“Maybe,” Harold said dubiously.“I’m strong enough, but don’t really got the knack.I’m good at carrying things.This is a good job.”
“You’re a great help to us,” April told him, and he beamed at her.“Do you have a big family at home?”
“Just Ma and Dad and Anne.”
“Your sister?”April said.“Isn’t she a friend of Edward’s?The footman here?”
“Not anymore,” said Harold.“Hurt her feelings.”
“But you didn’t mind coming here to work with him?”
Harold appeared to consider that.“It’s better since he went to sleep,” he admitted.“Don’t like him much.”
“Because of Anne?”
Harold thought again.“Mostly because of him.”
“Is he...unpleasant to you?Orders you around?”
“I like orders,” Harold said.“I don’t like when he makes fun of me.”
“No, no one likes that,” Piers agreed.“We hear you escorted the two temporary maids back to the village last night?”
“We all went together.Me and Janet and Fran.Saw them to their doors.”
“What did you do then?”April asked.“Did you stay at home, or go out again?”
“Went to bed.I was tired and had to get up early again to come here this morning.”
“Of course you did.By any chance, did Edward give you a message to pass on to Anne?”
Harold shook his head, his expression blank.
“Thanks, Harold,” Piers said, straightening.“You can get back to work now.”
Harold lumbered to his feet and smiled.“Thank you, sir.”
“What do you think?”April said as his steps retreated.
Piers could hear Harold’s voice asking Peggy for instructions.“I think he’s more than strong enough.And he has motive enough.I’m just not sure he recognises it as such.He seems more of a gentle giant type to me.So far as one can ever tell.We probably need to call on his family.”
“And at Edgwick Farm,” April said.“After luncheon?Though I suppose wearehosting a party.”
“So we are.Shall we wash for luncheon?”
In his bedchamber, he was mildly surprised to discover a tall young man brushing mud off his pantaloons from this morning’s walk.
“Good morning, my lord.”
It was the voice that placed him, along with the task he had clearly undertaken on his own initiative.
“Good morning, Stewart,” Piers said, pleased.“How are you?”
“Very well.As you appear to be.I was surprised to get your summons.”
Piers liked Stewart in part because he always spoke to him like a human being.He didn’t my lord him with every breath or speak with an excruciatingly refined accent.He sounded what he was, a Scotsman of some education and no pretensions.Though his past was colourful.
Piers said, “We find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of hosting a party in a large house with far too few servants.And, as it turns out, a mysterious attack on one of the few, who is now unconscious.”
