Free Diamonds & Deceit by Leila Rasheed

that something hot to eat and drink is sent up to Mr. Templeton?” she asked. “He looks as if he would like it but won’t think to ask for it.”
    “Of course, my lady.”
    “Do you know how the case is progressing?” Georgiana asked. “It seems such a tragic thing. It must have been an accident, surely.”
    Cooper inclined his head. “All of us liked Oliver, my lady. An excellent servant and a pleasant young man. None of us imagine him capable of murder. But whether the jury will see things our way…”
    “Surely they must!” Georgiana exclaimed. “He’s so young, and he has an excellent character.”
    “But there is the matter of the money he was owed. Some might see that as motive.”
    “I suppose so.…” Georgiana sighed. “Well, I feel very sorry for him.”
    “We all do, my lady.” Cooper coughed discreetly as Georgiana was about to move away. She turned back. “I wondered, my lady, whether the person had been found satisfactory.”
    Georgiana realized he meant the gin-sodden Mrs. Grundy. “Oh, no. I’m afraid not, Cooper.”
    “It is just that…” He lowered his voice. “Some of the staff have been expressing…doubts.”
    “Doubts?” For a confused moment, Georgiana thought he meant religious doubts. “Surely the vicar—”
    “About working under Mrs. Cliffe. Now that her history is so widely known, you see… They feel it lowers the reputation of the house, that she should continue here. I wondered if it might be possible to remove her to a different location, at least until His Lordship returns—”
    “Cooper, that’s enough.” Georgiana felt her cheeks flush, both with anger on Mrs. Cliffe’s behalf and with embarrassment at conversing with a servant on such a subject. “I know you only mean to help, but we must give Mrs. Cliffe all our support at this time. I won’t hear a word against her.”
    Cooper pressed his lips together, frowning. He merely bowed, however, and withdrew. Georgiana watched him walk away, offended dignity in every inch of his bearing. After the first impulse to defend Mrs. Cliffe had died away, she had to admit that he had a point. But the trouble, if there was any, had not entered into the upstairs world, and she had to trust Mrs. Cliffe to look after the downstairs one. It was unfair to meddle in her authority while she still held her position.

Annie groaned as she looked at the pile of mending that Lady Edith’s maid had put up for her. Sometimes she dreamed of it, napkin after napkin, sheet after sheet, shift after shift. It seemed deeply unfair that she should spend her life growing squint eyed and callous fingered and hunchbacked from hours of darning. While other people, just because of who they were born to, waltz at balls with royalty and suchlike.
    “I should be enjoying my youth,” she sighed. Resentfully she picked up the pile of mending and lugged it to the kitchen.
    “How that boy can get through so much linen is beyond me,” she complained to Martha, who was hosing down the sink, where she had been gutting a chicken. “He tears everything! There’s a devil in that Master Augustus, I’m sure.”
    “Think yourself lucky,” Martha snapped back. “Some of us would give a lot to have a nice clean job like a housemaid’s.”
    “Lucky!” Annie sniffed, picking up the first piece of mending, a napkin. She didn’t feel lucky. The white mountain of mending loomed at her. It meant hours of peering at tiny stitches, painstaking, fiddly work that pricked your fingers and left you with work-hardened hands. Not like Miss Sadie Billesley’s hands, she thought, and threw the napkin down again.
    “Where are you off to?” Martha called after her as she got up and made to leave.
    “Breath of fresh air, not that it’s any of your business.”
    Annie went to the back door and breathed in the afternoon air. Why was life so unfair? Why did she never get a chance? She glanced over to the shining motorcar that stood in the middle of the stable