Kevin strode over and shut the door. He turned to Chase. “Have you any idea what he was thinking? He favored you. Of all of us, you may have known him best.”

“I can’t tell you what you want to know. I have some ideas about it, but nothing more.” His ideas would hardly placate the family, since they mostly had to do with a man tired of grasping relatives too dependent on his generosity.

“I thought you at least would have been left something.”

“I, however, did not think that. He told me as much. I may be the only one who is not disappointed as a result.”

“At least you and I have our trades to put food on the table. I can’t imagine what will become of some of them.”

“I expect they will live within their substantial means for a change.”

Kevin laughed quietly at that. “Agnes and Dolores will buy only two wardrobes a year, instead of four, you mean. What a tragedy that will be.”

Chase headed for the door. “Do not despair until you have reason to. He was not a stupid man. Perhaps he had a plan of which we are yet unaware.”

* * *

Minerva finished with the bedchambers in late afternoon. By the time she carried her basket down the back stairs some of the family had begun their own descent on the front ones, all bedecked for the dinner they would soon enjoy.

She entered the little storage chamber in the cellar that held fuel and rushes. While she refilled her basket for the morning, the door of the chamber closed.

Startled, she looked up. Standing there, his back to the door and his arms crossed over his chest, was Chase Radnor. He did not look pleased.

“We meet again, Miss Hepplewhite.”

She returned her attention to her basket. “What gave me away?”

“Your hands. They are quite distinctive.”

She looked down at her hands, now dirty from handling fuel. She saw nothing remarkable about them.

“What in hell are you doing here?” he asked.

“I can use the money and they are hiring any able-bodied person available.”

“Careless of the housekeeper.”

“Perhaps she should have instead said you must all do for yourselves.” She smiled as she pictured Lady Agnes’s reaction to that.

He paced the few feet between them. He removed the basket from her grip and set it aside. Then he pulled out a handkerchief. He took one of her hands in his and wiped the soot from her palm. “It is not fitting that you do this. If you choose to, I have to wonder what you are plotting.”