She must have sensed my true anguish, because I saw a flash of remorse in her eyes before she hardened once more. Mrs. Bywater opened her mouth as though she wished to continue her tirade, but then she closed it, turned, and stalked out.

Utter silence filled the downstairs as her heels clicked once more on the slate floor and then on the wooden stairs. The door above slammed as she left our domain and returned to her own, the sound as cutting as the cold February wind.

7

My fellow servants, who’d streamed from the kitchen the moment Mrs. Bywater had vanished, immediately surrounded me.

“She can’t,” Tess began in a near shriek, but Mrs. Redfern cut her off.

“Hush, Tess. I am afraid she can. Sit down, Mrs. Holloway. You look about to fall.”

Mr. Davis, rage in his eyes, watched as I collapsed into a chair, then dashed out. I couldn’t wonder what he was about, because I felt nothing at all.

Elsie sat down across from me, her eyes round. “Oh, Mrs. Holloway . . .”

“Drink that.” Mr. Davis had reappeared and shoved a glass of something pungent under my nose.

I lifted the goblet without thought and swallowed the contents, though I could have wished for a cup of tea. I realized, as the liquid burned its way down my throat and into my stomach, that it was Lord Rankin’s best brandy.

“She can’t dismiss ya,” Tess said with a touch of hysteria. “The master will never stand for it. He likes your cooking. Besides, it’s his lordship what says who stays and goes.”

Tess had never met Lord Rankin, whose wife had employed me before he’d moved himself to Surrey and invited the Bywaters to run his house and take care of Cynthia, his wife’s sister. I had angered Lord Rankin almost from the first day of my employment, and he found Cynthia a nuisance. I held out no hope of assistance from Lord Rankin.

I was numb, and the brandy only made me more so. The others crowded around me in concern but made no declarations about standing by me.

A few months ago, I’d threatened to give notice to Mrs. Bywater over trouble with our last housekeeper, and Mr. Davis had said stoutly he would as well. But this was different. Peace had been restored, a new housekeeper installed. This was a good place with decent pay, and no one was in a rush to leave, including me.

Tess’s voice was the lone exception. “I’ll go with ya, Mrs. H. I can’t stay here without you.”

“No.” My voice barely worked. “I cannot guarantee the next house would hire you along with me. You’ll do fine here with the cook who replaces me.”

Tess pulled off her apron and flung it to the floor. “I ain’t. I works for you, Mrs. Holloway, none other.”