There was no sign of the man in the back garden, and when she awoke the next morning, she was refreshed and ready to start the day. Concerned that her time away the day before might have left Lady Russell without entertainment, Georgie hurried up the stairs after breakfast to check on the older woman. Her employer, however, had not been bored in the least by Georgie’s absence. When she reached Lady Russell’s sitting room, Georgie found her engaged in a lively debate with her elderly sisters while they all three worked on needlepoint. Since Georgie had never been very good at needlework, she was thankful that it was her mistress’s sisters and not herself who had been co-opted into the activity. “So you see, I have survived quite well without you, my dear,” Lady Russell said, looking much better than she had in weeks despite the fact that her gout-ridden foot was still propped on a stool. “Go off and enjoy yourself while my sisters are here. I vow, when I was your age I could think of nothing more dull than to be confined in a drawing room with three elderly ladies doing needlepoint.”
