She turned her palm into his hand and squeezed back, looking into his eyes and she said, "I am not worried about what society thinks. If Mister Blacke is the brother of Joeseph Blacke, by chance, his family is in the pages of the gazette and I think she would be in good hands. As for me..." She paused and then squeezed again but did not relax her hand for the rest of what she would say.

"It isn't true what they said and you can prove that. In fact, she may very well have been seen by locals in a man's company. I am not fragile like most of the ladies who attend that school. I have nothing to hide and we should not let them have our dignity. Besides, you do know that many servants live for gossip, right? Gossip spreads if it is truly something of this magnitude..."