‘No, madame, I am not. It’s true I’m expecting a child, but it will not be born a bastard.’

‘Oh ho!’ laughed the cook. ‘He’s going to marry you then, is he?’

‘No, madame,’ replied Annette, looking her firmly in the eye, ‘I am already married, but my beloved husband died a month ago of the flu. I am now a widow and it is his child!’

The cook looked taken aback at this outburst, but she was not unsympathetic. She turned to the other maid, the pale-faced Lizette, who stood open-mouthed at the scullery door, and Henri, who’d just come in from the stables to have his dinner, and said, ‘There you are, now you know all about poor Annette. She and her aunt, Madame Sauze’ – she nodded towards the open door to Madame Choux’s parlour – ‘are with us at least until after Miss Clarice’s wedding, so let’s make the most of the extra help, shall we?’ She turned back to Annette. ‘Have you eaten?’ she asked.

‘No, madame.’

‘Well, sit up to the table, you can eat with the others. Lizette!’

The little maid hurried to the range and began to ladle broth from a cauldron into waiting bowls. As instructed, Annette took a chair at the big wooden table, and Lizette placed a bowl of steaming chicken broth, thick with vegetables, in front of her. There was already bread and cheese on the table and after a muttered grace from the cook, Lizette and Henri helped themselves and began to eat. Annette watched for a moment and then took some bread and a piece of cheese and picked up her spoon.

At that moment Pierre came into the kitchen. Coming along the outside passage he had overheard the interchange between the cook and the new maid.

So, he thought, that’s what’s happened to the girl… if you can believe it. Very sad if it’s true. But is it? He gave a wry smile. He hadn’t come down with the morning dew. He had seen her rounded figure, had assumed her unmarried and had been surprised when Madame Sauze had named her as Madame Dubois.

He walked in and sat down at the table and tucked into the broth that the cook set before him. As he mopped his bread round his bowl and licked the last drops from his fingers he considered what the girl had said. She had spoken up bravely in answer to Madame Paquet, and he admired her for it. She was able to stand up for herself, not like the other maid, Lizette. She was timid as a mouse, scared of her own shadow and thus bullied by Madame Choux. If this Annette girl and her aunt were here, it should certainly help relieve the pressure in the wedding preparations. The household managed with fewer servants these days.

Agathe had heard the raised voices as well, and seen Madame Choux’s expression darken as she heard Annette’s defence of her situation. However, she had told the prepared story and the way she had spoken was, Agathe decided, convincing enough. She turned her attention back to the housekeeper, who was speaking quite candidly.