‘I know I do, but the thought of any fowl in anything makes me want to be sick. You could have made mushroom soup – or anything other than what I can envisage running around a farmyard.’ Nancy breathed in and took courage as she picked up her carving knife to operate on the dead bird.

‘Now, doesn’t that look beautiful?’ Mazy stood back and admired the decorated pine Christmas tree that stood proudly in the hallway of Windfell.

‘It certainly does. I do love Christmas.’ Dorothy Baines stood next to her with an armful of mending and cast-offs from the Fox family.

The tree looked magnificent; glass baubles shone and tinsel glittered in the light of the chandelier that had recently been hung in the entrance hall. The tip of the tree was finished off with a sparkling golden star reaching halfway up the staircase from the base on the marbled hallway’s floor.

‘The mistress has really gone to town on things this year. I thought it would be a quiet Christmas, after she lost her mother this spring and after the scandal that hit the family, but it seems it has not affected her Christmas plans.’ Mazy looked at Dorothy, knowing that she was her mistress’s ears when it came to the staff.

‘I think that is exactly why she has planned such a big event. To show that there is new life in Windfell, and to make her and Mr Fox look strong. You can’t mourn forever – life goes on.’ Dorothy balanced her pile of clothes over her arm and watched as Eve wrapped a long garland made of holly and fir around the iron handrail of the stairs. She smiled slightly as she watched Eve stop and nearly swear as the holly pricked her, in defiance of being twined around the banisters.

‘You’ve got an armful of mending, I’d better not keep you.’ Mazy had tried to make friends with Dorothy, but she found her hard work and even though she knew it was not Dorothy’s fault that she had replaced Lily as lady’s maid, she couldn’t forgive her for filling her shoes so readily.

‘Oh, most of this is to be thrown out. It mainly belongs to Mister James. The mistress says he should have a new dinner suit for the party, and Miss Jane goes through clothes like nobody’s business. In fact let me give them to you, and then you can give them to the rag-and-bone man when he comes again.’ Dorothy held each item up, passing nearly all of them to Mazy as she did so, before going into the morning room to sit and mend the few items she had kept.