“Nothing, my lady,” the girl repeated.“There’s just so much to do.”
April remembered the stony silence between the two maids at breakfast.“Where is Peggy?”
“She and Edward are clearing up in the kitchen for Mrs.Riley, who’s gone into the village for more help.I hope!”
“We all do,” April assured her.She cast a quick glance around the bedchamber.“Well, you have done very well in here.”
“Thank you, my lady,” the girl mumbled, with a quick curtsey, and headed for the door.
“Becky?”
“Yes, my lady?”
“You will come to me if anyone behaves inappropriately.It won’t be tolerated.Neither will it reflect badly on you.”
“Thank you, my lady.”Without looking at April, she all but bolted out and into Meg’s room.
Not entirely satisfied, April walked back towards the main staircase.Halfway there, she paused and looked around her.Something was not right.
The doors were all closed, the floor clean.Perhaps the table in the alcove could be dusted but...
April blinked.The table was bare.There should be two tall, silver candlesticks on it.
“Becky,” she called.
The girl emerged from Meg’s room.“Yes, my lady?”
“Have the candlesticks been taken away for polishing?”
“What candles—Oh.”Becky scowled at the table as though willing the candlesticks back into their proper place.“No, my lady, they were properly cleaned and polished just before you came.Maybe someone’s taken them to their room for extra light?”
April nodded as though that made perfect sense.Which it didn’t.“Let me know if you see them when you’re in the other rooms.I’d hate Lady Temperley to think we’d lost her beautiful candlesticks.”
“Oh, they can’t be lost, my lady,” Becky said fervently.“They’re huge!”
***
IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES, April felt she should check on progress in the kitchen before she offered her guests cups of tea.She suspected there would be more flirting than cleaning going on below stairs, but in this, she was proved wrong.
The breakfast dishes were all washed and put away and the big table well-scrubbed.When April entered, Peggy was mopping the kitchen floor while Edward was hanging up a vast array of large copper pots for heating water.
Edward was saying, “A huff is not becoming in a girl.”
“Neither is rank faithlessness in a man,” Peggy retorted.
“Oh, come on, Peg, I was only teasing the poor girl.How was I to know she’d take me seriously?”
“Probably because your tongue was halfway down her throat!”
“Oh, for the love of—” Edward spun around and caught sight of April.
Peggy tossed her head.“I don’t care you know.It’s a relief to me.I’ve got better fish than you to fry.”
“Good morning, my lady,” Edward said with the first shade of desperation she had seen in him.Though whether it was further revelations about him or about Peggy he was desperate to prevent, April could not tell.
Peggy gasped, swinging around with her face bright red.
“I was going to suggest tea for our guests,” April said.“Would that be possible before Mrs.Riley returns?”
