There are now two long stretches of worktop running almost the length of the scullery on each side, and a fridge freezer, and a separate hob and a waist-high oven which means she doesn’t have to bend down any more. And there is a radiator. The height of luxury.

In the winter, the heat from that new radiator will rise up to the maid’s room above, where her office is now. Isobel must have been terribly cold, she thinks.

*

Tess doesn’t notice the envelope when she arrives back from her walk with Baxter. She smells the gorgeous spicy aroma coming from the Instant Pot and resists the urge to lift the lid and see what’s for dinner.

Georgia comes down the stairs from her office and stands, arms folded, with a rather different demeanour from usual.

‘Tess, I need you to sit down. I have something to ask you.’

‘OK.’ She sits.

And so does Baxter, which normally makes them both laugh, but Georgia is not laughing today.

‘It’s about this.’ Georgia reaches up to the mantelpiece and retrieves the envelope.

Tess’s face falls. She looks at Georgia and then at the envelope in her hand and then at the floor and then finally back at Georgia.

‘I need to know what this is about. I know that you shredded one of these letters and used it to light the fire in the drawing room, I saw it with my own eyes. Is this the second letter? Or maybe the third?’

‘I will sort it out.’

‘Not before you tell me exactly what is going on here.’

‘I said I will sort it out.’

Tess gets up to take the letter from Georgia but it is snatched out of her way.

‘No!’ Georgia doesn’t budge. ‘I want you to open that letter right now and show me what it says.’

‘It’s private.’

Georgia lifts her diary from the table and searches for the correct page. ‘Does this ring any bells? Almost six feet tall, left-handed, mole above left eye, neat fingernails, signet ring.’ She looks up at Tess.

‘Oh my God!’

‘Is this the person the letters are about?’

‘You’ve seen him? Oh shit! He’s been here, hasn’t he?’

‘Yesterday.’

‘What did he say? I am so sorry.’

‘He said that if you do not respond to the letters he will come back, and that he wants compensation.’

‘Right. This is terrible. I am so, so sorry.’

‘What exactly is he wanting compensation for?’

Tess looks up at the newly plastered ceiling. ‘It could be for a number of things.’

‘I think it’s time you opened that envelope and let me see what’s inside it.’

Tess resists one last time. ‘I promise I will sort it out.’