We’d been careless.
“Did you hear that?” I asked, panting and still coming down.
“It was the door,” said Grace, breathing hard. Her eyes watched the door behind me uneasily, beads of sweat collecting on her chest. “It was pulled closed.”
So someone had opened it, and that someone had to be Margaret.
“Never mind,” I said, easing Grace off of me and lifting her to the floor. “Clean up now, darling, and choose which suit you’d like to wear. We’ve a busy schedule to keep today.”
“But what about – ”
“Put it out of your mind,” I said, kissing her damp forehead. “I’ll handle it.”
I left Grace to get changed, ever-mindful of the time. The bereaved were due to arrive in 15 minutes, and I needed to get my head on straight. We would have a driving lesson after the meeting in the parlour, and then collect the deceased together before spending the afternoon caring for the body, embalming them, and ordering the casket. It was a heavenly schedule for Grace and, now, for me too. I’d spent decades in a daze, only existing. With Grace, I loved my job again. Her enthusiasm for it was inspiring.
Already she had become a professional behind the scenes, taking on the administration, making the arrangements, and learning the biological side of things; anatomy, chemical distribution, bodily care.
I couldn’t wait to see her flourish at client meetings, too. I wanted people to see her, even the bereaved.Especially the bereaved. I wanted to show her off.
I found Maggie in the kitchen, angrily loading the dishwasher with our breakfast plates.
“Do we need to have a word, Margaret?”
She paused, her lips pursed, her nose wrinkling with fury. She threw the plate down with a crack and marched towards me, wiping her hands on her apron. When she landed the smack on my cheek, I flinched, not expecting it.
“I warned you. I told you to leave that girl alone!”
“Need I remind you that you’re an employee of mine?” I asked. Maggie had taken care of me as a child, and took liberties because of it. My loyalty to her allowed it, but only so far.
Her eyes widened, nostrils flaring as she seethed.
“I am employed by the trust left byyour father, along with my rights to live here for as long as I wish!”
She wasn’t wrong. It had been both my parents’ wish to keep Maggie here for all of her life if she wanted it, because they were so fond. Because she’d taken care of Alexander and me like we were her own. To some extent, she still believed that; hence the smack.
“That doesn’t entitle you to interfere with my affairs,” I said coldly. “And if you use your hands again, Margaret, I will use mine.”
She glared, but she backed off a little.
“You’ll destroy that poor child, and you know it.”
Just like I destroyed Louisa, I thought. We both thought it, but she didn’t say it.
“I don’t destroy my loved ones. I take care of them,” I said, with more than a little bitterness.
“And I suppose that means you’ll be telling her, in thename of equality and trust? Or would you likemeto tell her?”
I swallowed hard, closing my eyes.
“I will tell her in due course,” I said. “It’s early days. I don’t wish to do or say anything that could jeopardise her learning.”
“Do me a favour,” she said, tearing off her apron and tossing it on the island counter. “Don’t use your own delusions on me. You’re going to keep her like a pet until she realises she’s in a gilded cage and tries to fight her way out of it, just like – ”
“Don’t say her name.” I warned.
Maggie looked away, deciding against it.
“I’ve made my point clear,” she said. “Now if you don’t mind, I hear the doorbell chiming.”
