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Petal heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of the crisply suited butler watching them. As soon as she realised they were not alone, Edwards loosened her hold. Petal took the opportunity to put some distance between them and hurried over to Rollo. She rubbed absently at the bruised flesh of her arm aware that Rollo was studying the reddened marks with cold eyes.
“She wants me to fetch her if the master rings for anything and is trying to ban me from the room.”
Rollo’s brows lifted. “Well, ignore her. If the master rings for anything, you answer it immediately.”
“Yes, sir,” Petal murmured with a frown.
“Go back to your duties, Petal,” Rollo ordered, his voice hard. He didn’t wait for Petal to leave before he stepped forward. “You touch any of my staff again, and I shall call the magistrate. Do you hear me? I don’t care what the master says or does; nobody in this house is here to be assaulted by you. I am going to make sure Sir Aidan hears about this.”
Without lingering in the corridor to listen in on the conversation, Petal had no choice but to hurry through the servant’s door out of the way. This she did with a huge sigh of relief.
“Horrible creature,” she muttered as she raced down the servants stairs toward the kitchens.
“Oh, not again,” Mrs Kempton sighed loudly as soon as she caught sight of Petal in the doorway. “What has she done this time?” Before Petal to tell her, her gaze dropped to the marks on Petal’s arm.
Immediately, she slammed the pan she was holding onto the table.
“Well, if that doesn’t just take the biscuit,” Mrs Kempton growled menacingly. “Where is Rollo?”
“Upstairs talking to her,” Petal replied.
“What happened?”
Mrs Kempton waved to a seat opposite. Petal slumped into it gratefully and took the cup of ale the housekeeper held out to her with a shaking hand before she relayed the altercation in the hallway.
“Well, it is about time she left here. I don’t want her in this house a second longer than she has to be.”
“Is it always like this working in big houses?” Petal asked with a sigh.
“No, it isn’t. This is an entirely unusual household. Mainly because the master doesn’t appear to want any guests, and there are more and more people trying to take charge with each day that passes. With the master being poorly and the like it is darned difficult to know who to turn to, but someone has to make the decisions. I have told Rollo it is the time he took all of this to Sir Aidan, and everyone was firmly put in their places, but I think even he is confused. The master wants to make the decisions, but then his brother says to take everything to him first. Then Edwards seems to be a law unto herself. I have heard from Rollo that she isn’t even employed by the master. She is hired by that awful mother of his. Then that mother keeps turning up and trying to make her mark on the place with that strange sidekick she drags around with her. Rollo has refused to allow them upstairs, but the dowager was most threatening the last time she was here. It is quite the most difficult situation I have ever encountered in my life I can assure you. No, believe me when I tell you that this house is most definitely not run the way that most big houses should be.”
“What do I do? Edwards seems to hate me.”
“She has an ulterior motive, that one. You mark my words; her scheming will bring her down.” Mrs Kempton threw Petal a knowing look and began to pound the dough as she stared blankly across the kitchen. “Let’s hope it is sooner rather than later, and before she succeeds in getting anyone fired.”
“If she carries on like she has today, it will be me who loses my job,” Petal replied morosely as she rubbed the tender flesh of her arm.
“No, you won’t. If you are doing the things the master asks you to do, and the chores Rollo told you to do, there is no reason for anybody to release you. Edwards is going to be a thorn in everyone’s side, not just yours.”
“I cannot lose my job. Papa didn’t want me to take it in the first place. He said he didn’t want me right under the noses of arrogant fops,” Petal confided. “I can’t go back to him so soon and tell him he was right. He would never let me forget it.”
Mrs Kempton snorted with laughter. “He is about right about the aristocracy too. They are nothing but a bunch of ingrates and nincompoops most of them. The master is different, though. He is a nice man. A good person.” She looked knowingly at Petal. “Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to like Edwards either, and that is something we can use to our advantage. Especially if she is doing things like that.”
She nodded at Petal’s arm.
“I have never known anything like it. Working here is nothing like I expected,” Petal admitted.
Mrs Kempton nodded in understanding.
“It is hard work in houses like this, not least because they are so blasted large. Filling a bath takes several people a good hour and involves carrying heavy buckets up several flights of stairs. It is hard, laborious work for the likes of you and me. I sometimes think there would be easier work in dairies, or in a cotton mill. Although the hours are long, they aren’t half as dangerous.”
“I nearly slipped on the back stairs yesterday,” Petal sighed, thoroughly understanding with Mrs Kempton’s sentiment.
“You just mind how you go. If you really don’t take to working here, then there is no harm in saying so. You won’t be the first, and won’t be the last who has found it far more challenging than they believed it to be. At least you tried.”
“I know, but I so wanted to work on a huge house like this,” Petal replied whimsically.
She stared blindly out at the vegetable garden as she spoke, but saw little of the neatly tended rows of vegetables and herbs lining the cobbled walkway.
