And then the bell to the drawing room began to impatiently ring.
A slow, satisfied smile spread over Duncan’s face. The moment of reckoning had arrived for the Haddington family, but they didn’t know it yet. He made his way leisurely through the maze of servants’ stairs, then down the corridor to the drawing room. He opened the door and stepped inside.
“My summons has been ignored for too long,” Mrs. Haddington declared. “The children have been unceremoniously left in here with us and—”
She spotted Duncan in the doorway and stopped her criticism. Confusion pulled at her features. The children eyed him with annoyance and dismissal.
“Buchanan?” Mr. Haddington looked as surprised as his wife. “Why are you answering the bell?”
“Because there is no one else to do so.”
Mrs. Haddington stood. “Where is the rest of the staff?”
“There is no ‘rest of the staff.’ I have come to this room not in response to your summons but to deliver the resignation of your housekeeper, butler, maids, footmen, kitchen staff, groundskeeper and gardeners, and the entirety of your stable staff.” He held Mr. Haddington’s gaze with a hard glare. “And to inform you of the departure of your stable master.”
“Allof the servants?” Young Ella Haddington produced an expression of distaste that mirrored her mother’s.
“Who will bring us our biscuits?” little Joseph demanded. “I was promised biscuits.”
A fine punctuation for the nursery servants to leave on their resignation—the children would demand the biscuits they were promised regardless of their parents’ inability to facilitate them.
“And it is nearly time for tea,” Mrs. Haddington said.
“You know where the kitchen is,” Duncan said dismissively. “Make it yourself.”
In a panicked huff, Mrs. Haddington stormed out of the room, her one-year-old daughter in her arms, her loudly complaining children snatching at her skirts.
“The staff would not dare leave us in such a state,” Mr. Haddington insisted. “You certainly cannot do so.”
Duncan simply turned around and left. He could hear Mr. Haddington’s frustrated footsteps echoing behind him.
“See here, Buchanan.” The man was clearly attempting to strike a reconciliatory tone, but his haughtiness undermined the effort. “We can come to an agreement here. Be reasonable.”
“I have heard from our staff of the treatment they’ve been subjected to in this house.” Duncan spoke as he walked. “You may not disapprove of such things, but make no mistake, Haddington,Ido. And I have the ability to make life excessively painful for you and your family.”
“It seems to me you already have,” Mr. Haddington muttered as they reached the entryway.
Duncan stopped and turned to face him. “Do you truly believe emptying your house of staff is the most painful thing I could do to you?”
“Is that a threat?” Mr. Haddington clearly meant the question as not only rhetorical but an indication that he didn’t believe for a moment that Duncan truly would follow through on any such warning.
“It is absolutely a threat. An unmitigated, unwavering threat that I can and will make good on.” He took a single step closer to Mr. Haddington. “So I suggest you do not test me.”
Mrs. Haddington reached the entryway from the other direction. “There is not a soul to be seen,” she said to her husband. “We really have been abandoned.”
Duncan pulled open the front door. On the other side stood the very confused squire of the neighborhood. Mr. Reynolds managed to look both apologetic and a bit annoyed.
“My repeated knocks have not been answered,” he said.
“Thank you for coming,” Duncan said.
“You summoned him?” Mr. Haddington asked.
Duncan gave a single firm nod. “In his capacity as squire.” He then turned to Mr. Reynolds. “Mr. Haddington owes Miss Pemberton her entire quarter’s wages.” He pulled a folded piece of paper from his coat pocket and handed it to Mr. Reynolds. “I will either leave here with the amount documented on that paper, or you will leave with him and make arrangements forhim to be handed over to the debtors’ prison in Glasgow. I don’t care which outcome is chosen.”
“Debtors’ prison!” Mrs. Haddington’s shrill exclamation grated painfully on Duncan’s ears, but he didn’t flinch.
Mr. Reynolds looked up from the paper in his hands. “This also lists wages owed to you.”
