Crouching to help her collect them, Jane tried to reassure her. ‘No, not at all—’ She stopped, nearly dropping a newly retrieved collar as she realized that the girl had apologized in English. ‘Anne-Marie, do you speak English?’

Blushing, Anne-Marie nodded. ‘You seemed as if you wanted to practice your French.’ She had only the faintest trace of a French accent, but her English was as good as if she were a native.

‘But you said you were from Paris!’

‘I am.’ She finished gathering the collars, then reached for the one in Jane’s hand. ‘But my mother is from London. She came as a lady’s maid in 1788 and fell in love with a French student. When the family she worked for fled the Continent at the beginning of the Revolution, Mama stayed.’

To choose to stay for love, Jane could understand, and yet she could not comprehend living through the Reign of Terror if another choice presented itself. ‘But that must have been horrible for you.’

‘Being born into it, I was too young to understand that the unrest was in any way out of the ordinary.’ She set the bandbox on a shelf in the wardrobe. ‘Mama made certain that I learned both French and English, as she thought it would be useful in helping me find work, and here I am.’ She shut the door and brushed her hand over the wood.

‘And it is such a relief, I cannot tell you. I studied French as a girl, but have fallen out of the habit of speaking it. I find I can still read, but understanding is very difficult.’

‘Some of your difficulties are due to the dialect spoken here. You no doubt learned Parisian French and this has some Flemish mixed in with it.’ Anne-Marie brushed her apron out and surveyed the rest of the room. The trunks stood empty with their contents bestowed neatly in the vitrines and armoires of the room. ‘I think you are in order now. I will send someone to remove the trunks shortly. What time shall I return to help you dress for dinner?’

‘It does not take me long to prepare. Six o’clock?’

Anne-Marie paused, biting her lip, before saying, ‘I believe . . . Mme Chastain traditionally sets the table at two.’

‘Oh.’ The time at which dinner was served in England varied widely from country to town, so it should hardly surprise Jane to find that there was a significant difference across the Channel, and yet she rather had the impression that the move to later dinner times came from the Continent. ‘I thank you. In that case, half past one should suffice.’

Anne-Marie curtsied and asked for leave to depart, which Jane granted with some reluctance – not because she wished to keep the girl from her other duties, but because the opportunity to speak in her native language was already a relief.