A Kiss in the Dark Read Online Free

difference. And you accustomed to so much waiting on. You will have to send to Tanglewood for staff.”
    “I can manage, Miss Wantage. Just rest. Is there anything else you would like while I am here?”
    “Nothing for the moment, dear. Just toast and tea at bedtime. I shall call this little snack tea and dinner.”
    “I shall let you get some rest, then.”
    “Oh, rest! Small chance of that. I can still feel the wheels of your carriage moving under me. Beau would encourage John Groom to set a reckless pace. But there, we were all young once.”
    Cressida escaped to her own room, where she found a mouse of a girl in a mobcap and white apron unpacking her trunks. “Tory told me to do for you until your woman is up and about,” she said apologetically.
    “Thank you. What is your name, my dear?”
    “Jennet.”
    “Is that your first or last name?”
    “Yes, milady.”
    “I beg your pardon?” Cressida said in confusion.
    “Just Jennet, first and last. That’s all they call me.”
    Miss Wantage usually exaggerated to no small degree, but it seemed that in the case of Jennet, she was telling the truth. Jennet was a simpleton. “What is your papa’s name?”
    “I don’t have no pa, nor never had. My ma’s name is Mary. She’s upstairs maid at the big house.”
    “Mary Jennet?”
    “Yes, milady. And I’m Jennet.”
    “I see. Well, I shall wear that jonquil gown for dinner this evening, just Jennet.”
    “That’d be the yaller one, milady?”
    “Yes.”
    There seemed no point quizzing such a witless girl about the cottage, so Cressida went below to speak to Muffet. His usual slug-like complexion had deepened to livid with frustration.
    “She has barred me from my own kitchen!” he declared, then, recalling to whom he was speaking, apologized. “Pardon me, missy, but it is more than humankind can bear, to be spoken to in such a way by a servant.”
    Muffet had been deCourcy’s butler so long that he considered himself one of the family. He never could remember to call his mistress “milady,” but continued to address her as missy, as he had in years gone by.
    “You are referring to Mrs. Armstrong, I take it? What, exactly, is the trouble?” Cressida asked.
    “I asked to see the silver; she said it had been polished well enough to please Lord Dauntry, and she didn’t need checking up on, thank you very much. She was chopping up carrots. I told her you had a particular aversion to carrots. ‘She’ll like mine,’ the hussy said. We must send for Mrs. Hammond at once, for we’ll have no peace from that harpy.”
    “Oh, dear, could you not get along with her, Muffet? It is only for the summer. You know I want Mrs. Hammond to remain at Tanglewood to look after things there.”
    “Then you must speak to her, missy, and let her know who is in charge here.”
    "Yes, it might be best to get it settled in the beginning,” Cressida said, and rang for Mrs. Armstrong.
    Before long, her red face and white hair appeared at the door of the saloon. “You wanted me, milady?” she asked, sparks flashing in her blue eyes.
    “Yes, Mrs. Armstrong.”
    “I’m called Tory, milady. Everyone calls me Tory.”
    “Tory. We seem to have a little problem here.” Cressida had been virtually in charge of running Tanglewood since she was in her teens, and had learned a little something about handling recalcitrant servants. She would try oil first, and if that did not work, then she would issue a decree.
    “Muffet has been with me forever. You know how old retainers become set in their ways,” she said, smiling and inviting her listener’s understanding.
    “Croker never had to check up on the silverware at the castle.”
    “What was your position there, Tory?” she asked pleasantly.
    “I was in charge of the entire upstairs—eighty bedrooms, with a dozen girls under me.”
    “I see, a very responsible position. The next step up would be housekeeper. This summer will be good practice for you. Getting along with