”
    “And after Eton, I wish to travel the world! Mr. Dore has been everywhere. Have you been everywhere, Mama? Has Kate?”
    “Only so far as London,” Kate said. “But that is almost everywhere. Or rather, there seems to be at least someone from everywhere in London.”
    London at that moment seemed so far away. Yet home was strange and empty with neither her father nor her sister present. Despite her initial disappointment, in some ways the space provided a relief. Allowed Kate to find a new way to be at Hopford Manor. Allowed her to try and find a middle ground between the Kate