When she gave another shrug, he took a step towards her and for an awful moment Miranda thought he was going to strike her. But then thankfully he managed to control himself, although his voice shook with rage when he told her, ‘I’m afraid you have gone too far this time. I told you a short time ago that should there be any more incidents I would send you away and this time that is exactly what I intend to do. I have already made tentative enquiries to a finishing school a colleague of mine told me about in France, and the headmistress there wrote back to me to say that should I ever wish to send you, there is a place available.’

‘No, Oscar . . . you can’t!’ Lydia cried.

Her glared at her. ‘Don’t you realise that she could have killed the girl?’ His voice was as cold as ice.

His wife covered her mouth with her plump hand and began to cry. ‘But surely you are overreacting, darling? She is only a servant, after all!’

‘Believe it or not, servants are human beings too,’ he spat with disgust, wondering again what he had ever seen in her. ‘And there will be no more discussion on the subject. My mind is made up. I shall be writing to Madame Babineaux this very day to secure Miranda a place at the school and I shall expect her to be there within the month. Please ask your maid to help with her packing.’

Miranda was crying too now and in a panic, she pleaded, ‘But I don’t want to go, Father—’

‘Perhaps you should have thought of that before you pushed the girl down the stairs. Furthermore, you should start to pray that she survives because if she doesn’t the police could become involved and then it won’t be a school you’ll be going to but a prison.’

Miranda’s mouth gaped with shock but he couldn’t bear to be in her company a second longer and he slammed out of the room leaving her to throw herself at her mother and sob. Even that failed to move him. He knew the tears were not out of remorse for what she had done to Ruby but out of fear of what might happen to herself, and in that moment he rued the day she had been born.

*

It was decided that Betty and Miss Wood would care for Ruby and during the rest of that day they took it in turns to sit in a chair beside her bed, willing her to wake up. Bill was furious about what had happened and it was all Cook could do to stop him seeking Miranda out, throwing her across his lap and giving her backside a good old tanning.

‘That’s what my mom would have done to me,’ he stated stoically.