A Footman for the Peacock by Ferguson Rachel

Author:Ferguson,Rachel
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2016-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

6

It was in a sense a scene, and Lady Roundelay who coped with it, kind, a little impatient, largely in the dark. Servants always got hysteric at trifles.

‘But my dear child, really you must allow the master to know best. The peacock is very pretty, I know, but he’s a horrid nuisance, not only in the kitchen garden but in the house as well. Mrs. Hatchett tells me he comes into the kitchens, he’s bitten Miss Angela, and to-day he came right into the drawing-room.’ The maid was sullen with obstinacy. ‘ ’E does no real harm, m’lady, a bit here an’ a bit there, p’raps, and I know there was Miss Angela’s wrist, but she offended ’im, like.’

‘She what?’

Sue looked confused. ‘Please, m’lady, she fed ’im what ’e don’t eat an’ won’t look at.’

‘Well, that’s all past and done with — ’

‘If you could see your way, m’lady . . . ’e’d miss me . . . a word to the master — ’

‘But we don’t want him, Sue. I’m sorry if he’s your pet’ (for some reason the girl winced at this), ‘but can’t you look at it from the poor thing’s point of view? He must be fearfully lonely here, that’s probably why he’s so unfriendly to everybody.’

‘Unfriendly?’ Sue clenched her hands in her apron and answered slowly, ‘If it’s for ’is good, m’lady — ’

Lady Roundelay was brisk and thankful. ‘I’m sure it is. And he’ll have plenty of company of his own kind, and’ (here she allowed herself to indulge in the whimsical as sop to her kitchen-maid) ‘plenty of lady friends to play with.’

Servants were an incalculable race. For at this bright remark, Sue Privett’s eyes dilated, and an extraordinary look came over her face as she moved off to her own quarters. Thinking it over as she returned to the dining-room, Evelyn Roundelay incredulously ran the impression to earth.

Resentment. Sue resented the peahens.

She related the incident to Angela, half laughing, half impatient, and Angela said nothing, but looked troubled.

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