Lady Takes the Case by Eliza Casey

Author:Eliza Casey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

The servants’ hall was like a beehive that morning, buzzing with the hum of gossip and chatter. Jane tried to stay quiet in her corner, her head bent over the torn lace of one of Miss Clarke’s petticoats. The tear was a small one, stained at the edge with some strange greenish smears, but she pretended to be very busy sewing in order to listen.

“I heard Mr. Redvers tell Mrs. Caffey that a sergeant will be here soon to question us,” James the footman told Pearl the kitchen maid as she chopped vegetables for luncheon. “What on earth will they ask us, I wonder? Maybe one of us is in trouble.”

“Well, it won’t be me,” Pearl declared. “I was down here all night, working my fingers to the bone. I never see anything exciting!”

“I didn’t, either,” James said regretfully. “I was just carrying up the potatoes dauphinoise. Only Paul and that new fellow were in the dining room.”

“I heard he collapsed screaming in a pool of blood,” Pearl gasped, her eyes wide. “That it sprayed everywhere!”

“That’s not true,” Bridget the housemaid said, as she walked past with a basket of linen for the laundry room. “Rose and I had to clean in there this morning, once the inspector said it was all right. It was a right mess, but not much blood. Mostly sick and spilled wine, a few bits of blood mixed in. That tablecloth is ruined, though. I thought poor Rose was going to be ill, herself.”

“Paul said he fell right over. Mr. Hayes, that is,” James said. “No warning. But that new footman knew just what to do, as if he was a medic or something.”

Pearl leaned closer to him over the table, and Jane had to strain to hear her. “Where do you think he really came from? He seems strange, knowing things like that.”

“He’s the nephew of Mrs. Mabry at the greengrocer’s shop,” Bridget said.

“But what does that mean?” James muttered. “He shows up, and right away a murder happens. Nothing like that usually happens at Danby.”

“I don’t like it,” Bridget said, shaking her head so the ribbons on her cap trembled. “Danby Hall is the best house in the neighborhood. What if there’s a big scandal? None of us could get such good work again. I’ll be back in my uncle’s bakery, ugh.”

“I think he’s handsome,” Pearl said dreamily, the knife dangling forgotten in her hand over the carrots.

“My uncle?” Bridget cried.

“No, silly,” Pearl said. “That new footman.”

Bridget sighed. “He is that.”

“But where did he come from?” James said irritably. “Who knows who he really is? And why did he get put on serving sauces right away, when I had to bring the potatoes? All I know is that trouble followed him here. What if he had something to do with it?”

“Who had something to do with what?” Paul asked, hurrying into the kitchen. He looked rather harried, his dark hair mussed, his buttons awry again. He still wore his gloves, too.

“The new footman,” Bridget said.

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