Matron stood up, and her large girth seemed to fill the room. “You seem to be ill at ease. That wasn’t my intention.”
Audrey confronted her. “What is your intention, Matron? Because I know very well that you don’t approve of me. You never have. And had it been up to you, I would have been gone long ago.”
Matron raised her eyebrows. “It’s true. You had no experience, and quite honestly, I thought you were given the job because you were Henry Ryland’s mistress.”
Audrey’s cheeks flushed warm. “Well, I’m not! Then or now.”
Matron shrugged her ample shoulders. “I must say, you’ve proven me wrong. That’s rare. I thought you were some silly little girl playing dress-up. But you’ve made the schoolroom a success.”
“Thank you,” she said warily. “How may I help you?”
Matron looked over Audrey coolly. “You should be careful. A schoolmistress alone in the cottage at the edge of the workhouse grounds. Something could happen and who would save you?”
Audrey’s throat constricted. “W—What would happen to me?”
“Who can say? Nothing, I hope. But you should be alert.” But she didn’t sound too concerned for Audrey’s safety.
Audrey swallowed. “I don’t expect people to come to my cottage and enter it without my permission.”
“I’m Matron of the Bowthorpe Workhouse, Ms. Wakefield. Nothing happens here without my permission.”
“Is that so?” Audrey asked.
Matron gave her a look. “You doubt it?”
“What goes on in the mortuary late at night?” Audrey asked before she could stop herself.
“What usually goes on in a mortuary late at night? Why do you ask? What business does the schoolmistress have in the mortuary?” Matron eyed her.
“N-Nothing. I have no business there,” Audrey said awkwardly.
“Why did you ask about the mortuary? Strange question,” she continued.
“I…. I’ve… I saw someone out and about and was concerned,” she admitted.
“Out and about? What does that mean?” Matron pressed her.
“It was late at night. I wondered what he might be doing.”
“He?” she asked.
“It was a man I saw.”
Matron narrowed her eyes. “As I said, the mortuary has business to attend to. He must have been attending to it.”
“That must be it.”
“You should stay on task and in the classroom, Ms. Wakefield. If you don’t, you might veer off your course. That would be unfortunate.”
“Yes, it would,” Audrey agreed.
Matron made her way to the door, and Audrey hoped she would leave the cottage soon.
“Take care, Ms. Wakefield. We must keep ourselves on task,” she said.
Audrey watched her leave the cottage and closed the door behind her. She felt a sense of unease and wondered how long the woman had been sitting in her cottage in the dark and what the true intention was.
When a knock fell on the door soon after, she almost jumped. She looked at the door and contemplated not letting her in. Matron couldn’t force her.