AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“There is a conniving nurse there who has a yen for the master of the house. She objected to me being the upstairs maid and caused trouble wherever she could. It turns out that she has been put there by the dowager, the master’s mother because she is connected to some lord somewhere. It is clear that she is to become the lady of the house soon. When that happens, she is likely to ensure that I lose my job. So, I left before she could fire me.”
“What does the master have to say about all of this?”
Horace frowned as he studied his only daughter. He knew that look on her face. There was something she wasn’t telling him. The almost too innocent look had never fooled him, not even when she was a youngster,
and it still didn’t to this day. Sensing she would tell him in her own good time he decided to let the matter drop for now. He was just glad that she was back for now; although how long that would last for depended on what had actually gone wrong at the big house.
“This has been your dream for so long, Petal that I think it is a shame you feel you should give it up. However, if you honestly don’t want to go back then I am glad of it. You know I never wanted you to go there in the first place. It’s a damned disgrace the way those nabobs treat people like us. They have worse manners than anyone I have ever met and think money excuses their rudeness.”
She mentally winced. Her father hated the aristocracy; always had and always would. She had spent many a good hour seated before the fireplace listening to his arguments against her applying to work in the big house, but she had ignored them all. She now wished she had listened to him.
“I walked out.” She looked up at him hesitantly. “I didn’t collect my wages or work my notice.”
“Are the rest of your belongings there?”
She shook her head. “I only took the one case, if you remember? I brought that back with me. I just couldn’t take it anymore. People started to be ill, and we were all running around doing double the work. Then the nurse made it clear that she and the master were together, and I just knew that it was time to leave. Nothing I could ever say, and no work I could ever do, would ever be enough to satisfy that woman.”
“I will go over tomorrow and speak to the master.”
“No!” She winced when she realised how forceful that sounded. It was an over the top reaction to his innocuous suggestion and they both knew it. She was aware that she had raised his curiosity by the slow way he turned to stare at her.
“I mean, it isn’t the master of the house you need to talk to. He is confined to bed at the moment because of a carriage accident. He isn’t receiving visitors, even if you could get past that dragon of a nurse. It is Rollo, the butler, you need to speak to, or Mrs Kempton. She is in charge of the maids although Rollo does the downstairs books.”
“Then I will go and see Rollo, or Mrs Kempton, tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?”
Petal shook her head without thinking. At the moment, she didn’t ever want to set eyes on the place. It was too painful. She was too afraid of what people were saying about her.
“Well, you know where your room is. I have to go and feed the animals. You unpack. I will be back in a while,” Leonard said as he pushed away from the table.
Petal waited until he had gone and then put a pot of water before she went in search of a dry set of clothes. Her skin was so cold she had gone numb. With her teeth chattering it was difficult to concentrate on anything. It all seemed so much effort; to think or to feel anything. Right now, she needed to decide what she should tell her father but she was too numb to think clearly. She knew that within the numbness was sanctuary. It was easier not to think about anything because that stopped her from remembering what had happened. How her world had broken. It was best for her to remain safely tucked up in a world where nothing could hurt anymore. She would then be alone with her thoughts and feelings, and could just be herself for a while rather than a maid, a companion, a member of staff and, a servant.
Stripping her wet clothing off, she quickly donned a fresh change of clothing but was still shivering. Desperate to get warm again, she quickly huddled under the blankets on the bed and tugged them up to her ears. Within seconds, her tears started to fall.
An hour later, Petal’s father returned to the house, surprised to find a half-full pot of water bubbling away on the fire. Carefully lifting it away from the flames, he placed it onto the hearth and went in search of his daughter.
He was still slightly shocked that she had walked out of her job. He knew just how much it had meant to her to get it scarcely a couple of months ago. Something must have gone horribly wrong for her to walk away from it so soon. Whatever had happened, he knew that Petal wasn’t going to tell him. The answers lay with the butler at the house. With that in mind, he carefully closed the bedroom door on the sight of his sleeping daughter, re-stoked the fire, and let himself out of the house.
Back at Wenland Lodge, getting hold of Rollo was far harder than Aidan had anticipated. Having finally managed to get Aggy to attend to his room, he pummelled her with questions. Unfortunately, the girl, as timid as she was, proved to be of little use.
“Where is Rollo?”
“He is busy picking up the footmen’s work,” Aggy replied carefully.
“What work? The footmen don’t do anything because I am not downstairs for them to attend.”
Now that he came to think about it, the footmen should have been bringing his trays and things. It was highly unusual for the maids to do it. He considered that for a moment and wondered why it hadn’t dawned on him to ask Rollo about it before.
“The footmen also work in the gardens, sir. They do the maintenance in the house as well. Everybody does more than their usual role in the home because there aren’t many staff, sir,” Aggy reported. “At the moment, though, some of them are still sick.”
Aidan lifted his brows at her. “Where is Petal? Is she taking on more than her fair share of the work too?”
“Well, everyone has a lot of work to do. You don’t live in most of the house, sir, but it still needs cleaning. But, to answer your question, Petal does the same job as me but downstairs; or did.” Aggy frowned and looked solemnly at her feet.
“What do you mean, ‘she did?’.”
“She has left, sir.”
“Left? Where for?” Aidan went cold.
