Only two minutes have passed since Mrs. Nutting issued the order, but she acts as though she has been waiting an age and chastises the maid on taking her own good time.
Dropping into a curtsy, the maid murmurs, “I am sorry, ma’am.”
“Come in, come in, do not stand on the threshold! Step inside already so I may close the door!” Mrs. Nutting says in harsh rebuke. “I do not wish for the entire house to know my private affairs.”
Hester apologizes again.
“It is about the shawl,” Mrs. Nutting announces.
The maid, needing no further explanation—perhaps not even needingthisexplanation—says she knows.
Her employer does not like the response. “You know?You know?And yet you accepted an extremely expensive present from my daughter as though youdid not know.”
“That is not true, ma’am,” Hester says calmly. “I tried to refuse.”
Snickering, Mrs. Nutting mocks the servant in her own words. “You tried to refuse? You tried to refuse? Clearly, you did nottryvery hard.”
Her contempt is scathing, and yet the maid retains her composure.
I am agog at her ability to remain matter-of-fact in the face of the onslaught and can only assume the experience is not unique. The staff must be subjected to cross reprimands at regular intervals. (If there is one advantage of working for Vera Hyde-Clare, it is that she is too intimidated by the servants to offer anything but the mildest critique.I wonder if we need to have all three sconces in the drawing room lit at the same time, Dawson.)
“Miss Nutting was insistent, and I did not want to give offense, so I accepted the shawl with gratitude,” Hester adds in the same mild tone. She attempts to explain further but is forestalled by her employer’s exultant cry.
“Aha!” Mrs. Nutting says again, as though everything she has ever known has been confirmed. “You accepted an extremely expensive present from my daughter as an act of kindness to her. You are a philanthropist. How convenient!”
The maid, continuing as though the interruption had not occurred, reveals that she gave the shawl to Mrs. Todd—because itwasso inappropriate. Mrs. Nutting’s gasp in response to this news is comical. Having barely finished describing Hester as“devious,” she has already begun to call her “cunning” when she realizes the insult is inaccurate and all but trips over her tongue as she rushes to swallow the rest of the word.
Blankly, she repeats the name: “Mrs. Todd?”
“Mrs. Todd,” the maid replies.
“You gave the shawl to the housekeeper?” Mrs. Nutting says with a doubtful look. “If you gave it to Mrs. Todd, then why did she not mention it to me?”
Hester does not know.
Although that is the correct response to the query, for it is not the servant’s place to speculate as to the thoughts and actions of her superior, Mrs. Nutting looks more annoyed than ever and marches back to the doorway to demand the housekeeper’s presence.
Mrs. Todd enters the room with daunting swiftness, an indication that she and the rest of the staff had gathered in the corridor to eavesdrop. This supposition is confirmed a minute later, when she provides a comprehensive answer to Mrs. Nutting’s initial question, explaining that she gave the shawl to the butler. “It was sometime in early May. I cannot recall the exact date off the top of my head, but I recorded it in my diary. I am happy to check it if you wish.”
Robbed of the opportunity to impugn the housekeeper’s integrity, Mrs. Nutting assails her logic. “I must take issue with your ability to think rationally, Mrs. Todd, if it did not immediately occur to you to bring the extremely expensive present to me. I am the girl’s mother and as such the true owner of the shawl. It is mine! It belongs to me!”
“I was respecting Mr. Hewitt’s authority, as he is my superior. Per the chain of command among the servants, the female staff report to me, and I report to the butler. Whenever a matter of a delicate nature arises, I pass it along for him to resolve. I would never think to undermine his authority bygoing around his back to you, ma’am,” Mrs. Todd replies flatly, her dislike of the household’s hierarchical arrangement readily apparent in her tone despite its lack of inflection.
Outmaneuvered, Mrs. Nutting emits a loud sigh.
She cannot very well turn around and tell Mrs. Todd that shecouldin fact undermine the butler. Reversing course on her own rules would create havoc belowstairs.
Consequently, she casts a baleful glance at her daughter for putting her in the abominable position and calls for the butler, who appears before she has even finished saying his name. Having decided not to keep up the pretense of discretion, Mr. Hewitt announces that he gave the shawl to Mr. Nutting, a stunning admission that causes her face to go through a series of contortions.
All that raging at the servants, and her husband was the culprit the whole time!
Mrs. Nutting thanks them all for handling the matter appropriately but does not offer Hester an apology for assuming the worst. She just sends the maid back to her duties, instructs the housekeeper to bring a fresh pot of tea, and asks the butler to inform Mr. Nutting his presence is needed in the drawing room. When all three are gone, she lowers herself onto the chair and orders her daughter to stop crying. “We are notpoor,you vindictive ninny. We are straitened, which I will beg you to remember the next time you want to give away an extremely expensive shawl in a fit of spite. And you will abide by my judgment. When I tell you Russian flame flatters your complexion, that is because Russian flame flatters your complexion. With your coloring, blossom would have made you look like a flamingo. I am glad Madame Valenaire did not have enough in stock, because it spared me an argument.”
Chastened, Miss Nutting manages only a soggy, “Yes, Mama.”
“Good,” her mother says. “And I will not hear another word about the steward.”
Arriving less than a minute later, Mr. Nutting greets me warmly as he enters the room, and Mrs. Nutting visibly starts at the reminder of my presence. In the fracas over the shawl, she had forgotten I was there, and she looks at me now with horror at the scene I witnessed, which is the correct reaction. I should not have been allowed to watch her increasing confusion as she interrogated her staff.
